Analysis Services Only Windows Authentication

Question

Is it true that Analysis Services ONLY supports windows authentication?

Answer 1

Yes, it does. Quote from MSDN

"SQL Server Analysis Services supports only Windows Authentication"

You'll need active directory, Refer to the following kb on how to set it up http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917409

Answer 2

Actually needing "Active Directory" isn't really true.

You can trick OS's by logging into your PC in any domain with the same User and Password as the account on the other server that's running SSAS. I do it all the time. By default you'll get access if the domains are different but the user/pass is exact.

Answer 3

Dependent on what you're trying to achieve, you can connect via HTTP and IIS, with IIS supplying or passing through credentials:

http://www.sqlserveranalysisservices.com/OLAPPapers/ConfiguringHTTPAccessToYukon.htm

Answer 4

Needing AD is certainly not true. You can use a tool like runas to execute a program under a different user account.

For example in my dev enviroment I sometimes use it to run Sql Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Visual Studio under a different user.

SSMS:

runas /netonly /user:domain\username "C:\path_to\Ssms.exe"
runas /netonly /user:domain\username "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\Ssms.exe"

Visual Studio:

runas /netonly /user:domain\username "C:\path_to\devenv.exe"
runas /netonly /user:domain\username "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

The runas tool will prompt you for the password and starts the program under that user.

If there is no domain, you can use the name of the computer.