PPS M&A - Per User Connection Security

Per User Connections - each user's credentials are used to connect to data sources.

• Advantage: highly secure, naturally this security is dependant on there being some sort of existing security framework within the data source itself. The access to different Analysis Services or other data sources can be controlled by user and the databases visible to developers can be limited as needed.
• Disadvantage: little or no caching of dashboard data can occur as each data request is made with the individual user's credentials. Dashboard responsiveness and speed can take a hit.

Security is important to us but I always advocate careful thought and consideration before simply switching on Per User connections on a PPS Monitoring server. There is definite performance hit that comes from the fact that each user gets his or her own data.

To implement "Per User Connection" method , leave the Identity of the PPSMonitoringWebService set to the built-in Network Service account and modify the Web.Config file associated with the Monitoring Server web service as follows:

1. Start Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and open the web.config file. Click Start, Administrative Tools, Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. You will see the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager screen. Click PERFPOINTSERVER, Web Sites then PPSMonitoring then Preview.
   
   
   
2. Right click Preview then select Explore from the popup menu. From the list of files right click web.config then select Open with Notepad from the popup menu. You will see the web.config file open in Notepad.
   
   
   
3. Modify and save the web.config file. Press Ctrl-F to open the Find dialog. In Find what enter appsettings. Click Find Next twice then click Cancel. You will see the appsettings section of the web.config file. In the first line change the ServerConnectionPerUser value to True from the default value False. Make sure to capitalize the T since it is case sensitive.
   
   
   From the Notepad menu, click File then Save to save the change. From the Notepad menu, click File then Exit to close Notepad and reset the Internet Information Services (IIS).