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Cognos installation and configuration

(Oracle)
HOW TO CONFIGURE COGNOS 8 WITH ORACLE?
A. Create the Content Store(For One Machine).

The content store is a database that Content Manager uses to store global configuration data, global
settings (such as the language and currency formats shown in the user interface), connections to data
sources, and product-specific content. Design models and log files are not stored in the content store.

By default, Cognos 8 products share the content store database. You must create this database using
one of the following:

● Microsoft SQL Server

● Oracle

● DB2

● Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE)

We will use ORACLE as a database and content store.

Steps for Oracle

1. Ensure that the parameter for the database instance compatibility level of the content store

database is set to 9.0.1 or higher. Cognos 8 will not work if Oracle version is below 9.0.1.

For information about changing an instance configuration parameter, see the Oracle

documentation.

2. Determine if the database is Unicode.

Tip: One method is to type the following select statement:

SELECT * FROM NLS_DATABASE_PARAMETERS

The result set returns NLS_CHARACTERSET as UTF-8 or UTF-16, or AL32UTF8 or

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AL16UTF16 or not Unicode.

Note—This step is basically done to create the reports in the multiple languages.

If the result set returns an NLS_CHARACTERSET that is not Unicode, create a new database and
specify AL32UTF8 or UTF-8 for the database character set parameters.

Note—If the above points are not satisfied (The database is not Unicode)
follow the below mentioned steps to uninstall oracle.

3. To uninstall the oracle database follow the following steps.

1. Ensure you are logged in as a user with Administrator privileges.

2. Stop all Oracle services (if any are running):

a. Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel > Services.

b. If any Oracle services (their names begin with Oracle) exist and have the status Started, select the service and
choose Stop.
c. Choose Close to exit the Services window.

3. Start the registry at the MS-DOS command prompt:

4. C:\> REGEDT32

4. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.

5. Delete any key that starts with Oracle or ORCL.

6. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE.

7. Delete the ORACLE key.

8. Delete the Oracle ODBC Driver key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBCINST.INI.

9. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services and remove all keys under here that begin with
ORACLE.

10. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services \EventLog\Application, and remove all keys under

here that begin with ORACLE.

11. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ORACLE and delete keys that start with Oracle or ORCL (if any exist).

12. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBCINST.INI and delete Oracle keys (if any exist).

13. Close the registry.

14. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Environment tab.

15. Choose the system variable path and modify the Path variable.

16. Remove any Oracle entries from the path. For example, if JRE was installed by Oracle, remove the %ORACLE_HOME
%\BIN path and the JRE path. You may see a path similar to this one:

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17. C:\ORACLE\ORA81\BIN;G:\PROGRAM FILES\ORACLE\JRE\1.1.7\BIN

17. Exit the Control Panel.

18. Go to SYSTEM_DRIVE:\WINNT\PROFILES\ALL USERS\START MENU\PROGRAMS.

19. Delete the following icons:

o Oracle - HOME_NAME

(The previous Oracle home name)

o Oracle Installation Products

. Delete SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Oracle through Windows NT Explorer.

3. Determine which user account will be used to access the database. Its better to create a new
user.

Steps to Create a New User.

“To create user PRABIR with DBA privilege”

CREATE USER "AUDIT” PROFILE "DEFAULT"

IDENTIFIED BY "audit" DEFAULT TABLESPACE "USERS"

ACCOUNT UNLOCK;

GRANT "CONNECT" TO "AUDIT" WITH ADMIN OPTION;

GRANT "DBA" TO "PRABIR" WITH ADMIN OPTION;

Ensure that the user account that accesses the database has permission to do the following:

● connect to the database.

● create, alter, and drop tables, triggers, views, procedures, and sequences.

● Insert, update, and delete data in the database tables.

Steps to create a new database in oracle 10g

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To create database by using database configuration go to start button and click on programs -> oracle ->
configuration and migration tools ->database configuration assistant

You will get a welcome screen as below.

Click the next button to follow the next screen; in this screen you have options, to create a database,
configure database options, delete a database, and manage templates.

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Click the next button to get the database templates page, select the type of database template to be
used in creating the database. You can click show details to see the configuration for each type of
database. Choose the template suited to the type of workload your database will support. If you are not
sure, select the default general template. Click Next

Click next button to continue, here you have to enter the GLOBAL DATABASE NAME and SID.

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Click the next button. By default it select the database with enterprise manager and grid control for
database management .or you can choose grid control for database management as it suit to your
configuration

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Click the next button, enter the password.

Click the next button, Select File System, Automatic Storage Management, or Raw Devices to best suite
to system.

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Click the next button; specify the location for the creation of the datafiles. Choose one of the following:
Use database File Locations from Template, Use Common Location for All database Files, or Use Oracle-
Managed Files.

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Installation Of Cognos 8(For one Machine).

 Install the modeling component of cognos 8.
 Install the sever component of cognos 8.
 Install the analysis component of cognos 8.
 Install the samples component of cognos8.

Steps for Cognos Content Database

1. On the computer where the Oracle is installed, go to the ORACLE_HOME/jdbc/lib

directory.

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2. Copy the ojdbc14.jar file to the c8_location/webapps/p2pd/WEB-INF/lib directory on computers

where Content Manager is installed.

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If the directory contains the classes12.jar file, delete it before installing the ojdbc14.jar file.

This file includes the driver required by the content store.

Update the Java Environment

Cognos 8 cryptographic services use a specific .jar (Java Archive) file, named bcprov-jdknn-nnn.jar,
that must be located in your Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

1. Copy the bcprov-jdknn-nnn.jar file from the c8_location/bin/jre/version/lib/ext directory to the

Java_location/jre/lib/ext directory.

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1.

2.

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And to

Configuration Of Web Server.

Before you use Web pages generated by Cognos 8, you must configure your Web server. You must set
up virtual directories, also known as Web aliases, for the directories that contain the HTML and Web
files for Cognos 8. The virtual directories in the Alias column of the following table are required for all
Web servers.

Alias Location Permission

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cognos8 c8_location/webcontent Read

cognos8/cgi-bin c8_location/cgi-bin Execute

Go to Control Pannel> Administrative Tools> IIS

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Click next and finish.

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Again right click on cognos8 and select New Virtual Directory

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Select EXECUTE

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Now your IIS is configured.

How to set up IIS in windows 7

Steps:

First, go to Control Panel, and then click on Programs. You’ll see a link for “Turn Windows features on or
off”

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If you expand the Internet Information Services tree node, you can see that there are a lot of options
beneath it. You will probably want to explore these options, because even if you click on IIS, some of the
necessary options for doing development aren’t checked.

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Once you’ve gone ahead and checked the items you want, and clicked OK, you’ll see this dialog for a
while….

Now when you navigate in your browser to localhost, you’ll see the new default page… slick!

Note—Once the IIS set up is complete please follow the above mentioned steps to configure the
web server.

Cognos Configuration.

Create Cognos Content Store

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Right click Content Store and click Delete.

Click “YES”

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Now provide user ID and Password that you have created during Oracle installation.

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Note—Save the Configuration.

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Click Close

Now Click on ACTION> START

Let the services start completely.

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Note—After the Cognos Starts successfully go to Environment and copy the

Gateway URI as shown below.

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Home URL: http://localhost/cognos8/

Click on MY HOME

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Now point to be noted. The Folders are blanks and there are no Sample reports.

We will deploy sample Reports provided by Cognos.

