installing cognos 10: tips and tricks from the … helping companies learn from the past, manage the...

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Helping Companies Learn From the Past, Manage the Present and Shape the Future

Installing Cognos 10: Tips and Tricks from the Trenches

www.senturus.com

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Agenda

• Welcome

• Cognos 10 BI Server core components

• Navigating the Maze of Bitness (32-bit vs. 64-bit)

• Common Installation Issues

• Post-Install: the Cognos 10 Search Index

• Using the Cognos Knowledge Base

• Q & A

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Welcome and Introduction

• Who we are: – Greg Herrera

• CEO and Co-Founder

– Steve Reed-Pitman

• Leads Senturus’ Cognos Installation Specialists team

• Installed, configured and optimized 100s of Cognos instances from Cognos Series 7 through Cognos 10 in Windows, Unix and Linux environments

– Jim Frazier

• Vice President, Sales

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Who is Senturus?

• Consulting firm specializing in Corporate Performance Management

– Office of Finance

• Close, consolidate, report and file (CCRF)

• Enterprise planning & budgeting

– Business Intelligence

– San Francisco Business Times Hall of Fame -- Four consecutive years in Fast 100 list of fastest-growing private companies in the Bay Area

• Experience

– 12-year focus on performance management

– More than 1,200 projects for 500+ clients

• People

– Business depth combined with technical expertise. Former CFOs, CIOs, Controllers, Directors...

– DBAs with MBAs

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A few of our 550+ Clients

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INSTALLING COGNOS 10

Tips and Tricks from the Trenches

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Cognos 10 BI Server core components

Cognos Connection web portal Web server

App servers

Data servers

Note: Report Servers correspond to “Application Tier

Components” in the Cognos installation program

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Content “*” Confusion: What are these things, anyway?

Content Manager:

The Cognos service that manages the storage and retrieval of report specifications, published packages, configuration data and Cognos security settings from the content store database.

Content Store:

The set of database tables that are used by the Content Manager to store Cognos application data.

Cognos Content Database:

Self-contained Apache Derby database server – can be used to host the content store database in demo environments when an enterprise DBMS is unavailable.

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Component Selection Options

Note: The term “Dispatcher” is often used to

refer to a server that is running the core App Tier

components -- BUT this is not exactly correct.

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What is a Dispatcher, really? • The “Dispatcher” is a Java application which routes requests between the

internal Cognos services that are running on a particular server instance.

Each dispatcher can also route requests

to other dispatchers for load balancing.

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32-bit and 64-bit Components

Java code

(32-bit or 64-bit)

C++ code (32-bit)

C++ code (32-bit)

• Java code is architecture agnostic (can run on a 32-bit or 64-bit JVM)

• Gateway and Report Execution processes are 32-bit native C++ code

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Navigating the Maze of Bitness

Cognos 10 BI is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions – but there are still some 32-bit restrictions to be aware of in 64-bit Cognos:

• Web gateway extensions (e.g. ISAPI) are 32-bit

• If using a 64-bit web server, the web server must be able to load and run 32-bit libraries (64-bit IIS permits this; 64-bit Apache does not)

• Report execution processes (BIBusTKServerMain.exe) are 32-bit

• 32-bit database client libraries are required for native-client integration with third-party databases.

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Navigating the Maze of Bitness

• 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Cognos components can't be installed in the same directory with each other • Because Framework Manager and Transformer are 32-bit

components, they must be installed in a separate directory from any Cognos BI 64-bit server components.

• Only the components that run inside the JVM (Dispatcher, Content Manager Service, etc.) are 64-bit when running on a 64-bit OS • This primarily provides increased

performance/responsiveness/scalability for operations within Cognos Connection

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The 1st Law of Cognos Installations:

Things Go Wrong

Famous last words:

”How hard can this be… don’t you just, point, click and go?”

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Why Things Go Wrong: Cognos is not an Island

External dependencies add unique and variable complexity in every environment, including:

- network security

- virtual infrastructure and/or cloud hosting

- database access (SQL, Oracle, DB2, ODBC, etc.)

- authentication mechanisms (AD, LDAP, Series 7)

- web server configurations (IIS 5/6/7, Apache, SSL)

- anti-virus and endpoint security solutions

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When Things Go Wrong: Common Problem Areas & Fixes

1) Operating System (Windows 2008)

2) Database (SQL Server, Oracle)

3) Web server (IIS 7.x)

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Common Installation Problem Area #1:

Operating System

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Common Windows OS issues

• Service account not added to Local Administrators group

• Cognos hasn’t been configured to run using the service account credentials

• Data Execution Prevention (DEP) has not been configured to allow Cognos to run.

• Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is turned on.

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Service account not added to Local Administrators group

Run “compmgmt.msc” to open the

Computer Management console

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Service account not added to Local Administrators group

Confirm that the service

account is listed

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Cognos hasn’t been configured to run using the service account credentials

Run “services.msc” to open the Services console

Check the

service’s

properties

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Cognos hasn’t been configured to run using the service account credentials

Run “services.msc” to open the Services console

Set the

correct

credentials

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Data Execution Prevention (DEP) has not been configured to allow Cognos to run.

For simplicity, DEP is

enabled here for

essential Windows

programs and services

only.

Alternatively, individual DEP exceptions

can also be explicitly configured for

Cognos.

