Synchronizing Manage Reporting Users With PMF

In this section:

PMF is designed to work for identified users only, and authenticates each of its users with WebFOCUS MR/CUS security. You can set up users for PMF in MR/CUS and import them into the PMF internal security authorization table to allow authorization for PMF for your users.

As detailed earlier in this documentation, all PMF users must be identified and authenticated as MR/CUS users. MR/CUS also contains authorization information that permits users to access the various Domains and/or Folders in the MR Repository.

PMF also maintains a separate but connected set of authorization parameters within the PMF Data Mart, for each PMF user (an Owner in PMF jargon). This is necessary, since PMF has many application-specific security extensions that enable such things as:

In conclusion, all current PMF users must be:

For more information, please see Understanding Security and PMF.


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Synchronization Capabilities in PMF

To enable consistency between the MR/CUS security, PMF includes a facility called the User Sync tool, which enables an administrator to manually synchronize users from the MR/CUS environment into the PMF authorization table. This tool allows you to speed up the process of:

The User Sync tool is available from the Manage tab in PMF, and is fully documented in the section Importing Users (Owners) in the PMF Administrator’s Guide.


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Allowing for Automatic Synchronization of Users between Systems

If your MR/CUS environment is configured to allow access to WebFOCUS using an external system of record such as an RDBMS repository, LDAP repository, MS ActiveDirectory, or another similar system, it is possible to automate the synchronization between the MR/CUS environment authorized user table and PMF.

In addition, your users might be granted access to various levels of operational data, as used in their WebFOCUS reports and applications. There could be parallelisms in what PMF Measure data they are permitted to view and what data they are allowed to view in your various operational reporting systems and applications. It is possible also to automate this synchronization.

Since your systems of record, MR/CUS environment, and PMF authorization tables are so difference in architecture and logic, the process of setting up automatic synchronization would currently entail some development work to allow ETL transfer of information to the target WebFOCUS and PMF tables. This customization and ETL can be performed either by your own developers, or by an Information Builders consultant or partner.

For more information on how to enable an automated synchronization capability for your users from a system of record, please consult the PMF Developer’s Guide, and/or contact your Information Builders support representative.


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Creating a New Tenant

How to:

To create a new Tenant in PMF, you need to copy the template files that are set up in the default tenant template pmf_base, which is created when you install PMF. Then, set up the WebFOCUS Server and WebFOCUS Client to access that tenant exclusively whenever a user from that tenant logs in.

If you have shared client and server instances, you need to create only one set of folders. If you have a split-tier configuration, you will create separate sets of folders on both the client and the server.

For example, assuming this is a shared client or server configuration and are using SQL Server as host RDBMS for the PMF Data Mart, you will create tenant folders under the application root and then make one copy of the [proper master folders] (with content) under each the new tenant name folder.



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Procedure: How to Create a New Tenant
  1. In the WebFOCUS Reporting Server, set up the user in admin.cfg.
  2. Create a database in the RDBMS for your new tenant by following the standard build and DDL process for PMF. Typically, you would do this in your RDBMS server console. You will need to:
    1. Create a new database with schema [tenant_name]. Make sure [tenant_name] schema has all access levels required for PMF (read/write/create and destroy tables/create and destroy views/create and destroy triggers).
    2. Run the PMF SQL DDL for that RDBMS to set up the database framing. In the case of SQL Server, you would run approot/pmfdbms/Create_Database/sqlmss.sql.

    Tips:

