MicroStrategy ONE

Implement Standard Authentication

Standard authentication is the default authentication mode and the simplest to set up. Each user has a unique login and password and can be identified in the MicroStrategy application uniquely.

By default, all users connect to the data warehouse using one RDBMS login ID, although you can change this using Connection Mapping. For more information, see Connecting to the Data Warehouse. In addition, standard authentication is the only authentication mode that allows a user or system administrator to change or expire MicroStrategy passwords.

When using standard authentication, Intelligence Server is the authentication authority. Intelligence Server verifies and accepts the login and password provided by the user. This information is stored in the metadata repository.

When a project source is configured to use standard authentication, users must enter a valid login ID and password combination before they can access the project source.

Password Policy

A valid password is a password that conforms to any specifications you may have set. You can define the following characteristics of passwords:

  • Whether a user must change their password when they first log into MicroStrategy
  • How often the password expires
  • The number of past passwords that the system remembers, so that users cannot use the same password
  • Whether a user can include their login and/or name in the password
  • Whether or not rotating characters from last password are allowed in new passwords
  • Minimum number of character changes
  • Rules for password complexity, including:
    • The minimum number of characters that the password must contain
    • The minimum number of upper-case characters that the password must contain
    • The minimum number of lower-case characters that the password must contain
    • The minimum number of numeric characters, that is, numbers from 0 to 9, that the password must contain
    • The minimum number of special characters, that is, symbols, that the password must contain

The expiration settings are made in the User Editor and can be set for each individual user. The complexity and remembered password settings are made in the Security Policy Settings dialog box, and affect all users.

Steps to Implement Standard Authentication

The procedure below gives the high-level steps for configuring your Intelligence Server for standard authentication.

High-Level Steps to Configuration Standard Authentication

  1. In Developer, open the Project Source Manager and click Modify.
  2. On the Advanced tab, select Use login ID and password entered by the user (standard authentication). This is the default setting.
  3. In MicroStrategy Web, log in as an administrator. On the Preferences page, select Project Defaults, select Security, and then enable Standard (user name & password) as the login mode.
  4. In Developer, create a database instance for the data warehouse and assign it a default database login. This is the RDBMS account that will be used to execute reports from all users.