---
title: First Start
description: "Use this sequence for a new installation: 1. Install SQL Server or confirm access to an existing instance. 2. Configure OddcDbConnection. 3. Configure HTTPS and install the certificate. 4. Choose Windows or Basic authentication. 5. Confirm the service account can…"
url: "https://activerecord.com/docs/administration/first-start/"
updated: "2026-09-09"
category: "Administration - Oculens DDC Server (ODDC Server) 5.1"
---

# First Start

Use this sequence for a new installation:

1. Install SQL Server or confirm access to an existing instance.
2. Configure OddcDbConnection.
3. Configure HTTPS and install the certificate.
4. Choose Windows or Basic authentication.
5. Confirm the service account can access SQL Server, ProgramData, and all required shares.
6. Start the server interactively once from an elevated terminal. This provides immediate startup diagnostics.
7. Confirm that database migrations and seeding complete.
8. Open https://*yourservernamehere*:58443/ and sign in.
9. Activate a license.
10. Change or remove all seeded Basic-authentication accounts before production use.
11. Review the generated demo project and either secure and reconfigure it or delete it.
12. Install and start the Windows service.

### Default data

During installation, the ODDC Server creates the following user accounts by default:

| Account | Initial password | Role | Authentication |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| *<user-who-first-started-the-server>* | None | Administrator | Windows |
| administrator@oddc.local | 123456 | Administrator | Basic |
| advanced@oddc.local | 123456 | Advanced | Basic |
| regular@oddc.local | 123456 | Regular | Basic |

These credentials are derived from the default installation. They are unsafe for production. Change them immediately or deactivate/delete the accounts. The user-management screen requires a minimum password length of six characters, but administrators should enforce a substantially stronger local policy.

When the document processing Projects are empty, the server also creates an active default demo project and an active default Batch, marked as current for processing. The demo project uses file-system input and output, barcode separator pages, file-system exception handling, Code 39 and Code 128 recognition, TIF export, and English OCR.