As mentioned in an earlier post, Duplicating or Copying SAS Access Control Templates, Metacoda Plug-ins 6.1 R3 also includes support for duplicating groups and roles in SAS metadata. This can be useful when you want to create a new group that is very similar to an existing group, or a role with a very similar set of capabilities as an existing role.
The ability to duplicate groups and roles in Metacoda Plug-ins is limited to unrestricted SAS administrators and restricted SAS user administrators (via membership of either of the standard SAS metadata server roles “Metadata Server: Unrestricted” or “Metadata Server: User Administration“.
Duplicating Groups
To duplicate a group, right mouse click over the group you want to copy in the Metacoda Group Reviewer, and select the Duplicate… action:
You will then see a dialog where you can control what is duplicated:
You can specify:
- A name for the new group (defaults to Copy of original-group-name)
- A display name for the new group (defaults to Copy of original-group-display-name)
- Whether or not you want to duplicate the direct members of the original group (defaults to yes). This is used to make the new group have the same direct members as the original source group and consequently the same indirect members (through group nesting).
- Whether or not you want to duplicate the direct group memberships of the original group (defaults to yes). This is used to make the new group a direct member of the same groups as the original source group. It will consequently be a member of the same indirect groups (through group nesting).
- Whether or not you want to duplicate the direct role memberships of the original group (defaults to yes). This is used to make the group a direct member of the same roles as the original group, and give its members access to the same SAS application features (or capabilities). This is in addition to the indirect role memberships the group will gain through its indirect group memberships (and those groups membership of roles).
- Whether or not you want to duplicate any access controls (ACTs and ACEs) that were applied to the original group (if any), so that it is secured the same way as the original group (defaults to yes).
Duplicating Roles
Similarly, to duplicate a role, right mouse click over the role you want to copy in the Metacoda Role Reviewer, and select the Duplicate… action:
You will then see a dialog where you can control what is duplicated:
You can specify:
- A name for the new role (defaults to Copy of original-role-name)
- A display name for the new role (defaults to Copy of original-role-display-name)
- Whether or not you want to duplicate the direct members of the original role (defaults to yes). This is used to make the new role have the same direct members as the original source role and consequently the same indirect members (through group nesting).
- Whether or not you want to duplicate the set of capabilities (SAS application features) granted in the original role (defaults to yes).
- Whether or not you want to duplicate the direct role contributions of the original role (defaults to yes). If the original source role is configured to contribute, or give, its capabilities to other roles, then the new duplicated role can contribute its (potentially different) set of capabilities to the same roles as the original role.
- Whether or not you want to duplicate the direct contributing roles of the original role (defaults to yes). If the original source role is configured to receive contributed capabilities from other roles, then the new duplicated role can receive capabilities from the same contributing roles as the original role.
- Whether or not you want to duplicate any access controls (ACTs and ACEs) that were applied to the original role (if any), so that it is secured the same way as the original role (defaults to yes).
For any further customization of the new group or role you can use the standard SAS Management Console User Manager plug-in.
If you have any feedback, questions, or comments about duplicating groups or roles, or about Metacoda Plug-ins in general, please leave a comment below or contact me. If you’d like to try out Metacoda Plug-ins in your own SAS environment you can also register to request a free 30 day evaluation at the Metacoda web site.