Authentication for Siebel Reports

The best part from oracle is they keep coming with patches and tough part is we need to adhere them. In siebel 8.0 we were not having built in integration with BIP reports so one has to resort to either web service call or SQL strategy for executing BIP reports. With advancement of 8.1.x we have tightly coupled integration with BIP reports.

With integration comes authentication. Typically there are several options to choose for configuring security and authentication for Siebel Reports. When using WebServices or SQL based reports generally "Web Single Sign-On Authentication" mechanism is used as it requires Users logging into BI Publisher via its administrative interface.

However this authentication fails when one is using integration based approach which comes with Siebel 8.1. Since the release of Siebel 8.1.1.1 and BI Publisher 10.1.3.4.1 a new security model is introduced in BI Publisher, Siebel Security. When using the Siebel Security model, BI Publisher relies on Siebel for its authentication and authorization. This is primarily used for IO based reports. But now the question arises if we want to run webservice/sql based reports in conjunction with tightly coupled BIP reports which authentication to go for.

The intermediate solution is LDAP authentication which supports both types of reports in conjunction. The key points to implement here are:

1) Users logging into Siebel sould be authenticated via LDAP

2) Any reports requested by Siebel users and executed in BI Publisher should cause BI Publisher to request authentication via Siebel (and hence indirectly via LDAP). This will be for Tightly coupled IO based reports.

3) Users logging into the BI Publisher administrative interface sould be authenticated via BI Publisher’s own LDAP authentication mechanism. This will be for reports based on the WebServices or SQL.

However, The BI Publisher LDAP Security model has one disadvantage, it requires hardcoded LDAP Security Groups like XMLP_DEVELOPER,XMLP_ADMIN. BIP gurus can definitely throw more light on this.

Happy Reporting!!