Security permission to only read SSAS Cube with Excel

Question

I have an SSAS database set up on a SQL Server 2008 server. I have a Role set up with a group of users that I want to be able to access the Cubes in that database. I set up "Read definition" and "Read Access" wheverever it says, but that didn't seem to work.

The users were able to open up a pivot table that I had previously set up, but none of the hours would show up, but the dimension data would show up just fine (users, departments, etc).

I then set up an individual user and gave them Full control (Admin), which worked just fine. What am I missing that allows them to access the Cube properly? Process database? Something else?

Answer 1

In order for a specific role to have permissions over a cube data you have to specifically grant cube permissions to that role. That can be done using the Cube tab in the role properties page: in SSAS

-> Databases -> Your db -> Roles -> your specific role -> Cubes tab.

You can assign specific permissions for:

• Access - None, Read, or ReadWrite
• LocalCube/DrillthroughAccess - None, Drillthrough/Drillthrough and Local Cube
• Process

Same for dimensions and their data and specific cell data. You can find further info about cube permissions in the following articles:

• Permissions and Access Rights (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data)
• Configuring permissions for SQL Server Analysis Services
• Security with Analysis Services - Overview