Setting up Cognos Dashboards permissions

Perform these setup tasks to enable Cloud Pak for Data users to create, modify, or view Cognos Dashboards visualizations.

1. Create a dashboard creator platform role.

   Before users can create and edit visualizations with Cognos Dashboards, you must assign the dashboard creation permission to Cloud Pak for Data users. To make this permission available to Cloud Pak for Data, create a new platform role and add the Create dashboard permission to this role.

   Users with the Create dashboard permission have full access to dashboards, allowing them to create, edit, delete, and view dashboards.

   1. Click Administration > Access control from the navigation bar.
   2. From the Access control page, click the Roles tab, then click New role.
   3. Specify the details of the dashboard creator role and click Next.

      For example, specify Dashboard creator in the Name field.

   4. In the Add permissions dialog, click Dashboards and select the Create dashboards field.
   5. Click Next, then click Create to create the new role for creating dashboards.
2. Create a dashboard viewer platform role.

   To allow users to view visualizations with Cognos Dashboards, assign the dashboard viewing permission to Cloud Pak for Data users. To make this permission available to Cloud Pak for Data, create a new platform role and add the View dashboard permission to this role.

   1. From the Roles tab in the Access control page, click New role.
   2. Specify the details of the dashboard viewer role and click Next.

      For example, specify Dashboard viewer in the Name field.

   3. In the Add permissions dialog, click Dashboards and select the View dashboards field.
   4. Click Next, then click Create to create the new role for viewing dashboards.
3. Assign Cognos Dashboards user roles.

   Assign the dashboard roles to Cloud Pak for Data users to allow them to work on Cognos Dashboards.

   Dashboard permissions are limited by the project role that the user has, regardless of which dashboard permissions that you assign to the user. Viewers in the project can only view dashboards, even if they have the Create dashboards permission. Administrators and editors in the project can create, edit, delete, and view dashboards if they have the Create dashboards permission, but they can only view dashboards if they have the View dashboards permission.

   Important: Your Cloud Pak for Data license limits the number of users who can create or view dashboards. You can assign the Create dashboards permission to a maximum of 5 users and the View dashboards permission to a maximum of 20 users. Users with the Create dashboards permission can also view dashboards. If you exceed these limits, you must purchase a Cognos license. For details, see Tracking usage of Cognos Dashboards licenses.
   1. From the Access control page, click the Users tab.
   2. Click the name of the intended user for the Cognos Dashboards role.
   3. Click Assign roles.
   4. Select the dashboard role to assign to the user, then click Assign.

      For example, select Dashboard creator, then click Assign 1 role.

   Repeat these steps to assign the Dashboard creator and Dashboard viewer project roles to the users.

   You can also assign the Dashboard creator and Dashboard viewer roles to separate user groups and add users into these user groups. However, if the number of users in each user group exceeds the limits as described previously, you must purchase a Cognos license.

4. Create a project in which users can create Cognos Dashboards visualizations.

   For more information, see Working in projects