Grant permissions on a data source object (Analysis Services)

Typically, most users of Analysis Services do not require access to the data sources that underlie an Analysis Services project. Users ordinarily just query the data within an Analysis Services database. However, in the context of data mining, such as performing predictions based on a mining model, a user has to join the learned data of a mining model with user-provided data. To connect to the data source that contains the user-provided data, the user uses a Data Mining Extensions (DMX) query that contains either the OPENQUERY (DMX) and OPENROWSET (DMX) clause.

To execute a DMX query that connects to a data source, the user must have access to the data source object within the Analysis Services database. By default, only Server Administrators or Database Administrators have access to data source objects. This means that a user cannot access a data source object unless an administrator grants permissions.

Important

For security reasons, the submission of DMX queries by using an open connection string in the OPENROWSET clause is disabled.

Set Read permissions to a data source

A database role can be granted either no access permissions on a data source object or read permissions.

  1. In SQL Server Management Studio, connect to the instance of Analysis Services, expand Roles for the appropriate database in Object explorer, and then click a database role (or create a new database role).

  2. In the Data Source Access pane, locate the data source object in the Data Source list, and then select the Read in the Access list for the data source. If this option is unavailable, check the General pane to see if Full Control is selected. Full Control is already providing permission, you cannot override permissions on the data source.

Working With the Connection String Used by a Data Source Object

The data source object contains the connection string that is used to connect to the underlying data source. This connection string can specify one of the following:

  • Specify a user name and password

    If the connection string that a data source object uses specifies a user name and password, you may want to create multiple data source objects, each with different user accounts. Creating multiple data source objects lets users access certain data source objects and prevents those users from accessing other data source objects. These other data source objects can be used by Analysis Services itself for processing objects, such as cubes and mining models.

  • Specify Windows Authentication

    If the connection string that a data source object uses specifies Windows Authentication, Analysis Services must be able to impersonate the client. If the data source is on a remote computer, the two computers must be trusted for impersonation by using Kerberos authentication, or the query will typically fail. See Configure Analysis Services for Kerberos constrained delegation for more information.

    If the client does not allow for impersonation (through the Impersonation Level property in OLE DB and other client components), Analysis Services will try to make an anonymous connection to the underlying data source. Anonymous connections to remote data sources rarely succeed, as most data sources do not accept anonymous connections).

See Also

Tasks

Grant custom access to dimension data (Analysis Services)

Concepts

Data Sources in Multidimensional Models

Connection String Properties (Analysis Services)

Authentication methodologies supported by Analysis Services

Grant cube or model permissions (Analysis Services)

Grant custom access to cell data (Analysis Services)