The SAS Anonymous Web User (webanon)
is an optional account that can be used to grant Web clients anonymous
access to certain SAS Web Infrastructure Platform applications (SAS
BI Web Services and SAS Stored Process Web Application). This anonymous
account, which is configured with the SAS Deployment Wizard, is applicable
only when SAS authentication is being used. If Web authentication
is used, the Web application server processes authentication requests,
and this anonymous account has no effect.
If the webanon account
is configured, it is used when a Web service is configured for
SAS authentication, and credentials are not supplied. If the webanon
account is not configured, there are no credentials for authentication,
and the request fails.
In a default deployment,
this anonymous account is configured as an internal user account.
To determine whether to enable the webanon user account, administrators
must decide whether they want to require clients to provide credentials
for all requests. When clients provide credentials to an incoming
request, these credentials are always used for authentication whether
the account has been enabled or not.
The webanon user is
defined in the following locations:
-
in metadata. In default deployments,
the SAS Anonymous Web Service User is an internal user account that
is known only to SAS and that is authenticated internally in metadata.
When internal authentication is used, it is not necessary for this
user to have a local or network account.
-
in the operating system of the
metadata server machine, only if you selected the External authentication
option for this user during a custom installation.