Hi,
"Roles control the availability of application features such as certain menu items, plug-ins, and buttons. In the initial configuration, registered users have almost all non-administrative capabilities. In many cases, this is appropriate and sufficient." Roles and Capabilities were introduced in SAS 9.2 and this paper gives a nice summary overview of what SAS Roles are, how they relate to capabilities and the effect they have on some of the SAS clients. http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings10/324-2010.pdf
At the end of the paper are further resources for details. If you are after specific information on the roles, I'd suggest looking at the associated documentation in the SAS(R) 9.4 Intelligence Platform: Security Administration Guide, Second Edition or in the Security Admin Guide for the SAS version you are using.
Kind Regards,
Michelle
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