Implement row-level security using Oracleu2019s Virtual Private Databases (VPD)

Question

Environment: Business Objects XI R2; Oracle 10g
Functional Requirement:
Implement row-level security using Oracleu2019s Virtual Private Databases (VPD) technology. The restriction is that the Business Objects Universe connection should use a generic/u201Capplicationu201D database user account. This will allow the organization to avoid the situation where the Business Objects password and the Oracle password need to be kept in synch.
What do we need from the Business Objects support team?
1.     Review the 2 attempted solutions that we have tried to implement
2.     Propose solutions/answers to open questions for each of the attempted solutions
3.     Propose any alternate solution that will help us implement the Function Requirement stated above
Attempted Solution 1: Connection String uses Oracle Proxy User
The connection string that is specified in the Universe is the following:
app_user[end_user]/app_user_pwdarrobaDatabase.WORLD
app_user = generic application user
end_user = the oracle account of the end user which is set using arrobaVariable('BOUSER') app_user_pwd = password of the generic application user
We have tried and implemented this in our test environment. However, we have some questions and concerns around how the connections are reused in a connection pool environment.
Open Question for Solution 1:
i. What happens when multiple proxy users try to connect on at the same time?  Business Objects shares the generic app_user connect string.  However, every user that logs on will have their own unique proxy user credentials.  Will there be any contention involved?  If so, what kind of errors can we expect?
ii. If a user logs on using his credentials (proxy user), and business objects opens up a connection to the database using that user's credentials (as the proxy user but logging in through the generic app user). Then the user exits out --> based on our test today, it seems like the database connection remains open.  In that case, if another user logs on similarly with their credentials, will business objects simply assign the first users connection to that second user?  If so, then our security will not work.  Is there a way that Business Objects can somehow ensure that everytime we close a report, the connection is also terminated both at the BO and DB levels?
iii. Our 3rd question is general high level -> How connection pooling works in general and how it is implemented in BO, i.e. how are new connections assigned, how are they recycled, how are they closed, etc.
Attempted Solution 2: Using the ConnectInit parameter
Reading through a couple of the Business Objects documents, it states that u201CUsing the ConnectInit parameter it is possible to send commands to the database when opening the session which can be used to set database specific parameters used for optimization.u201D
Therefore, we tried to set the parameter in the Universe using several different options:
ConnectInit = BEGIN SYSTEM.prc_logon('arrobaVARIABLE('BOUSER')'); COMMIT; END; ConnectInit = BEGIN DBMS_SESSION.SET_IDENTIFIER('arrobaVariable('BOUSER')'); COMMIT; END;
Neither of the above iterations or any variation of that seemed to work. It seems that the variable is not being set or being u201Cexecutedu201D on the database.
One of the Business Objects documents had stated that Patch ID 38, 977, 350 must be installed in our BO environments. We have verified that this patch has been applied on our system.
Open Questions for Solution 2:
How do we get the parameter ConnectInit to work? i.e. what is the proper syntax to enter and what other things do we need to check to get this to work.
Note: Arroba word is being used instead of the symbol in order to avoid following error message:
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Answer 1

the connectinit setting should look something like this:
declare a date; begin vpd_setup('@VARIABLE('BOUSER')'); Commit; end;
The vpd_setup procedure (in Oracle) should look like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE procedure vpd_setup (p_user varchar)IS
BEGIN
  DBMS_SESSION.set_vpd( 'SESSION_VALUES', 'USERID', p_user );
END vpd_setup;
Then you can retrieve the value of the context variable in your vpd functions
and set the vpd.