Authentication Providers

Authentication providers give access to authentication sources. By configuring an authentication provider in IBM® Cognos® Analytics, you define an authentication namespace.

The authentication namespace configuration is part of the Content Manager installation. The namespace can be configured to use full authentication provider, or a trusted sign-on provider with conjunction with a full authentication provider.

IBM Cognos Analytics does not use authentication providers for authorization purposes. Policies and permissions are stored in Content Manager and are managed by IBM Cognos Analytics.

IBM Cognos software supports the following authentication providers:

  • IBM Cognos Series 7 namespaces
  • LDAP version 3 directory servers
  • Microsoft Windows native security (NTLM)
  • SAP BW
  • Active Directory Server
  • Computer Associates eTrust SiteMinder (with LDAP and/or NTLM user directories)

If your authentication provider does not appear on this list, or the basic functionality of any of the listed providers does not meet your requirements, you can use the Custom Authentication Provider API to implement a custom authentication provider Developing a Custom Authentication Provider.

For more information about the IBM Cognos security infrastructure, see the IBM Cognos Analytics Administration and Security Guide.

For information about the IBM Cognos object model, see the IBM Cognos Software Development Kit Developer Guide.