Data in the SAS Intelligence Platform

How Data Sources are Managed in the Metadata

All of the data sources that are used in your implementation of the SAS Intelligence Platform are centrally controlled through metadata that is stored in the SAS Metadata Repository. In the metadata repository, you can create the following types of metadata objects to control and manage your data:

database servers, which provide relational database services to clients
SAS Application Servers, which perform SAS processes on data
cubes
OLAP schemas, which specify which groups of cubes a given SAS OLAP Server can access
dimensions and measures in a cube
libraries, which are collections of one or more files that are recognized by SAS software and that are referenced and stored as a unit
the data sources (for example, SAS tables) that are contained in a library
the columns that are contained in a data source

A variety of methods are available to populate the metadata repository with these objects, including the following:

The data source design applications, SAS Data Integration Studio and SAS OLAP Cube Studio, automate the creation of all of the necessary metadata about your data sources. As you use these products to define warehouses, data marts, and cubes, the appropriate metadata objects are automatically created and stored in the metadata repository.
You can use the following features of SAS Management Console to define data source objects:
- The New Server Wizard enables you to easily define the metadata for your database servers and SAS Application Servers.
- The Data Library Manager enables you to define database schemas for a wide variety of schema types. You can also use this feature to define libraries if you are not using SAS Data Integration Studio to define them.
- The Register Tables feature enables you to import table definitions from external sources if you are not using SAS Data Integration Studio to create them.
- On the SAS Folders tab, you can set permissions that secure access to metadata folders and objects. Because all SAS Intelligence Platform applications use the metadata server when accessing resources, permissions that are enforced by the metadata server provide an effective level of protection. These permissions supplement protections from the host environment and other systems. Therefore, a user's ability to perform a particular action is determined not only by metadata-based access controls but also by external authorization mechanisms such as operating system permissions and database controls.
You can use the metadata LIBNAME engine to enforce data-related Read, Write, Create, and Delete access controls that have been defined in metadata.

For detailed information about administering data sources, see the SAS Intelligence Platform: Data Administration Guide.

Top of Page