Tag: SAS 9.2

Metacoda Plug-ins Batch Interface Setup Utility

This is a short post to let those readers who run or schedule Metacoda Plug-ins in batch know that, with the recent Metacoda Plug-ins 6.1 R1 release, we have published a GitHub repository to help with setup of the Metacoda Plug-ins Batch Interface. You can find this new repository, together with setup instructions, at https://github.com/Metacoda/metacoda-plugins-batch-setup

Metacoda Plug-in 6.1 HTML Export

The main benefit of this Metacoda Plug-ins Batch Interface Setup Utility is the automation of much of the previous manual work involved in setting up and site-specific tailoring of the batch interface samples. It also includes additional batch exports for Authentication Domains and External Identities (from the new Auth Domain Reviewer and External Identity Manager plug-ins). The Metacoda recommended practice starter tests for SAS metadata security have also been updated.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know by posting below. You can also contact us via the Metacoda contact form or send us an email at Metacoda support.

Configuring Metacoda Identity Sync Utils for AutoCall

I needed to extract some SAS identity related metadata today using the Metacoda Identity Sync Utils on GitHub. That repository contains some macros we publish to help our customers and partners when they need to get hold of some identity related metadata in SAS tables for custom Identity Sync processing or other reporting requirements (if the standard SAS %MDUEXTR macro doesn’t meet their needs).

Since I use these macros on a semi-regular basis, I decided to make them available to the SAS platform as autocall macros so I could just use them in my SAS code without having to remember where they were stored and %include them. I thought I’d post some brief notes on how to set it up in case you want to do the same (and for when I need it on another SAS platform installation). Continue reading “Configuring Metacoda Identity Sync Utils for AutoCall”

Metacoda Auth Domain Reviewer

Update 05Mar2019: The Metadata Auth Domain Reviewer discussed in this blog post is now available with the Metacoda Plug-ins 6.1 R1 release, and also includes a new Libraries tab based on feedback from customers during early-access testing.

One of the new Metacoda Security Plug-ins features arriving in version 6.1 is the Auth Domain Reviewer. Like the other reviewers, this plug-in is used for investigating, documenting and testing how a SAS metadata security feature has been used within a particular SAS platform deployment. When I’m reviewing metadata security for a SAS platform I like to look at it from several different perspectives and authentication domains is one of them. I like to see:

  • What authentication domains have been added beyond the initial DefaultAuth?
  • How have they been used with respect to inbound logins?
  • How have they been used with respect to outbound logins and providing shared credentials for database access?
  • How have they been used with respect to 3rd party database system connections?
  • Are there any unused ones, possibly added by accident, that can be cleaned up?
  • Are there any seemingly duplicate ones that might be consolidated?

In the past it has been time-consuming to gather this information together, so this new plug-in Continue reading “Metacoda Auth Domain Reviewer”

Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: User’s Group Content Admin Permissions (Identity Permissions Explorer)

This tip was prompted by a SAS Communities question which I hear from time to time, essentially “How do I find out which groups a SAS user is a Portal Group Content Administrator for?” It can be answered using the Metacoda Identity Permissions Explorer but involves a few steps so I will outline them here.

To quote the SAS® 9.4 Intelligence Platform: Web Application Administration Guide, Group Content Administrator section:

A group content administrator is a user who has WriteMetadata permission for the respective group, and the group’s Portal permission tree. A group content administrator can share personal content with the group, and can edit or remove content that has been shared with the group. (Portal administrators have WriteMetadata permission for all group permission trees that are defined in metadata.)

So, to find out which groups a user is group content admin for, we need to look for all of the group portal permission trees where the user has a grant of the WM permission. This can be done quickly and easily using the Metacoda Identity Permissions Explorer. Below is a screenshot with numbered steps where we find out which groups Aaron Atkins (demoaaron), a fictitious Business Analyst, is a Portal Group Content Administrator for. Continue reading “Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: User’s Group Content Admin Permissions (Identity Permissions Explorer)”

Java Look & Feel with SAS Management Console on Linux

As someone who specialises in SAS® metadata security, I spend a lot of time using the Authorization tab in SAS Management Console. I also use Linux a great deal. When I run SAS Management Console on Linux, I’ve noticed that the check box background colours on the Authorization tab don’t render correctly (for me at least). I only ever see white background check boxes when I expect to also see green and gray ones: green indicating an ACT; white indicating an ACE; and gray indicating indirect. These colours are important indicators for the source of access controls so not being able to see them is a problem!

It occurred to me that I might be able to resolve this by specifying a Java System Property in the sasmc.ini file to change the Java Look & Feel.

I first tried changing the default look & feel (using ‑Dswing.defaultlaf) but that didn’t work. What did work is changing the default system look & feel (with ‑Dswing.systemlaf). Continue reading “Java Look & Feel with SAS Management Console on Linux”