Users, groups, and roles

Users and groups are created for authentication and authorization purposes. You can create your own users and groups in IBM® Cognos® Analytics with Watson or use users and groups created in other authentication providers.

For more information about security, users, groups, and roles, see the Administration and Security Guide.

Users

A user entry is created and maintained in an authentication provider to uniquely identify a human or a computer account. You cannot create users in IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson.

Information about users, such as first and last names, passwords, IDs, locales, and e-mail addresses, is stored in the providers.

Users can become members of groups defined in authentication providers and groups defined in IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson. A user can belong to one or more groups. If users are members of more than one group, their access permissions are merged.

Groups and roles

Examples of groups are Employees, Developers, or Sales Personnel. Members of groups can be users and other groups. Group membership is part of the user's basic identity. When users log on, they cannot select a group they want to use for a session. They always log on with all the permissions associated with the groups to which they belong.

A role is a special group. It represents a collection of users that have similar responsibilities and similar privileges in the organization. Members of roles can be users, groups, and other roles. Role membership is not part of the user's basic identity.

You can use groups created by your organization in authentication providers, or create new groups in the Cognos namespace.

Create IBM Cognos groups when:

  • You cannot create groups in your authentication provider.
  • Groups are required that span multiple namespaces.
  • Portable groups are required that can be deployed.
  • You want to address specific needs of IBM Cognos administration.
  • You want to avoid cluttering your organization security systems with information used only in IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson software.