Chapter 14. Security

Security is a very broad and complex topic. Within a business intelligence and data warehousing project there are many facets to the topic. The recipes within this chapter will cover the following:

• Creating an APEX custom authentication procedure

• Creating a row-level Virtual Private Database (VPD)

• Creating a column-level Virtual Private Database

• Creating Virtual Private application context

• Configuring OBIEE for multiple security providers

• Integrating Microsoft Active Directory into OBIEE

• Creating and configuring OBIEE roles

• Configuring OBIEE privileges

• Configuring OBIEE catalog security

• Enabling Virtual Private Database in OBIEE

Introduction

Security is divided into three broad categories:

• Authentication: Validates the identity of a person trying to access restricted resources (network, machines, applications, and others)

• Authorization: Grants or denies access to specific content, for a given resource once an individual has been authenticated (roles, privileges, screens, tables...