How to find out by MDX that the current users is member of a role - Default member issue

Question

Hi,
just imagine you have a dimension with a few members (A, B, C...). I defined a role which gives some users only rights to "B". On the other hand the default member for the dimension is set to "A". Now users part of the role get an error
that the member "A" is not found. So while
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175626.aspx says the default member setting in the role "overrides" the overall default member this is not completely true because first the general default member is selected and after that the role
specific one.
So the solution might be that I explicitly define the default member in all roles. This might be possible but there is one issue: you can't define a role specific default member for users part of the adminstrator role. So all admins don't have a default
member which is quite some restriction for some users...
So the question is how to solve that problem. An idea would be that I use some MDX to determine the default member in the dimension based on the actual user's role membership. But how to do that? Or any better idea?
Thanks,
Thomas Pagel

Answer 1

Hi Thomas,
According to your description, you want to have a role-specific default member for different roles. Right?
In Analysis Services, when granting access to dimension, a connection will fail if a role restricts access to a default measure. As you mentioned, the best solution is specify a default member for each role. But for administrator role(full control),
it can't set the default member. All tabs except General and Membership are disabled. And the system can determines the default member of current user automatically. It's not supported to get the default member in MDX either.
However, SSAS has additive design for role security. So in this scenario, we just need to create another role for those members of administrator role and specify a default member for this role. SSAS will take that role-specific default member
for these users. And it will not effect the administration permission for them.
Reference:
Default members, MDX Scripts, Security, KPIs and Perspectives
The Additive Design of SSAS Role Security
If you have any question, please feel free to ask.
Best Regards,
Simon Hou
TechNet Community Support