    • For ultimate security purposes, you could also configure the data mart using OS security to only allow the local OS user for each tenant to access this database.
    • If you are using Oracle or DB2 to house your data marts, your procedure can vary. Contact your IB Support representative for more information.
  3. Set up the user profile by copying pmf_base.prf to a profile that uses your tenant name. The following example shows pmf_base.prf:
    -SET &&PM_TNT_NAME_PRF = '[tenant_name]' ;
    -SET &RDBMS_PRF      = '[SQLrdbms]' ;
    -SET &RDBMS_CUBE_PRF = 'sqlhyp' ;
    -SET &PMF_DB_SPLIT_MODE_PRF = 'OFF' ;
    APP MAP pmfdata              "C:\ibi\apps\pmf_tenants\pmfdata"
    APP MAP pmfdata_tenant       "C:\ibi\apps\pmf_tenants\pmf_base\pmfdata_tenant"
    APP MAP pmfdb_system         "C:\ibi\apps\pmfdbms\pmfdb_system\pmfdb_system_&RDBMS_PRF"
    APP MAP pmfdb_system_tenant  "C:\ibi\apps\pmf_tenants\pmf_base\pmfdb_system\pmfdb_system_&RDBMS_PRF"
    APP MAP pmfdb_cube           "C:\ibi\apps\pmfdbms\pmfdb_cube\pmfdb_cube_&RDBMS_CUBE_PRF"
    APP MAP pmfdb_cube_tenant    "C:\ibi\apps\pmf_tenants\pmf_base\pmfdb_cube\pmfdb_cube_&RDBMS_CUBE_PRF"
    APP MAP pmf_custom_tenant    "C:\ibi\apps\pmf_tenants\pmf_base\pmfcustom"
    -SET &APP_PATH_START = 'pmf_custom_tenant pmf_custom' ;
    -SET &APP_PATH_CUBE  = IF (&PMF_DB_SPLIT_MODE_PRF EQ 'OFF') THEN ' ' ELSE 'pmfdb_cube_tenant pmfdb_cube' ;
    -SET &APP_PATH_END   = 'pmfdata_tenant pmfdata pmfdb_system_tenant pmfdb_system mainstreet' ;
    APP PREPENDPATH &APP_PATH_START &APP_PATH_CUBE &APP_PATH_END
    -*  Followed by ENGINE statements
    ENGINE [RDBMS_ENGINE] SET CONNECTION_ATTRIBUTES pmf_system [machine]/[uid],[password];[tenant_dbschema]
  4. Edit the server connect string at the bottom of the file to point to the [tenant_name] database:
    ENGINE SQLMYSQL SET CONNECTION_ATTRIBUTES pmf_system
    my_server/abcdefg,longxxpassword;pmf_tenant01
  5. Edit the TENANT_NAME parameter at the top of the script:
    -SET &&PM_TNT_NAME_PRF = 'pmf_tenant01' ;
  6. On the WebFOCUS Client, copy the pmf_base MR Domain folder. Rename the root folder and [tenant_name].html files for the MR Domain short name of the new tenant, as shown in the following image.

    Folders

  7. Copy and rename the root app folder of pmf_base under pmf_tenants.
  8. Add the following tenant support block to site.wfs:
    <IF> IBIMR_domain EQ "[tenant_name]/[tenant_name].htm"
    IBIF_wfdescribe = OFF
    IBIC_server=PMF_BASE
    <SET>IBIC_user(PASS)
    <SET>IBIC_pass(PASS)
    _site_profile = -INCLUDE FILTERS
    <ENDIF>
  9. Set up the service node block for the tenant under Reporting Servers, Remote Services, as shown in the following image.

    Remote Services

  10. In WebFOCUS 7.7. and earlier, please follow these additional steps to create the tenant’s Domain and Group View folders:
    1. Copy the pmf_base domain in the MR basedir folder, and change the name to [tenant_name] using lowercase characters. Rename the folder and HTML File, then add this entry to mrrepos.htm.
    2. Create new MR groups for this tenant and create new Group Views in View Builder([tenant_name]\PMF Admin, [tenant_name] \PMF Author). Additional groups to be added in standard PMF installations are Analyst and Consumer.
    3. Open the group view folder in worp_user folder and copy the xml files from pmf_adm_gbv (Admin) and pmf_aut_gbv (Author) and from pmf_aut_gbv(Analyst) and pmf_cns_gbv (Consumer).

      Note: Group Views can also be created for any additional Functional Roles you might have to configure for your users. For more information, see the Performance Management Framework manual.

    4. Open the layout.xml and replace pmf/pmf.htm with [tenant_name].
  11. In Managed Reporting Administration, connect the MR Domain panel of the tenant with the node block used, as shown in the following image.

    PMF Tenant

  12. For testing purposes, In MR Administration, create at least one sample user for each tenant in MR, or in the system of record used for CUS security, and assign them to the proper group for the new tenant. It is recommended that you add the standard pmfadmin ID to each MR Domain as a bootstrap. Once you have logged in as that user and set up additional users, you can delete the pmfadmin ID from PMF and from the MR Domain.

    Note: If you are using SSO technology and would prefer not to use the standard bootstrap ID, contact IB Customer Support for PMF installation help.

  13. Test the tenant by starting PMF, logging on using the sample admin user, and performing a Resync.
  14. Restore a Snapshot. For more information, see How to Restore a Snapshot.
  15. Fully test all tabs in PMF and ensure they are working properly.

WebFOCUS