Siebel Analytics Web Administration Guide > Analytics Web Security >

Authentication

When users log on, they are authenticated by the Analytics server, using their user name and password, the authentication method specified in the NQSConfig.ini file, and the list of user names and passwords stored in the Analytics server repository.

The Siebel Analytics Server supports the following authentication methods that are relevant to Siebel Analytics Web users:

These methods are briefly described below in the context of Siebel Analytics Web. For detailed information, see Siebel Analytics Server Administration Guide.

LDAP Authentication

If you are using LDAP authentication to provide Analytics server access control, you may also configure your LDAP server to provide other security information. For example, you could configure the name that is displayed in the Welcome text when the user logs on to the Siebel Analytics Web, and is specific to the Web Groups to which the user belongs. This information is contained in LDAP variables, which are passed to the Analytics server session variables during the process of user authentication.

The variable USER is a system session variable that is used with LDAP authentication. Whenever users log on to Siebel Analytics Web, their usernames and passwords are passed to the LDAP server for authentication. After successful authentication, other system or non-system session variables for each user can be populated from information returned by the LDAP server.

For more information about session variables, see Web Groups and Session Variables.

External Table Authentication

If you are using an external database table for authentication, the table can contain additional access control information. This includes the name that is displayed in the Welcome text when the user logs on to Siebel Analytics Web, and the Web Groups to which the user belongs.

Whenever users log in, their usernames and passwords are authenticated through SQL that queries this database table for authentication. After successful authentication, the results of this SQL query can be used to populate other system and non-system session variables for each user.

For more information about session variables, see Web Groups and Session Variables.

Database Authentication

The Analytics server can authenticate users through database logons. When a user attempts to log on to Siebel Analytics Web, the server attempts to use the logon name and password to connect to the authentication database, using the first connection pool associated with it. If this connection succeeds, the user is considered to be authenticated successfully.

Database authentication provides no mechanism to return additional access control information, such as the user's display name or Web Group membership. If you are using database authentication, alone or in conjunction with external table authentication, you will need to explicitly add users to the appropriate Web Group.

Internal Authentication

Unlike database authentication, Analytics server internal authentication has no way to return additional access control information. If you are using Analytics server internal authentication, you will need to explicitly add users to the appropriate Web Group, because the GROUP variable is not used with internal authentication.


 Siebel Analytics Web Administration Guide 
 Published: 18 April 2003