Created by James Hurrell on Apr 16, 2021

Connection

  • Enlighten provides a graphical representation of the contents of the Knowledge Base. Your Knowledge Base will be installed on any supported CAST Storage Service, Microsoft or Oracle server (please refer to the Release Notes for more information on supported versions).
  • You therefore need to connect to the server that contains your Knowledge Base using a login name and password that have sufficient permissions to access it. Your CAST administrator will be able to provide you with an appropriate Knowledge Base login name (each user name needs to be specified in the Knowledge Base before a user can gain access - except in a CAST Storage Service environment)).
  • Connections are defined in Connection Profiles, enabling you to create any number of different connection configurations (specifying servers, usernames and passwords) to a variety of different servers (if for example your organization uses several different Knowledge Bases). Connection is simply a matter of selecting and opening a valid Profile.
  • Concurrent connections are possible with Enlighten - create a new Connection Profile and open it from the File > Connection menu.
  • When a connection to a server has been established, you will be asked what data (projects that have been analyzed and stored in the Knowledge Base) you want to display in the Object Browser window. Concurrent  connections can be accessed by selecting Window on the menu bar and then the name of the server declared in your other Profile - the Object Browser window display will change to reflect the contents of the Knowledge Base on this server.
  • Special considerations for Oracle users

    When you are connecting to an Oracle server for whatever reason (connecting to the server for installation purposes or for analysis requirements etc), various messages will be displayed in the Log Window regarding the connection profile you are using for the given operation.

    These messages refer to the mechanisms CAST uses for accessing the PL/SQL objects required for the operation you are carrying out.

    Depending on the credentials granted to the user name you are using to connect with (defined in your Connection Profile) and whether the CAST PL/SQL component (see the online Help for Server Manager for more information) has been installed and defined in the Connection Profile, one of the messages below will be displayed:

    • Using schema 'y' for connection profile 'x' > The connection profile you are using to connect with specifies that the CAST PL/SQL component is installed in schema 'y'. As a result, you can access all objects you require (via the required views in the System Catalogue) regardless of the credentials that have been granted to the user name you are using to connect with.
    • Using DBA views for connection profile 'x' > The user name defined in the connection profile you are are using to connect with has credentials enabling the required DBA views to be "seen" and the CAST PL/SQL component is not installed or defined. In this case, CAST uses the DBA_ views (see the online Help for Server Manager for more information) to display information about the PL/SQL objects that are required.
    • Using ALL views for connection profile 'x' > The user name defined in the connection profile you are are using to connect with has credentials that do not enable the required DBA views to be "seen" and the CAST PL/SQL component is not installed or defined. In this case, CAST uses the ALL_ views (see the online Help for Server Manager for more information) to display information about the PL/SQL objects you require - if this is the case, you may not be able to access all the objects that are required. As a result analysis results may be incomplete.

    In addition, two further messages may also be displayed:

    • Using optimized queries for connection profile 'x' > The credentials of your analysis connection profile (i.e.: the user name defined in the profile) allow the use of optimized queries for accessing some parts of the Oracle system catalogue for the purpose of running your analysis.
    • Using unoptimized queries for connection profile 'x' > The credentials of your analysis connection profile (i.e.: the user name defined in the profile) disallow use of optimized queries for accessing some parts of the Oracle system catalogue for the purpose of running your analysis.

    Please note also that the SELECT_ANY_DICTIONARY permission that is available in Oracle version 9.0 and later provides access to all the DBA_ views required by CAST. As a result, if you have not installed or defined the CAST PL/SQL component, CAST recommends that you grant this permission to the user name specified in the connection profile as it will enable those using the connection profile to "see" all the PL/SQL objects they require. As a direct result, analysis results will be correct.

See Also

Knowledge Base connection | Connection Profiles | Launching Enlighten

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