Setting Up the samples

Cognos 8 provides sample databases for SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2 that contain sales and

Marketing information for a fictional company named the Great Outdoors. You can use Cognos

Sample packages and reports to help you learn how to use Cognos 8, including Framework Manager and Metric
Designer.

Restore Backup Files for the Samples Databases

To use the samples, you must restore backup files for the samples databases. This action re-creates multilingual
versions of the Great Outdoors databases.

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The following sample databases and associated files are provided with Cognos 8. For SQL Server and Oracle, each
database is delivered as a Microsoft SQL Server backup file and an Oracle export file (.dmp). For DB2, the database
schemas are delivered in a DB2 move file. The files are compressed, and you must extract them before you can
restore the databases or schemas.

Extracts all files to one folder

Copy gs_or_modify.sql and Event_Studio_ELM_Agent_Modify_GOSALES.sql

to c: drive

EXECUTE @C:\gs_or_modify.sql

EXECUTE @C:\Event_Studio_ELM_Agent_Modify_GOSALES.sql

Note—This two execute statements are used for granting of dba permissions.

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Open command prompt and go to the location where you have extracted *.dmp
files.

Note—Please provide a instance before selecting the import process (Ex-

GOSALES.dmp@prabir).this is done basically to avoid the error (Import
terminated abruptly).Follow this step only if u get the mentioned error.

C:\Documents and Settings\ASHISSHA\Desktop\COGNOS 8\SAMPLES.dmp.files>

imp

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Enter user name GOSALESDW

Password: GOSALESDW

Enter file name: GOSALESDW.dmp

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Repeat the same with all other *dmp files

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Note---Restoring of the database is basically done to create the tables in the oracle database where
the

Following five users has been created.

 GOSALES (For Gosales Query).

 GOSALESDW (For Gosales Dataware house Query).
 GOSALESRT (For Retailers Query).
 GOSALESHR (For Human Resource Query).
 GOSALESMR (For Market Research Query).

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Installation of Cognos with SQL Server 2005.

Cognos___Sqlserver
_installation_and_configuration.pdf

Configuration of Audit

Setup Audit Database:

1. Create database/schema to be used to collect logs from Cognos8. Follow the steps of
Create the Content Store in the Installation and Configuration Guide. These
steps are specific to the type of database being used.
2. Open the Cognos Configuration.
3. Right-click on Logging->New resource->Destination.
4. Type a name for example Audit. From the Type dropdown select Database and click
OK.
5. Right-click on Audit (or the name that was given in step 4) and New resource-
>Database.
6. Type a name and from the Type dropdown select they type of database that is used for
auditing. See step 1 above.
7. Select the name that is created in step 6 and enter the connection parameters of the
database in the Properties window.
8. Save the Cognos Configuration and restart the Service.

This will create tables required to collect Audit data.

Setup Logging Level:

1. Log in to Cognos Connection as member of System Administrators.

2. From the Tools menu select Server Administration.
3. On the Configure tab click on Properties on the tool bar (top right).
4. On the Settings tab, click on Category dropdown list and select Logging.
5. From the Value dropdown list select Request for all the Logging categories.

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6. Check the box of Audit the native query for batch report service and Audit the
native query for report service.
7. Check the box of Delete the configuration settings of all child entries and click
OK.

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Import of Audit samples:

There is a deployment package Cognos_Audit.zip for sample audit reports in

installation_location/webcontent/samples/content directory and FrameworkManager
model Audit.cpf in installation_location/webcontent/samples/Models/Audit directory.

To edit the package, open the Audit.cpf in Framework Manager.

To deploy the Cognos_Audit.zip follow these steps:

1. Copy the Cognos_Audit.zip file from the c8_location/webcontent/samples/content

directory to the directory where your deployment archives are saved.
2. The default location is c8_location/deployment. The location is set in the Cognos
Configuration tool.
3. For information about changing the location, see the configuration tool online help.
4. Open Cognos Connection.
5. In the upper-right corner, click Tools, Content Administration.
6. On the toolbar, click the new import button.
7. The New Import wizard appears.
8. On the toolbar, click the new import button.
9. The New Import wizard appears.
10. In the Deployment Archive box, select Cognos_Audit and click Next.
11. Type a unique name and an optional description and screen tip for the deployment
archive,
12. Select the folder where you want to save it, and then click Next.
13. In the Public Folders Content box, select Audit and click Next.
14. In the Set the owner to: option selects The user performing the import and click
Next.
15. Click Next and then Finish.
16. Click Run and then OK.

Set Up the Sample Report Usage Audit Report

The report usage audit report lists reports by frequency of use. Before it can be used, it
must be setup.

Steps

1. Make a backup copy of web.xml located at c8_location/webapps/p2pd/WEB-INF

directory.
2. In a text editor, open the web.xml file located at c8_location/webapps/p2pd/WEB-
INF, and add the following XML fragment:

<servlet>

<servlet-name>DSServlet</servlet-name>

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<servlet-class>com.cognos.demo.DSServlet</servlet-class>

</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>

<servlet-name>DSServlet</servlet-name>

<url-pattern>/cognos/DSServlet.jsp</url-pattern>

</servlet-mapping>

Note that there two sections in the above xml snippet. The <servlet> section of the above
snippet should be added just below the <servlet> section in web.xml. The <servlet-mapping>
snippet should be added just below the <servlet-mapping> section in web.xml. Otherwise
errors will be displayed in tomcat. The Cognos8 will still function.

3. If you do not have the following directory on your system, create it:
c8_location/webapps/p2pd/web-inf/classes/com/cognos/demo.
4. Copy the file build.bat for Windows or build.sh for UNIX located in
c8_location/webapps/Audit to c8_location/webapps/p2pd/WEB-
INF/classes/com/cognos/demo.
5. Edit the build file to ensure the JAVA_HOME definition points to your JDK and ensure
the CRN_HOME definition points to your Cognos 8 location. If JDK is not installed
on the server, then download and install it.
6. If it is not already there, copy the DSServlet.java file from the
c8_location/webapps/Audit directory to c8_location/webapps/p2pd/web-
inf/classes/com/cognos/demo.
7. Do one of the following in the DSServlet.java file:
 If you are allowing anonymous logon, comment out the following line:
binding.logon (...)
 If you are not allowing anonymous logon, make sure that the username,
password, and namespace are correct and uncomment the following line:
binding.logon (...)

The following snippet of code in DSServlet.java needs to be modified to reflect the corrent
username, password, namespace and the dispatcher URI.

String userName = "username";

String password = "password";

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String namespace = "namespaceID";

String endpoint = "http://localhost:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch/";

Since this is the user which will be used to run the servlet to get the report usage information,
the username should be a member of System Administrator’s group in Cognos Connection.

The namespaceID can be obtained from Cognos Configuration. NamespaceID should be used
and not the name of namespace.

8. At a command prompt, run build.bat or build.sh from

c8_location/webapps/p2pd/WEB-INF/classes/com/cognos/demo.
9. Restart Cognos 8 and open Cognos Connection.
10.Set the connection string by doing the following:
 Click Tools, Directory, and then click the Data Sources tab.
 Next to your data source, click More.
 Click View connections.
 Click Set properties, and then click the Connection tab.
 Under Type, select XML.
 In the Connection string field, enter the connection string. If you used the
defaults, the connection string is
http://localhost:9300/p2pd/cognos/DSServlet.jsp.

Note that DSServlet.jsp is not physically created on the drive. However, the
data source connection is pointed to this URI.

11. Restart the Cognos8 service.

Logon to Cognos Connection. Now you should be able to run any Audit reports. That
is if the user has read and executes privileges on these reports.

