Administration Methods

Authentication

OLAP Services uses an operating system identity (the installation user or "oracle" identity) only for creating and accessing files, such as analytic workspaces and EIF files. This identity is established during installation and cannot be changed. You can delete other operating system identities created for use by Express Server (such as the DBA user, the Initialize user, the Default user, and individual user names) if they have no other purpose.

All other authentication is performed by the Oracle RDBMS. Applications must always present credentials before opening a session, and those credentials must match a user name and password stored in the relational database. Before users can access OLAP Services, you must define user names and passwords in the database, as described in "Granting Access Rights to Users".

Because the relational database is required for authentication, you can open a session with OLAP Services only when the database is available. If the database is unavailable, then you cannot run administrative tools or business analysis applications.

Administrative tools

Oracle Enterprise Manager encompasses the tools for administering OLAP Services, as described in Chapter 3, providing a common user interface across all platforms. Instance Manager runs through Oracle Enterprise Manager, rather than as a standalone or Web application. Performance data is also gathered and displayed by Oracle Enterprise Manager instead of the Windows Performance Monitor.

The xscosvc command-line administrative utility replaces oesmgr. You can execute OLAP DML commands as schedule batch jobs through Oracle Enterprise Manager. This expanded functionality in Oracle Enterprise Manager replaces the oescmd utility.