Setting up Cognos Dashboards permissions

Set up the environment to enable Cloud Pak for Data users to create, modify, or view Cognos Dashboards visualizations.

1. Create a dashboard creator 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 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, then select the Create dashboards field.
   5. Click Next, then click Create to create the new role for viewing dashboards.
2. Assign Cognos Dashboards user roles.

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

   Dashboard roles are separate from the project roles and do not affect the users' permissions when they interact with any other project assets. Dashboard roles are also limited by the project roles that the users have, regardless of which dashboard roles that you assign to each user.

   If you want the administrators and editors in the project to create, edit, delete, and view dashboards, you must assign them the Create dashboards role. If they have only the View dashboards role, they have permission only to view dashboards regardless of their permissions on other project assets. The View dashboards role does not restrict the user's ability to view or create other assets in the project.

   Project viewers have permission only to view dashboards, even if they have the Create dashboards role, because dashboards are a project asset with the same restrictions for project viewers as any other project asset. If you want them to create, edit, delete, and view dashboards, they must be project administrators or editors. Therefore, verify that project viewers have the View dashboards role and not the Create dashboards role.

   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 five 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 more information, 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 user limits, you must purchase a Cognos license.

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

   For more information, see Working in projects.