RSSM – Reporting Authorizations

In all the previous articles on BW security, we have already looked the current method of BW security through analysis authorizations. However, even now its possible for customers to continue to use the old security concept using reporting authorization objects (customer created authorization objects of the RSR class). Since there are still quite a few installations that continue to run in the old model let us have a brief look at this concept of BW security.

The basic transaction for maintaining BW 3.5 security is RSSM. The initial screen of the RSSM transaction can be divide into two main areas as shown below. The upper area is used to create new authorization objects whereas as the lower area is used to configure the checks for authorization objects for the individual cubes.

It is here that we create the the RSR authorization objects. During creation we have the choice of adding any of the authorization relevant InfoObjects defined in the system. However note that since these are authorization objects ( as opposed to analysis authorizations), maximum number of fields are limited to 10.

Once created, the second step is to check the relevant authorizations for the individual infocubes. This activity is also performed through RSSM as shown below. Whenever a new Infocube is created in BW, by default all possible authorization objects ( these are the authorization objects which contain any of the InfoObjects defined in the cube) are shown to be checked for it. Its the security administrator’s job to un-check all the unnecessary objects.

Like Analysis Authorizations, checks for reporting authorization which occur during query execution can not be caught through the standard security trace (ST01). We use the transsaction RSSMTRACE to trace security checks for reporting authorization objects. For individual users to be traced, they need to be added to list below. A security trace is generated during query execution for all the listed users. Subsequently the trace can be displayed through the same transaction for analyzing possible security errors.