Introduction (Logging For Auditing)

Most people are familiar with, or at least aware of, Cognos 8 logging. By
Default, plain text log files are created under the <c8_install>\logs
Directory. These logs contain various categories of information, and are often
used for identifying errors within the Cognos 8 environment. The level of
detail logged can be controlled, for example a system that is running well

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may have a low level of detail, but when tracing an issue, such as unexpected
error messages or performance problems, then the logging level may be
increased to include diagnostic information that is not usually of concern.
Logging does not need to be exclusively for troubleshooting, by extracting
key information, the data can also be used for Auditing purposes – that is
tracking the activity taking place on the system. Some of benefits of auditing
usage include:
• Planning down time by identifying quiet periods.
• Justifying additional infrastructure requirements.
• Performance monitoring.
• License conformance.
• Identifying unused content.
To facilitate easier access to this kind of information, Cognos 8 allows logging
to be directed to a relational database where it can be easily queried.

Note—By default cognos provides 10 MB of log file. One can change the
size of the log file as per requirement. Once the log file is full cognos itself
creates a log file of 10 MB by default.

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Note---As shown in the above diagram one can delete the existing audit
and create its own auditing database.

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Note –As shown in the above diagram one need to provide the
configuration details in the value field .

Turning on logging to the Database

Configuring the database connection

In Cognos Configuration, under Environment | Logging right-click and

select New resource>Destination of the type Database and set up the
connection to your chosen database accordingly.

The auditing database is populated via a JDBC connection by the Content

Manager Service - similarly to Content Manager and Notification databases.
If you are using a different database for collecting the audit data (SQL
Server, Oracle, DB2 and Sybase are supported) to that of the data stores,
then ensure that the appropriate JDBC drivers are available.

After saving the settings and starting Cognos 8, examining the specified the
database you should see the following tables created. If they are not, check
the cogserver.log file to see if any errors are indicated.

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Setting the Logging Level

The logging level is set in Cognos Connection under Server

Administration. The properties for each Dispatcher should be set to Basic
for each component.

The logging levels are not stored in a Cognos 8 Deployment Archive, even if

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Select the entire Content Store is chosen. If auditing reports are

developed in a test environment and deployed to production, ensure that the
logging level is set appropriately in all installations.

Note—There are basically five types of logging levels.

 Minimal(It records only minimal entries).

 Basic(It records basic entries Ex-User logon).
 Request(It records as per user request).
 Trace(It records native queries).
 Full(It records full entries Ex--Click).

Details About Logging Level

The logging levels are set to specify the events and messages to record in the log
file or in the log database. A different logging level can be set for each dispatcher
service.
In Cognos 8 there are 5 different logging levels: Minimal, Basic, Request, Trace,
Full.

Attached below is a list of logging events by a level:

1. System and service startup and shutdown, runtime errors - logged on all 5
levels
2. User account management, runtime usage of IBM Cognos 8, use requests -
Basic, Request, Trace, Full (all except Minimal)
3. Service requests and responses - Request, Full
4. All requests to all components with parameter values, native queries - Trace, Full

Use of DS Servlet

Information is logged as actions occur, for example, when a user logs in and
runs a report; the log in event is stored, along with the report execution
details. This allows activities to traced, but what if we want to trace
something that DOESN’T happen? Specifically, there may be a desire to
discover content that is not being used – the very fact that a report is never
accessed means that it will never appear in the audit files.

To allow this information to be obtained, a small SDK application is provided

with Cognos 8 that queries Content Manager and provides a list of content.
The information is returned in the XML format that can be consumed by

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Cognos 8 as a data source.

Description Of Auditing Tables

1. COGIPF_ACTION: Stores information about the operation performed on an object.

2. COGIPF_USERLOGON: Stores user logon (including log off) information.
3. COGIPF_NATIVEQUERY: Stores information about third-party queries to Cognos
components.
4. COGIPF_PARAMETER: Stores custom information logged by a component.
5. COGIPF_RUNJOB: Stores information about job requests.
6. COGIPF_RUNJOBSTEP: Stores information about job request steps.
7. COGIPF_RUNREPORT: Stores information about report executions.
8. COGIPF_VIEWREPORT: Stores information about report view requests.
9. COGIPF_SYSPROPS: Stores version information about the schema for upgrade
purposes.
10. COGIPF_EDITQUERY: Stores information about query runs.
11. COGIPF_AGENTBUILD: Stores information about agent mail delivery.
12. COGIPF_AGENTRUN: Stores information about agent activity including tasks and
delivery.
13. COGIPF_THRESHOLD _VIOLATIONS: Stores information about threshold violations
for system
metrics.

Security in Cognos 8

There are basically 6 types of security in cognos that we can configure according to
the recording.

1. Active Directory Server

2. IBM Cognos Series 7
3. ETrust SiteMinder
4. LDAP
5. NTLM
6. SAP

NTLM Security—This is windows enabled security. To enable this one need to select the security option in cognos
configuration and change the parameters accordingly.

1. One need to create users with userid and password in windows and those users will have
the cognos access through cognos.

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2. For creating new system users and server users go to Cognos administrator and then add the users and delete the
everyone group.

Note--Please refer the image below

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Note—As shown in the above diagram in the default security cognos the
Allow anonymous users must be set to false after creating the security
otherwise NTLM or other securities will not work.

Configure an IBM Cognos Series 7 Namespace 

You can configure IBM Cognos 8 to use one or more IBM Cognos Series 7 namespaces for
authentication.

Steps

1. On every computer where you installed Content Manager, open IBM Cognos
Configuration.

2. In the Explorer window, under Security, right-click Authentication, and then click
New resource, Namespace.

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3. In the Name box, type a name for your authentication namespace.

4. In the Type list, click the appropriate namespace and then click OK.

The new authentication provider resource appears in the Explorer window, under the
Authentication component.

5. In the Properties window, for the Namespace ID property, specify a unique

identifier for the namespace.

6. Specify the values for all other required properties to ensure that IBM Cognos 8
components can locate and use your existing authentication provider.

If your IBM Cognos Series 7 namespace version is 16.0, ensure that the Data
encoding property is set to UTF-8. In addition, the computers where Content Manager
is installed must use the same locale as the data in the IBM Cognos Series 7
namespace.

The host value can be a computer name or an IP address. If you are publishing from
PowerPlay Enterprise Server to IBM Cognos 8, you must use the same value format
used in IBM Cognos Series 7 Configuration Manager for the location of the directory
server. For example, if the computer name is used in IBM Cognos Series 7
Configuration Manager, you must also use the computer name in IBM Cognos
Configuration for IBM Cognos 8.

7. If your namespace environment includes version 15.2 of the IBM Cognos Series 7
namespace, you must disable the Series7NamespacesAreUnicode setting.

 In the Properties window, in the Advanced Properties value, click the edit
button.

 In the Value - Advanced properties window, click Add.

 In the Name box, type Series7NamespacesAreUnicode.

 In the Value box, type False, and then click OK.

8. In the Properties window, under Cookie settings, ensure that the Path, Domain,
and Secure flag enabled properties match the settings configured for IBM Cognos
Series 7.

9. From the File menu, click Save.

10. Test the connection to a new namespace. In the Explorer window, under
Authentication, right-click the new authentication resource and click Test.

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Notification in Cognos

1. Notification in cognos is basically used for sending the mail to the users or the
client.

2. As shown in the above diagram, on the right hand side of the window one has to
provide SMTP mail server For Example Smtp server for gmail is smtp.gmail.com.

