1. Users, Groups, and Roles in Cognos 8
Users, groups, and roles are created for authentication and authorization purposes.
In Cognos 8, you can use users, groups, and roles created in third-party authentication providers, and groupsand roles created in Cognos 8.
The groups and roles created in Cognos 8 are referred to as Cognos groups and Cognos roles.

2. Users, Groups, and Roles in Cognos 8
A user entry is created and maintained in a third-party authentication provider to uniquely identify a human or a computer account. You cannot create user entries in Cognos 8.
Information about users, such as first and last names, passwords,IDs, locales, and addresses, is stored in the providers.

3. Users, Groups, and Roles in Cognos 8
Users can become members of groups and roles defined in Cognos 8.
A user can belong to one or more groups or roles.
If users are members of more than one group, their access permissions are merged
Groups and roles represent collections of users that perform similar functions, or have a similar status in an organization. Examples of groups are Employees, Developers, or Sales Personnel.
Members of groups can be users and other groups. When users log on, they cannot select a group they want to use for a session. They always log on with all the permissions associated with the groups to which they belong.

4. Users, Groups, and Roles in Cognos 8
Roles in Cognos 8 have a similar function as groups. Members of roles can be users, groups, and other roles.
Groups and roles represent collections of users who perform similar functions, or have a similar status in an organization. Members of groups can be users and other groups. Members of roles can be users, groups, and other roles.

5. Structure of Group and Roles
User
Group
Role
User
Group

6. Create an IBM Cognos Group or Role
Steps
1. In IBM Cognos Connection, in the upper-right corner, click Launch, IBM Cognos Administration.
2. On the Security tab, click Users, Groups, and Roles.
3. Click the IBM Cognos namespace.
Tip: If you want to delete an IBM Cognos group or role, select the check box next to it and click the delete button.
4. On the toolbar, click the new group or new role button.
5. In the Specify a name and description page, type a name and, if you want, a description for the new group or role, and then select a destination folder and click Next.

7. Create an IBM Cognos Group or Role
6. If you want to create a group without members, click Finish.
7. If you want to add members to the new group or role, click Add and choose how to select the users, groups, or roles: To choose from listed entries, click the appropriate namespace, and then select the check boxes next to the users, groups, or roles
To search for entries, click Search and in the Search string box, type the phrase you want

8. Create an IBM Cognos Group or Role
To type the name of entries you want to add, click Type and type the names of groups, roles, or users using the following format, where a semicolon (;) separates each entry: namespace/group_name;namespace/role_name;namespace/user_name;
Here is an example: Cognos/Authors;LDAP/scarter;
8. Click the right-arrow button and when the entries you want appear in the Selected entries box, click OK.
Tips: To remove entries from the Selected entries list, select them and click Remove. To select all entries in a list, click the check box in the upper-left corner of the list. To make the user entries visible, click Show users in the list.
9. Click Finish.