This guide is intended for people responsible for installing, configuring, and maintaining Perforce installations. This guide covers tasks typically performed by a "system administrator" (for instance, installing and configuring the software and ensuring uptime and data integrity), as well as tasks performed by a "Perforce administrator", such as setting up Perforce users, configuring Perforce depot access controls, resetting Perforce user passwords, and so on.

Because Perforce requires no special system permissions, a Perforce administrator does not typically require root-level access. Depending on your site's needs, your Perforce administrator need not be your system administrator.

Both the UNIX and Windows versions of the Perforce service are administered from the command line. To familiarize yourself with the Perforce Command-Line Client, see the Perforce Command Reference.