I was able to get it running with David's help as well as using 'everyone' as the group. I'm not sure which change got things working, but it is. 

Thank you very much David. It's working now and the management portal is working! 

I was sudoing. So in this case (before I do the reinstallation), would it have been better to use the root user or just create a new group and give permission to just that group?