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3. In the account and password field provide the gmail userid and password and in
the default sender provide the email id Ex—prabirsingh52@gmail.com.

4. Before creating the notification one has the configure the outlook as per the
requirement.

5. For configuring the outlook 2003 one need to manually provide the port number
for SMTP and POP3 server. For outlook 2007 the configuration is automatic.

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6. By default the SMTP server for Gmail is 587 and pop3 server is 995(SSL).

7. As shown in the figure click more settings and in the connection tab provide the
port numbers for SMTP and pop3.

8. Before applying test account settings.

Memory Allocation in cognos

There are basically there types of memory configuration in cognos

 Small Configuration.
 Medium Configuration.
 Large Configuration.

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1. The default memory, set in cognos is 768 byte. Depending upon the requirement
one can set the different memory allocation.

Note—Refer the link (http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21386665)

How to save scheduled reports to a location on the local or network file

system

Steps:
   1.  In Cognos Connection, click the Server Administration link.

   2.  In the Server Administration page, under Type, click the Services radio button and

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then choose Content Manager in the drop-down menu. The Content Manager service
appears below the drop-down menu.
   3.  Under the Actions column, click the set properties button.
   4.  Click the Settings tab.

   5.  Under the Value column, click Edit.

   6.  In the Set advanced settings - ContentManagerService page, select the Override
the settings acquired from the parent entry check box. A table appears, in which you
can add parameters.

   7.  Under Parameter, click in a cell and type

          CM.OUTPUTLOCATION

   8.  In the corresponding Value cell, type the file system location where you want to
store report outputs.  Note:  for the network file system, use a UNC Path, eg:
\\hostname\share_folders, instead of a mapped drivename.

The full file names of the output file and descriptor are passed to the script.  For example,
c:\reportnet\146_1062107695000.pdf
c:\reportnet\146_1062107695000_desc.xml.

   9.  Click OK.

For Cognos 8 MR2 or above, the following steps are also required:
   1.  On the computer where you installed Content Manager, start Cognos Configuration.
   2.  In the Explorer window, under Data Access, click Content Manager.
   3.  In the Save report outputs to a file system box, click True or False. (by default
this is "false")
   4.  From the File menu, click Save.
   5.  Restart the Cognos 8 service.

Steps to change from using CGI to ISAPI

Steps:

1. Open Cognos Configuration on each install that contains the Application Tier.

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2. Click the Environment node.

3. Change the Gateway URI setting to referencece cognosisapi.dll instead of cognos.cgi

like in the following example:

http://servername:80/c8/cgi-bin/cognosisapi.dll

4. In the /webcontent directory of each gateway install, open the default.htm and the
index.htm files with an HTML or text editor and in both files, change the following:

url=cgi-bin/cognos.cgi? etc...

To:

url=cgi-bin/cognosisapi.dll? etc...

Note: if you copied these two files from the ISAPI folder, you will need to remove the "../"
from the beginning of the URL (this is only relevant while that file resides in the subfolder)

5. In Cognos Configuration, save your settings and restart your services.

6. Open your browser and enter the following in your address bar:

Customization of Cognos UI

Please refer the document below

customizing_the_cog
nos_8_ui.pdf

Configuration, Load balancing and set up of Multiple

dispatchers

Please refer the documents below

ibm_cognos8_failove
r_and_load_balancing.pdf

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Cognos Audit Extension:

Introduction
Purpose
The standard auditing features that come out of the box with IBM Cognos BI cover many
aspects of operation. However, some areas such as the auditing of users and capability
assignments are not included. The aim of the c8AuditExtension application is to provide
additional auditing for these areas.
The application currently covers the following:
Account Audit
An audit of all the user accounts that are found in all configured namespaces and certain
properties of those accounts (basic details, portal pages, created and modified dates etc.).
This allows reporting on the Cognos user base and provides additional information to go
with the role/capability audit. This type of audit will also by default record the content of
users’ My Folders.
Content Audit
An audit of all the objects that exist in the main Content Store. This audit will process
through the content store tree and log all the objects (folders, reports, queries, etc.) that
it finds. It will log the basic information (such as name, search path, object permissions,
created and modified date), as well as some details more specific to the item types (such
as the specification XML of reports and queries, any saved parameter values applied to
saved reports and the details of report output versions).
In order to also record the items in the Content Store that are located inside individual
users’ My Folders areas, this audit type should be used in conjunction with the Account
Audit (see above).
Status Audit
An audit of the current state of a server and related dispatchers. For each dispatcher
registered in the target system, the configuration and activity will be logged, saving
information such as time taken to connect, number of active processes and request
duration.
Usage
The application is managed via a web front end that allows the configuration of server and
namespace information and can be used to turn on or off individual audit types for a given
server.
Audits can be initiated in three ways,

 via the management web interface

 via a simple URL/web form call
 via a web services call (i.e. from Event Studio)

The results of each audit are logged to a database and an IBM Cognos Framework
Manager model is provided to help report off the data.
Applicability
This application is designed for IBM Cognos 8 BI versions 8.1 MR1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.4.1
and makes use of the IBM Cognos 8 BI SDK to communicate with the various IBM Cognos

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8 BI components. It is also intended to interact with any third party application that can
issue commands via web services.
Limited support is also provided for IBM Cognos ReportNet 1.1 servers, although
differences in product features mean that not all audit features are supported.
Exclusions and Exceptions
This application may not be compatible with all Custom Authentication Providers,
depending on the implementation of the provider – for example, it generally expects a
provider/namespace to require a simple username and password to log on - where a
custom provider uses some other form of credential, the audit extension may be unable to
authenticate to that namespace to audit it. This does not affect trusted signon type
custom providers, providing that the underlying provider can be authenticated to in the
normal way.
The supported databases for the application are,

 DB2 8.1 and 9.x

 MS SQL Server 2000 and 2005
 Oracle 10g
 MySQL 5
 Apache Derby 10

The Status audit depends on some information provided by the IBM Cognos 8 server that
is subject to change and may be affected by future upgrades of IBM Cognos 8.
This application will only work within a JRE 1.5 or above. An appropriate JRE is provided
with installations of IBM Cognos 8 BI versions 8.3 and above.
Usage, support and feedback
This application should only be supplied to customers as part of a suitable Services
package to ensure successful implementation and interpretation of the results.
The application and model are provided on a strictly "as is" basis and IBM Cognos Support
is not able to offer any support for it. However, any feedback, bug reports or suggestions
are welcomed.

Application Details
Process overview and architecture
The application is a web application and web service written in Java/AXIS. It is intended to
be installed on an IBM Cognos 8 machine, running in either the IBM Cognos 8 Tomcat
instance or its own application server.
After installation, the application will create its own database tables if they do not already
exist and present an interface to allow the administrator to enter the details of IBM
Cognos 8 servers and namespaces. Generally only one server entry would be used for
each group of IBM Cognos 8 servers that makes use of the same Content Store. However,
separate server entries are often used for different functional groups such as Production
and Development.
The application can be secured from the management interface by defining a local
password which will subsequently be required to access the interface or run audits. The
reason a local password is used rather than tying to IBM Cognos 8 security is that the
application can interact with multiple IBM Cognos 8 installations, so there is no one IBM
Cognos 8 security namespace to tie it to.

