High-Level Overview of Administrative Tasks

After you have installed the middle-tier software, you can administer the Web applications in the middle tier. Some of the tasks you might perform include the following:

• Make resources and content items available to the Web applications.

  For example, you can make fonts and graphics available to report creators who work in SAS Web Report Studio. If your deployment includes the SAS Information Delivery Portal, then you can add reports, files, links, and other items to the portal environment.

• Ensure that users see only the information that they are authorized to access.

  In order to implement security, you register users in metadata, assign users to groups, and set up authorization for those groups. In this way, you can control access to all content.

  Note:   Most of the tasks related to user management and authorization are described in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Security Administration Guide.  

• Change the method of authentication.

  Instead of using the SAS Metadata Server for authentication, you can use a Web application server (JBoss, IBM WebSphere, or Oracle WebLogic) to authenticate users. You can also implement single sign-on, so that users are not repeatedly prompted for their user IDs when they access different Web applications.

  For a detailed discussion of different types of authentication and configuration guidelines, see "Authentication Mechanisms" in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Security Administration Guide. For information about configuring Web authentication for JBoss, IBM WebSphere, or Oracle WebLogic, go to http://support.sas.com/resources/thirdpartysupport/v92/.

• Customize the environment for your users.

  The Web applications enable you to customize the interface in different ways:

  • SAS Web Report Studio enables you to customize reports for your organization.

  • You can customize the display for SAS Web OLAP Viewer for Java.

  • The SAS Information Delivery Portal enables you to create different views for different types of users. In addition, your developers can create the content, custom portlets, logos, company colors, and page themes that best suit your organization.

• Optimize performance.

  One way to improve performance is to set up workspace server pooling, as described in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Application Server Administration Guide. You can also make configuration changes that are specified in Best Practices for Configuring Your Middle Tier.

In addition, the Web applications have their own specific tasks:

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