Introduction to SAS Web Report Studio Administration

Main Tasks for Administering SAS Web Report Studio

Overview of Main Tasks for Administering SAS Web Report Studio

After you have installed SAS Web Report Studio, you can perform a number of administrative tasks. For example, you should verify that SAS Information Maps are stored in a location that is accessible to SAS Web Report Studio in order for users to create reports from those information maps. SAS Web Report Studio 3.1 required that information maps be placed in a specific location; this requirement has been waived for SAS Web Report Studio 4.2.

The following sections summarize the administrative tasks that are specific to SAS Web Report Studio.

Prepare Report Resources

Before users can start creating reports, the necessary resources must be prepared and made available:

Make sure that your data sources have been created.

In SAS Web Report Studio, the term data source refers to a SAS Information Map. If you have not already done so, create metadata for your databases and SAS data sets, and then create the information maps that will be used for reports. For details about creating metadata for your raw data, see the SAS Intelligence Platform: Data Administration Guide.

For details about creating information maps, see the SAS Information Map Studio online Help.
Set up storage of reports and report-related objects.

Ensure that resources are stored in appropriate locations, and add folders to the storage structure in a way that facilitates access control of those folders. There are no preset requirements for creating folders. You have the flexibility to organize users' folders in a manner that suits your organizational requirements.
Add content for use by report creators.

Make data sources (information maps), stored processes, banner images, fonts, and imported reports available to users of SAS Web Report Studio.
Enable geographical maps.

If you want to display your multidimensional data in interactive geographical maps, then you must enable the geographical maps feature. See Configuring the ESRI Map Component.

Configure SAS Web Report Studio

Here are some configuration tasks that you might perform:

Modify, update, or troubleshoot the configuration properties and settings in Web Report Studio 4.2 plug-in to SAS Management Console. See Use the Configuration Manager to Configure SAS Web Report Studio Properties.
Assign users to SAS Web Report Studio's predefined roles and capabilities. See Predefined Roles.

The following configuration tasks are optional:

Enable unregistered PUBLIC users, who do not have a user definition in the SAS metadata, to access SAS Web Report Studio. In SAS Web Report Studio 3.1, PUBLIC users were allowed access to the metadata server by default, but this has changed in SAS Web Report Studio 4.2. See Enable Password Management to Provide Access for PUBLIC Users of SAS Web Report Studio. Also, see "Manage Access" in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Security Administration Guide.
Enable users to provide DBMS credentials interactively when logging on to SAS Web Report Studio. When users enter their user IDs and passwords in SAS Web Report Studio, those credentials are valid for the current session only, because they are stored in memory and not in metadata. See Provide DBMS Credentials Interactively in SAS Web Report Studio.
Customize SAS Web Report Studio's pages by controlling the content displayed in the banner. Banner images make it easier for report consumers to identify the report and to distinguish the report from other reports. However, you have the option to customize SAS Web Report Studio's pages and prevent the product title, report name, and company logo from appearing in the banner for reports. See Hide Banner Properties for SAS Web Report Studio.
Configure logging for SAS Web Report Studio. The SAS 9.2 Intelligence Platform uses a standard logging facility to perform logging for SAS servers and to track and audit user actions for performance and security reasons. For details, see Overview of Logging for SAS Web Report Studio. Also, see "Administering Logging for SAS Servers" in SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide.
Improve the performance of SAS Web Report Studio by managing memory and taking advantage of server-side pooling or client-side pooling capabilities. For details, see SAS 9.2 Intelligence Platform: Application Server Administration Guide.

Implement Security for SAS Web Report Studio

For general security tasks, see Middle-Tier Security. The following security tasks apply to SAS Web Report Studio:

Set up users for SAS Web Report Studio.

Enable users to log on and manipulate reports by creating metadata identities for the users. You can also manage users by assigning users to predefined SAS Web Report Studio roles. For more information, see Predefined Roles
Manage access to reports.

Restrict access to reports in accordance with your security goals. See Managing Access to Reports.
Configure a pooling workspace server to enforce row-level security. If your information maps have filters that prevent users from seeing particular rows in tables, then you should set up a separate pooled workspace server for SAS Web Report Studio. Doing so prevents users from accessing the restricted tables through other methods. See SAS 9.2 Intelligence Platform: Application Server Administration Guide.

Note: For additional links to workspace server pooling topics, see Improving the Performance of SAS Web Report Studio.
Set up Web authentication.

You can configure SAS Web Report Studio to use Web authentication. For a detailed discussion of different types of authentication and configuration guidelines, see "Authentication Mechanisms" in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Security Administration Guide.
Limit the availability of relational information maps that implement row-level security.

By default, SAS Web Report Studio can interact with information maps regardless of their location within the folder structure. However, you might choose to establish a more controlled environment. See Limit the Availability of Relational Information Maps That Implement Row-Level Security.

Perform Additional SAS Web Report Studio Administration

You might also want to do the following:

Customize reports.

Add disclaimer text to reports or add custom report styles. For details, see Customizing SAS Web Report Studio Report Styles.
Set up the scheduling and distribution of reports.

Schedule the creation of pre-generated reports so they can render quickly, and distribute reports to users. For details, see Pre-generated Reports from SAS Web Report Studio.

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