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When the administrator enters the details of a new IBM Cognos 8 Dispatcher, the
application will connect to that Dispatcher and gather details of the configured security
namespaces. These details will be added to the properties page for that Dispatcher and
made ready for editing. It is essential that an entry exists, complete with valid login
details, for every namespace that is used for object security or capability assignment in
the Content Store so that they can be audited. This is because the application needs to be
able to authenticate to the namespace in order to audit its contents. If the application
cannot authenticate to a namespace that is used for object security or users, then its
objects cannot be audited. If multiple namespaces are specified in a single server entry,
authentication to all namespaces must be made otherwise the application will terminate
the audit run.
Namespace login details will be encrypted and stored in the application database.

Installation
The application is deployed as a WAR file that can be used with any suitable servlet
container or application server such as IBM WebSphere. You must first build the WAR file
within your IBM Cognos 8 installation using the supplied scripts and then deploy this file
to your server.
The procedures outlined in this document cover deploying the application into the Tomcat
servlet container that is normally installed with an IBM Cognos 8 server. Consult the
documentation of the specific application server/servlet container for instructions on
deploying a WAR file into alternative destinations.
Generally speaking, it is desirable for a production environment to run this application
within its own Tomcat or WAS instance. Please refer to the documentation of Tomcat,
WAS or other application server for details on how to deploy a web application.
The process for installation is as follows,

 Unpack the installation to an IBM Cognos 8 server

 Customise any files that you wish to modify
 Import any third party JDBC drivers that you intend to use
 Build the WAR file
 Deploy the WAR file to an application server or servlet container
 Configure the application using the web user interface.

Unpack the installation and copy to a IBM Cognos 8 server

Unpack the zip file containing the Audit Extension application to a suitable temporary
location. This contains two main folders,
reporting
This folder contains materials to allow you to report on the Audit Extension output in Cognos 8 and
contains a Framework Manager model and a Cognos 8 deployment archive. You do not need to do
anything with this at this stage.

war

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This folder contains the application itself, in a subdirectory named AuditExt. You need to use this to
build the WAR file.

Take the war/AuditExt directory and place it in your IBM Cognos 8 installation directory
under <c8install>/war. For example,

At this point, you can customise the application before building the WAR file. The default
settings should be fine for most users, but if you need to make any changes to the
configuration settings in the c8AuditExtension.properties file (see section 3.6) or the
logging settings in the log4j.properties file (see section 5.1), the files are located in the
<c8install>/war/AuditExt/classes directory.

Install any required JDBC drivers

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If you are using an IBM DB2 or Apache Derby database to store the Audit Extension data,
you will not need to install any additional JDBC drivers, as the DB2 Universal Driver is
included in the distribution. If you plan to use Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL or Oracle then
you will need to obtain the correct driver file and install it.

 The SQL Server driver file is sqljdbc.jar and can be obtained from,
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6D483869-816A-44CB-9787-
A866235EFC7C&displaylang=en
or
http://tinyurl.com/sqljdbc

 The Oracle driver file is ojdbc14.jar and can be obtained from either your Oracle installation or
from,
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/java/sqlj_jdbc/htdocs/jdbc_10201.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/ojdbc

You may also need to obtain orai18n.jar if using a non-English locale.

 The MySQL driver file is mysql-connector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar and can be obtained from,

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/5.1.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/mysqljdbc

Once you have obtained the correct jar file(s) for your database, place them in the
<c8install>/war/AuditExt/lib directory. For example, the illustration below shows the
Microsoft SQL Server driver being added,

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If you do not install the correct driver at this stage, the application will warn you when
you attempt to first configure the database.
Build and deploy the WAR file
Build the war file by running the <c8install>/war/AuditExt/build.bat (Windows) or
<c8install>/war/AuditExt/build.sh (UNIX/Linux) script.

This will create the WAR file <c8install>/war/AuditExt/AuditExt.war. Place this file in the
<c8install>/webapps directory,

After a short time, the IBM Cognos 8 Tomcat server will automatically unpack the WAR
file,

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The application is now ready to be configured.

Configure via UI
Access the web administration URL at http://servername:9300/AuditExt/. A screen
prompting for database connection details will be presented.

The c8AuditExtension application can use either an existing IBM Cognos 8 audit database
or a separate database created specifically for this application. It is strongly recommended
not to use a database that is already in use for a IBM Cognos 8 Content Store.
IMPORTANT: The database specified in the Database name field must already exist prior
to connecting. The application will create the necessary tables under this database.
The process of creating and populating database tables may take some time, depending
on the speed of the server. Once OK has been clicked, wait for the screen to refresh
before continuing – do not click OK more than once.
Database preparation
To prepare the database for use by this application, you should configure it in the same as
described in the IBM Cognos Installation and Configuration Guide as if it were being used
for a Content Store. You may also use a standard IBM Cognos 8 audit logging database,
which should also have been configured in this way.
IMPORTANT: For DB2, you must create an additional regular user tablespace with a
page size of 16 KB. If you are using a database that has already been set up for IBM
Cognos 8 audit logging, you may already have done this.

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IMPORTANT: For Oracle, you may need to increase the maximum number of open
cursors supported by the database. The default is 50, which will probably be insufficient
for this application – a more suitable value would be 500. For more information see
http://www.orafaq.com/node/758.
Reconfiguration
To reconfigure the main database connection, click on the Reset configuration link on the
Manage Servers page. This allows for the re-entry of the database connection details.
Alternatively, the main database connection can be reset manually by following these
steps,

 Stop the IBM Cognos 8 service

 Edit the file <c8install>/webapps/AuditExt/WEB-INF/classes/c8AuditExtension.properties
 Re-set the JDBC connection details as follows,

# JDBC connection details:

jdbc.url=
jdbc.user=
jdbc.password=


 Restart IBM Cognos 8.

When IBM Cognos 8 is restarted and the administration URL is accessed again, the screen
prompting for the JDBC connection details will be presented.
Configuration file reference
The main configuration file is called c8AuditExtension.properties and can be found at
<c8install>/webapps/AuditExt/WEB-INF/classes. This configuration file contains the
following parameters,
jdbc.url

jdbc.user

jdbc.password
Connection details for the database used by the audit extension application. These are generated by the
application configuration interface and should not be edited manually, except to reset to empty values
for reconfiguration. Note that the password is stored in an encrypted format.

option.ca.include.specifications
A Content Audit option that determines if the audit should record the specification XML of any
reports/queries/analyses that it finds. Possible values are true and false. The default value is true. If this
parameter is set to false, less database space will be used.

option.ca.include.output
A Content Audit option that determines if the audit should record details of report versions and outputs
for report objects that it finds. Possible values are true and false. The default value is true. If this
parameter is set to false, less database space will be used and the audit may run faster.

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option.ca.max.items
A Content Audit option that limits the maximum number of items that will be processed by the audit. If
the number is exceeded, the audit is terminated and recorded as a failure. The default value is 0 (zero)
which means no limit will be applied.

option.ca.max.duration
A Content Audit option that limits the maximum length of time, in seconds, that the audit should be run
for. If this time is exceeded, the audit is terminated and recorded as a failure. If it is set to a value of 0
(zero), no time limit will be applied. The default value is 900 (15 minutes).

option.ca.policy.calculation
A Content Audit option that determines whether security policy calculation should be done in FM.
Possible values are true and false. If set to false, the calculation will instead be done at runtime. The
default value is true meaning there will be no calculation done at runtime.

option.aa.max.items
An Account Audit option that limits the maximum number of items that will be processed by the audit. If
the number is exceeded, the audit is terminated and recorded as a failure. If it is set to a value of zero,
no limit will be applied. The default value is 10000.

option.aa.max.duration
An Account Audit option that limits the maximum length of time, in seconds, that the audit should be
run for. If this time is exceeded, the audit is terminated and recorded as a failure. If it is set to a value of
0 (zero), no time limit will be applied. The default value is 900 (15 minutes).

option.aa.include.content
An Account Audit option that determines if the audit should process the content of users’ My Folders. If
set, this will cause a mini-Content Audit to be run for each user’s content where it exists. Possible values
are true and false. The default value is true.

option.sa.include.configuration
A Status Audit option that determines if the audit should record the configuration information of
dispatchers. This includes such information as the maximum number of processes. Possible values are
true and false. The default value is true. If this parameter is set to false, less database space will be used.

option.sa.include.rawstatus
A Status Audit option that specifies if the audit should record the raw status XML of services that the
audit finds. Possible values are true and false. The default value is true. If this parameter is set to false,
less database space will be used.

