Accessing Oracle GDB with read-only user?

Question

Hello, I was asked is following is possible:

ArcSDE 9.3.1

Oracle 11g

A business user holds business tables, sde user holds gdb tables.

The client wants to define an additional read-only user which will be capable to query business user's layers but unable to edit.

From what I've learned read-only is pretty cumbersome in GDB since every user has to update his own log tables.
Is this possible at all?

Thanks!

George_Thompson · Answer

It is hard to 100% certain, but I would not see any impact with the log file tables. They are separate tables in the Oracle DB. Those log tables will only be used by the connections with the correct permissions via ArcGIS clients.

Depending on how you configure your log file tables, there may be an impact on the Oracle instance, if it cannot handle the requests (overall).

I do not see view-only users messing with users. What is the log file configuration for the editors set to right now?

MichaelGinzburg · Answer

By  "compromise the GDB" I mean disturbing users' work. In my configuration, I have hundreds of mass production users updating the DB every day through the ADF web app and few users reviewing the data with ArcMap. I was asked to make a read-only user for ArcMap users for security reasons (to prevent direct editing of data). Since 9.3.1 is old unsupported version, I don't want to compromise mass production work by experimenting with log file tables. I am trying to figure out risk of such a move.

Thanks!

George_Thompson · Answer

What do you mean by "compromise the GDB"?

The log file tables are just for storing temp selections and other actions that the client may request. As long as the user has access you should be fine. As far as I know, log file tables do not have any dependency on the geodatabase tables other than holding the selection information. So they are created and removed based on the log file configuration.