Configure Access to OCF BI Sources

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Applies from release 2023.3.5

A BI source can be visible to all users or only to specific users and groups designated by a BI Source Admin. By default, a BI source is visible to all users, or public. You can manage the visibility of a BI source on the Access tab of the settings page:

Configure BI Source Privacy

To configure the BI source visibility, use the two options under the BI Source Privacy section of the Access tab:

  • Public BI Server—The BI source will be visible to all users of the catalog.

  • Private BI Server—The BI source will only be visible to the users allowed access individually or through a group by a BI Server Admin.

Grant or Revoke Access

Users can access a BI source as BI Server Admins or BI Server Viewers:

  • BI Server Admins—The BI Source Admin access allows editing the settings page, including managing access to the BI source, changing the connection parameters, scheduling, and running metadata extraction (MDE).

  • BI Server Viewers—The BI Source Viewer access allows viewing the BI source and its child objects in the catalog, including finding them with Alation Search.

For a private BI source, you can add specific users or groups as BI Source Admins or BI Source Viewers.

For a public BI source, you can add more BI Source Admins. All catalog users are BI Source Viewers by default.

You can also revoke access from users and groups.

Manage Access to a Public BI Source

To manage access:

  1. Open the Access tab of your BI source settings.

  2. Under the People section, on the right of the BI Server Admins table title, click the +Add button. A quick search list will open.

  3. Start typing the name of a user or group in the search field. Search will provide dynamic prompts that you can select from. Select the user or group you want.

  4. The user or group you selected will be added to the BI Server Admins table. These users now have BI Server Admin access and can view and edit the BI source settings.

Manage Access to a Private BI Source

To grant or revoke access to or from users and groups:

  1. Open the Access tab of your BI source settings.

  2. Under the People section, on the right of the Viewers & BI Server Admins table title, click the +Add button. A quick search list will open.

  3. Start typing the name of a user or group in the search field. Search will provide dynamic prompts that you can select from. Select the user or group you want.

  4. The user or group you selected will be added to the Viewers & BI Server Admins table. Initially, all newly added users or groups are Viewers.

  5. To change the access level to BI Source Admin, use the dropdown list in the Access Level column. Select BI Server Admin from the list.

Revoke Access

To revoke BI source access from a user or group:

  1. Find the user or group you want in the BI Server Admins or Viewers & BI Server Admins table. (The table name depends on your BI source privacy setting.) You can sort the Name column or use the filter on the top right of the table to find the user or group.

  2. For this user or group, click Remove in the rightmost column of the table. The user will be removed from the table.

    Note

    You cannot remove the BI Source Admin access from the last remaining BI Source Admin.

Access for Server Admins

Users with the role of Server Admin can grant the BI Source Admin access to themselves on any BI source.

To grant access:

  1. As a Server Admin, open the catalog page of a BI source.

  2. On the top right of the page, click More and then Settings.

  3. The Edit Your Permissions to Access Settings dialog will open. In this dialog, click Go to Access.

  4. You’ll land on the Access tab of the settings. Other tabs will be disabled until you’ve opened access to yourself. Use the information in Grant or Revoke Access to grant yourself access.