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option.sa.include.ping
A Status Audit option that specifies if the audit should perform additional basic network tests on the
dispatchers registered with a server. Possible values are true and false. The default value is true.

security.keystore.filename
The location of the keystore file that is used for security. If the file does not exist at this location, a new
one will be generated. Note that this must be a writeable location otherwise the application will fail. The
default value will place the keystore in the configuration directory of the IBM Cognos 8 installation using
a relative file path. If this application was deployed anywhere other than the Tomcat servlet container
that was installed with IBM Cognos 8, this value will need to be edited.

option.db.setdefault.audittypes
A database option that determines if the application should reset the audit type descriptions in the
database to their default values if they have changed. Possible values are true and false. The default
value is false.

option.db.setdefault.statusresulttypes
A database option that determines if the application should reset the status result type descriptions in
the database to their default values if they have changed. Possible values are true and false. The default
value is false.

option.db.setdefault.serverversiondesc
A database option that determines if the application should reset the server version descriptions in the
database to their default values if they have changed. Possible values are true and false. The default
value is false.

option.db.setdefault.pingtypev
A database option that determines if the application should reset the ping test type descriptions in the
database to their default values if they have changed. Possible values are true and false. The default
value is false.

option.db.setdefault.pingresult
A database option that determines if the application should reset the ping test result descriptions in the
database to their default values if they have changed. Possible values are true and false. The default
value is false.

option.db.dimension.time.populate
A database option that determines if the application should fully populate the time dimension table
when the table is created on first startup. Note that any missing times will be added when the audit for
that time runs, so pre-population is not required, although it is considered better for reporting purposes.
Possible values are true and false. The default value is true.

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option.db.dimension.date.initdays
A database option that specifies the number of days (starting from the current date) to pre-populate in
the date dimension table when it creates it on first startup. Note that any missing dates will be added
when the audit for that time runs, so full pre-population is not required, although it is considered better
for reporting purposes. The default value is 730 (2 years).

option.db.maxbatch
An option that specifies the maximum number of items that should be processed before a database
write. This applies to all audit types and is designed to reduce overall memory consumption for very
large audits. The default value is 2000.

option.db.random-audit-id
An option that controls whether the database ID generated for each audit should be a pseudo-random
number (a value of true) or sequential (a value of false). The default value is false.

Considerations for deploying into another application server

As noted above, if installing into a heavily used production environment, or if your IBM
Cognos 8 installation uses a JRE older than 1.5, you should consider installing into another
servlet container. This could be a standalone Tomcat instance
(http://tomcat.apache.org/download-55.cgi), or a full application server such as the IBM
WebSphere Application Server.
Generally, the procedure is as simple as deploying any web application – in the case of
Tomcat, you can just drop the WAR file in the webapps directory as you would with IBM
Cognos 8. There are two file path considerations to make though,

1. In WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties, the log file name is specified using a relative path,

../logs/c8AuditExtension.log. While this works with IBM Cognos 8, you may need to change this
to either a different relative path or a fully qualified path such as C:/logs/c8AuditExtension.log.
2. The file WEB-INF/classes/lc8AuditExtension.properties contains a relative path in the
security.keystore.filename property (../configuration/c8AuditExtension.keystore). Verify that this
path works in your environment and if necessary update it. Remember to use forward slashes
for the pathname.

Another alternative configuration is to install into a dedicated IBM Cognos 8 installation.

As the audit extension can communicate with multiple IBM Cognos 8 servers and not just
the one it is installed in, you could have a dedicated IBM Cognos 8 instance for running
this audit and reporting off it. Verify your licensing to determine is this is a viable
alternative.
Removal and reinstallation
To uninstall the application, stop IBM Cognos 8 and delete the following,

 the <c8install>/webapps/AuditExt.war file

 the <c8install>/webapps/AuditExt directory

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Optionally, the keystore file can also be deleted. By default, the keystore file is located at
<c8install>/configuration/c8AuditExtension.keystore but this location will be different if
the application has been deployed outside of the Tomcat servlet container installed with
IBM Cognos 8.
IMPORTANT: If the keystore file is deleted or the application is installed on another machine without
copying the keystore file to the new machine, it will no longer be possible to access saved passwords
and there may be errors running and administering audits.

Optionally, delete the database tables created by the application can be deleted. The
database tables are all prefixed with "AE_".

Back to top

Using The Application

Manage servers
After the application has been configured, the main interface is the Manage Servers page,
which is accessed via http://servername:9300/AuditExt/. The initial Manage Servers page
will contain no servers.

Add a server

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From the Manage Servers page, add a new server entry by filling in the fields beside the
label Add new server and clicking the Add button. The fields to fill in are,
ID: A text identifier for the server. This could be a hostname or simple identifier like "PrimaryServer". As
the value of this identifier may be used to refer to the server for commands, it is suggested that this
value be a simple, short string with only standard characters. URL: The URL the application will use to
connect to IBM Cognos 8. This URL could either be directly to a IBM Cognos 8 Dispatcher or to a
dedicated gateway for IBM Cognos 8 SDK applications. Version: The IBM Cognos 8 version running on
the server.

Once a new server has been added successfully, the properties page for that apply to the
IBM Cognos 8 server just added will automatically be shown.

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Any namespaces that have been configured for the new server will have been
automatically added to the properties page without passwords.
NOTE: If using this application in a test or development environment and Anonymous access has been
enabled on the IBM Cognos 8 instance, the configured namespaces will not automatically appear.
Configured namespaces can be added manually by filling in the fields under the label Add new
namespace login.

When a new server has been added, the Manage Servers page will contain a list of all the
servers that can be audited by this application.

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Delete a server
A server can be deleted from the Manage Servers page. To delete a server, click the
Delete Server icon next to the server entry. A page will appear asking the user to confirm
or cancel the deletion. If confirmed, the Manage Servers screen will reappear with the
deleted server removed from the list.
Manage server namespaces
For each server, namespaces can be managed from the properties page of the specified
server. If a new server has just been added, the properties page will be displayed
automatically. To access and edit the properties page for any server shown in the list on
the Manage Servers page, click the Set Properties icon beside the targeted server. The
properties page for a server will look similar to the following page,

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Before a namespace can be included in an audit, the login credentials the application is to
use must be supplied. Enter usernames and passwords one namespace at a time, clicking
the Save icon next to that namespace entry after each one. If an attempt is made to save
multiple namespace credentials at the same time, only the credentials that correspond to
the Save button that was clicked will be saved. Note that saved namespaces will display
the saved user but will never display the saved password.
For any unwanted namespaces, they should be deleted these by clicking the Delete Login
icon. An example of such a namespace is one that is used only for single signon.
To add a new namespace, enter the details in the section labelled Add new namespace
login at the bottom of the screen. The value for the Namespace ID field is the same value
that is specified in the Namespace ID field when the namespace was originally defined in
IBM Cognos Configuration.
When finished with the server properties page, click the Return button to go back to the
Manage Servers page.
Configure server properties and audit types
Within the server properties page, additional properties can be set for the server. The
properties are,

 Update the dispatcher URL

 Add or modify a description for the server
 Set which audit types should be run for that server

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 Apply filters to the audits

Click on the Update button to save the modified properties.