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Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is turned on

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Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is turned on

Set IE ESC to “Off” in

order to access

Cognos Connection

directly from the server

Note: This change is NOT required for

browsers on client PCs to be able to

connect to the server

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Common Installation Problem Area #2:

Database

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Common SQL Server and Oracle DB issues

• Incompatible collation sequence – The Cognos content store requires a case-insensitive collation sequence.

Some common collation sequences for Cognos installations are:

• SQL Server: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

• Oracle: AL32UTF8

• Oracle: Incorrect JDBC driver file – The correct JDBC driver for the target Oracle instance must be copied from

the Oracle client installation location to .../webapps/p2pd/WEB-INF/lib

• For Oracle 10, use ojdbc14.jar

• For Oracle 11, use ojdbc5.jar

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Common SQL Server and Oracle DB issues

• Incorrect bitness of database client software

– Cognos 10 requires 32-bit client libraries for native-client access to third-party data sources, even when Cognos is running on a 64-bit OS.

• For Oracle, you must explicitly install the 32-bit Oracle client libraries when running Cognos on 64-bit Windows.

• For SQL Server, the 64-bit SQL Native Client includes both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries.

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Common Installation Problem Area #3:

Web Server

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Common IIS 7.x Configuration issues

• Role Services have not been installed for ISAPI and Windows Authentication

• ISAPI changes made in Cognos Configuration, but not in the HTML config files

• Application Pool not configured for 32-bit applications (when running 32-bit Cognos components on 64-bit Windows)

• Application Pool Identity not set to “NetworkService”

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Role Services have not been installed for ISAPI and Windows Authentication

Both of these

should be checked

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ISAPI changes made in Cognos Configuration but not in the HTML config files

Gateway URI

was updated

for ISAPI

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ISAPI changes made in Cognos Configuration but not in the HTML config files

“index.html” and “default.htm”

must be edited for ISAPI support

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ISAPI changes made in Cognos Configuration but not in the HTML config files

Find “cognos.cgi” in both files…

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ISAPI changes made in Cognos Configuration but not in the HTML config files

…and change it to “cognosisapi.dll”

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Application Pool not configured for 32-bit applications (this issue only affects 32-bit Cognos components running on 64-bit Windows)

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Application Pool not configured for 32-bit applications (this issue only affects 32-bit Cognos components running on 64-bit Windows)

Set “Enable 32-Bit

Applications” to True

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Application Pool Identity not set to “NetworkService”

Change identity to

“NetworkService”

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Post-Installation:

Configuring the Cognos 10 Search Index

The search capabilities in Cognos 10 are impressive…

but only if you configure them!

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Post-Install: the Cognos 10 Search Index

In order to use the enhanced search functionality that is included with Cognos 10, you must:

1) Build the initial search index

2) Create a scheduled task to periodically update the index

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Post-Install: the Cognos 10 Search Index

In the “Content Administration” area of Cognos

Connection, click the “New Index Update” icon

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Post-Install: the Cognos 10 Search Index

Include all “Public Folders” content in the index

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Post-Install: the Cognos 10 Search Index

Wait for the initial index build to complete

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Post-Install: the Cognos 10 Search Index

After the initial index build is complete, click “New Index

Update” again -- but this time create a scheduled task to

periodically update the index

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Post-Install: the Cognos 10 Search Index

For distributed installations, disable the Index Data

Service and Index Update Service everywhere except

the primary Content Manager instance.

For distributed

installations,

update the

settings for

the index-

related

services

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Getting Unstuck:

Use the Cognos Knowledge Base

The knowledge base is your friend…

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Using the Cognos Knowledge Base - Simple searches are more likely to produce relevant articles

- Detailed searches are less likely to return anything at all…

http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Overview/Software/Cognos/Cognos_Business_Intelligence

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HOW SENTURUS CAN HELP

Specialized Services

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Upcoming Webinar

June 28, 2012 Straight Talk About Cognos Insight

Free Webinar 10-11:30am PT

REGISTER NOW

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C O G N O S

Senturus Cognos 10 Upgrade Package

Senturus Upgrades

Cognos 8 to Cognos 10

In your Development environment

$3,495 Fixed Price

Senturus offers a full range of upgrade packages:

• Remote mentoring

• Full install, migration and validation

• Turnkey upgrades

For more information please contact Sales@Senturus.com or

Call Jim Frazier @ 650-949-2921

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Other Senturus Solution Offerings

• Cognos 10 Proof of Concept Engagements

– Active Reports

– Business Insight

– Cognos Mobile • 2-3 Day Proof of Concepts

• Identify how most value can be derived from the new capability

• Deploy capability for a defined use case

• Demonstrate Final Solution

• $4,995

• For More Information please click on the links above, or contact Sales@Senturus.com

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Training Schedule and Details Here

IBM Cognos TM1 v10.1: Analyze Data and Prototype Models with Cognos Insight (1 day)

IBM Cognos TM1 v10.1: Develop and Deploy Planning Models with Performance Modeler (2 days)

Upcoming Cognos Courses include: Self-Service Authoring with Business Insight Advanced

July 10, 2012 (7am-3pm*)

Authoring Active Reports June 21

IBM Cognos Planning: Analyst Model Building June 19-20

Beginning & Intermediate Report Authoring with Report Studio June 26-27

Advanced Report Authoring with Report Studio May 31 and June 28

Dimensional Report Authoring with Report Studio June 1

IBM Cognos System Administration SATURDAY! June 9

Metadata Modeling with Framework Manager June 14-15

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Q & A

Submit questions here