Set audit filters
For Account and Content Audits, it is possible to specify a filter to limit the scope of the
auditing to a subsection of the namespace/content store. These filters are specified in the
filter boxes of the server properties screen. If no filter is to be applied (the default), leave
the filter values empty.
The filters take the form of a series of regular expressions, separated by forward slashes
to denote folders. Usage is slightly different depending on whether it is a content or
account audit. More information about regular expressions can be found at
http://www.regular-expressions.info/.
Account Audit
The filter is assumed to start at the namespace level, so the first item in the filter will
refer to the namespace. For example, to restrict the audit to members of the Users folder
that is within Accounts, for all configured namespaces, the filter term would be,
*/Accounts/Users
The asterisk in the first item means that all namespaces will be matched. Alternatively, to
restrict the audit to the same set of folders but also restrict to just the namespace with
the ID "ADNamespace", the filter term would be,
ADNamespace/Accounts/Users
The following filter would be slightly less restrictive and pick up all items under Accounts
for all namespaces,
*/Accounts
Any regular expression can be used. However, it is important to remember that the ‘/’
character is a special case and will be treated as a folder separator.
Content Audit
The filter is assumed to start from the top content (package) level. For example, the
following filter would restrict the content to everything within the "GO Sales and Retailers"
package,
GO Sales and Retailers
To restrict it further to the "Report Studio Report Samples" folder within that package, the
filter would be,
GO Sales and Retailers/Report Studio Report Samples
To limit the content audit to all packages that start with "GO", use the following,
GO*
Note that the filter is case sensitive.
Set security
As stated earlier, the application uses its own security mechanism. Click the Set admin
password link on the main Manage Servers page to specify the password required to run
the application.

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After a password has been set, users will be prompted to enter it in order to access the
application.

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Run audits via web interface

To run an audit via the web interface, go to the Manage Servers page. Each server entry
has a Run button that will cause the configured audits to be run for that server. To run the
audit for all configured servers, click on the Execute button next to the All servers field.
Run audits via URL
To run an audit for a server ID using a URL use the following syntax,
http://servername:9300/AuditExt/AuditServlet?action=run_audit&server_id=serverId

To run an audit for all servers specified in the Manage Servers page using a URL use the
following syntax,
http://servername:9300/AuditExt/AuditServlet?action=run_audit&server_id=serverId

Run audits via web service call

The WSDL for the web services interface can be found at the URL,
http://servername:9300/AuditExt/services/AuditService?wsdl

There are two methods available in the web services interface:

 runAudit – Takes one parameter, the server ID, and runs the configured audits for that server.
 runAuditAll – Takes no parameters and runs the configured audits for all servers.

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This web service can be called from any application but an example will be presented here
that uses Event Studio to create a IBM Cognos 8 agent that will call the web service
interface to run an audit. The example will use the sample package that accompanies this
application.
When Event Studio is invoked to create a new agent, the first screen that appears is
Specify an event condition… Use a measure in the model that is known to be greater than
zero or non-null. This will force the event condition to be true and the agent will be
guaranteed to run on demand or as scheduled.

From the "Add a Task" list, select Advanced > Call a Web service…

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Enter the URL to the WSDL and click on the Retrieve button to get the available methods.

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In this instance, the runAudit method has been selected. Enter a previously configured
server ID as the serverIdentifier argument.

Save the agent.

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The agent can now be scheduled using IBM Cognos Connection and the IBM Cognos 8
scheduling service.
Sample deployment
An IBM Cognos 8 deployment archive consisting of a package containing some sample
reports and agents created against the sample Framework Manager model is provided
with this application. The sample deployment and model are contained within the file
AuditExt_reporting_ver_yyyymmdd.zip, where the ver portion of the name is the
version(s) of IBM Cognos 8 to use and the yyyymmdd portion of the name represents the
date the reporting package was released.
To import the sample deployment so that it can be used by the IBM Cognos 8 studios,

 Copy the file AuditExt_deployment_ver_yyyymmdd.zip to the IBM Cognos 8 deployment

directory, usually <c8_install>/deployment.
 From IBM Cognos Administration, click the Configuration tab, select Content Administration,
and click the New Import icon. Select the deployment archive named AuditExt_deployment_ver
yyyymmdd. From there, follow the instructions and options presented by the New Import

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wizard. In most instances, the default settings will suffice. Note that the internal deployment
name is Cognos_Audit_Extension.

Before the package can be used, it is necessary to create a new data source in the IBM
Cognos 8 Content Store that will interact with the audit database specified when this
application was initially installed

 From IBM Cognos Administration, click the Configuration tab and select Data Source Connection.
Click on the New Data Source icon and give the new data source the name c8_audit. From there,
follow the instructions and options presented by the New Data Source wizard to create the data
source.

The package can now be used by the IBM Cognos 8 studios.

Sample Framework Manager model
A sample Framework Manager model is also supplied with the application as a basis for
further development. The sample model is provided in the file
AuditExt_model_yyyymmdd.zip where the yyyymmdd portion of the name represents the
date the model was released.
Before this model can be used, a data source named c8_audit must exist in the IBM
Cognos 8 Content Store. This data source is the same as the data source described in the
section titled Sample deployment.
Unzip the sample model to a suitable directory and from Framework Manager, open the
project file AuditExt.cpf.

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Back to top

Other
Logging
This application uses log4j to provide logging services. To change the logging settings,
edit the file <c8-install>/webapps/c8AuditExtension/WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties.
The log file defaults to <c8install>/logs/c8AuditExtension.log.
See the log4j documentation at http://logging.apache.org/log4j/docs/ for more
information on how to configure log4j.
Database tables
The application creates/uses the following tables:
General configuration
AE_CONFIG_MAIN
Main application configuration containing the configured servers.

AE_CONFIG_NS

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The saved namespaces configured for each server.

AE_AUDIT_TYPES
List of possible audit types.

AE_SERVER_VERSIONS
List of supported Cognos server versions.

AE_CONFIG_AUDIT_TYPES
Which audit types are configured for each server.

AE_SECURITY
Table containing encrypted admin password.

Account audit
AE_ACCOUNTAUDIT_MAIN
Main detail table.

AE_ACCOUNTAUDIT_PORTALPAGES
Records of any user portal pages.

Content audit
AE_CONTENTAUDIT_MAIN
Main detail table. AE_CONTENTAUDIT_PARAMS
Record of saved parameters for reports and views.

AE_CONTENTAUDIT_POLICIES
Record of all security policies applied to all objects.

AE_CONTENTAUDIT_SPEC
Record of report, query and analysis specifications.

AE_CONTENTAUDIT_REPORT_VERSIONS
Record of report output versions saved in the Content Store.

AE_CONTENTAUDIT_REPORT_OUTPUTS
Record of report outputs saved in the Content Store.

Status audit
AE_STATUSAUDIT_MAIN
Main detail table.

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AE_STATUSAUDIT_RESULT_TYPES
Lookup table for result type codes.

AE_STATUSAUDIT_DISP
Main audit details for each dispatcher registered in the content store.

AE_STATUSAUDIT_DISP
Main audit details for each dispatcher registered in the content store.

AE_STATUSAUDIT_DISP_CONFIG
Additional configuration details for each dispatcher registered in the content store.

AE_STATUSAUDIT_DISP_SERVICES
Details on the running services for each dispatcher registered in the content store.

AE_STATUSAUDIT_DISP_PING
Results of simple network tests on dispatchers.

AE_STATUSAUDIT_PING_TEST_TYPES
Possible types of of simple network tests that can be performed on dispatchers.

AE_STATUSAUDIT_PING_RESULT_TYPES
Possible result codes and descriptions of simple dispatcher network tests.

General audit data

AE_STATUS
History and status of audit runs.

AE_AUDIT_TYPE_LOG
Log of the audit types run for each audit.

AE_ITEM_LOOKUP
Lookup table mapping item store IDs to names.

AE_ITEM_LOOKUP_FAILURES
Record of all items that could not be looked up (for example because they were removed from the
content store but were found in audits as owners of other items etc.)

AE_MAP_DATETIME
Table for mapping timestamps (such as the audit start and end times) to date and time dimension table
keys.

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AE_DIM_DATE
Date dimension table. The granularity is days.

AE_DIM_TIME
Time dimension table. The granularity is minutes.

AE_SECURITY_MEMBERS
Optional data on security policies generated during an Account or Content Audit when the
option.ca.policy.calculation option is set to false.

How to configure two content manager on single machine

Installing and Configuring Content Manager Components

You can install more than one Content Manager to ensure failover, and you can install
Content Manager in a separate location than other components to enhance performance.

The Content Manager computers must know the location of the content store, the location of
other Content Manager components, and the database that is used for notification.

Permissions
You can install using either root or non-root authority.

Also, IBM Cognos 8 respects the file mode creation mask (umask) of the account running
the installation program. This affects only the installation directories. It does not affect the
file permissions within the directories. However, run-time generated files, such as logs,
respect the mask. We recommend umask 022 on the installation directory.

Rules for Configuring

In an installation where you have more than one Content Manager components, or where
Content Manager is located in a separate location, at least one of the one Content Manager
must be configured, running and accessible before you configure other components in your
environment. This ensures that the certificate authority service, which is installed with
Content Manager, is available to issue certificates to other IBM Cognos computers.

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Update the Java Environment

IBM Cognos 8 cryptographic services use a specific .jar (Java Archive) file, named bcprov-
jdknn-nnn.jar, that must be located in your Java Runtime Environment (JRE). This file
provides additional encryption and decryption routines that are not supplied as part of a
default JVM installation. To ensure security, the encryption file must be loaded by the JVM
using the java extensions directory.

IBM Cognos 8 requires a 32 bit Java environment.

Steps

1. Ensure that the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to the JRE location.

For example, to set JAVA_HOME to the JRE files provided with the installation, the path
is c8_location/bin/jre/version.

2. Copy the bcprov-jdknn-nnn.jar file from the c8_location/bin/jre/version/lib/ext

directory to the Java_location/jre/lib/ext directory.

Active and Standby Content Manager Components

You can install any number of installations of Content Manager, although only one is active
at any time. The other installations each act as a standby Content Manager.

The standby Content Manager components are for failover protection. If the active Content
Manager is not available because of a software or hardware failure, a standby Content
Manager becomes active and requests are directed to it.

When the active Content Manager fails, unsaved session data is lost. When another Content
Manager becomes active, users may be prompted to log on.

By default, the first Content Manager installed with IBM Cognos 8 is the active one. A IBM
Cognos 8 server administrator can change the default Content Manager and the active
Content Manager at any time. When IBM Cognos 8 is started, the default Content Manager
locks the content store from access by all other installations of Content Manager. These
other Content Manager installations enter standby mode.

This failover mechanism works because dispatchers and the active Content Manager
routinely communicate with each other. If a dispatcher can no longer reach Content
Manager, the dispatcher signals a standby Content Manager, which becomes the active
Content Manager. The other installations of Content Manager remain in standby mode for
continuing failover support. The standby Content Managers retrieve cryptographic settings,

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such as the common symmetric key (used to encrypt and decrypt data), from the active
Content Manager.

Steps to Configure Cognos on UNIX

Steps:* Done on Sun Solaris system using C shell

Check system requirements:

Memory Size: Minimum = 1 GB RAM

a. check memory size
# /usr/sbin/prtconf | grep "Memory size"
Memory size: 2048 Megabytes
For AIX : use "vmstat"
File descriptor limits (for Solaris):
Recommended on Solaris = 1024
a. check the hard limit
# ulimit -Hn
65536
b. check the soft limit
# ulimit -Sn
256
c. modify the soft limit (if needed)
# ulimit -Sn 1024
d. verify soft limit changes
# ulimit -Sn
1024

Install JRE

Note: The isainfo command can be used to determine if a Solaris system has been
configured to run in 32 or 64 bit mode. Run the command: isainfo -v

If the system is running in 32 bit mode, you will see the following output:
32-bit sparc applications
On a 64 bit Solaris system, you'll see:
64-bit sparcv9 applications
32-bit sparc applications
Note: when copying files to UNIX boxes, set FTP transfer mode to binary. After files have
been copied, don't forget to change permissions to allow execution (ie. chmod 777
<filename>).

Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.

The getconf command will return the configuration of your machine. Since you are looking
only for the kernel parameters, you should type

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[cph@anna ~]$ getconf -a | grep KERN

KERNEL_BITMODE: 64
If that fails or does not return a result, try the file command.
[cph@anna ~]$ file /usr/lib/boot/unix*
/usr/lib/boot/unix: 64-bit XCOFF executable or object module not stripped
/usr/lib/boot/unix_64: 64-bit XCOFF executable or object module not stripped
/usr/lib/boot/unix_mp: executable (RISC System/6000) or object module not stripped
/usr/lib/boot/unix_up: executable (RISC System/6000) or object module not stripped

[cph@ozona ~]$ file /usr/lib/boot/unix*

/usr/lib/boot/unix: symbolic link to /usr/lib/boot/unix_up.
/usr/lib/boot/unix_kdb: executable (RISC System/6000) or object module not stripped
/usr/lib/boot/unix_up: executable (RISC System/6000) or object module not stripped
We can see that 'anna' is a 64-bit capable platform, and 'ozona' is only 32-bit.

Extract the CRN files

# gunzip crcd-solaris-1.1.510.0.tar.gz
# tar xvf crcd-solaris-1.1.510.0.tar

Run the setup

For Solaris, the executables are under solaris/ directory.

with XWindows: # ./xstartup
without XWindows: # ./xwsetup

Note: do NOT configure ReportNet yet

Set the JAVA_HOME and LD_LIBRARY_PATH variables:

# export JAVA_HOME=<path/to/jre>
# export LD_LIBRARY_PATH =<crn location>/bin
For AIX:
# export JAVA_HOME=<path/to/jre>
# export LIBPATH=<crn location>/bin

Update java environment

Copy the contents of <crn location>/bin/jre/1.3.1/lib/ext to <jre directory>/lib/ext

Note: do NOT overwrite existing .jar files or else existing applications may not work.
Run Cognos Configuration
# ./crconfig.sh

Configure as needed and run

Please refer the documents below for unix basic
commands

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unix commands.pdf unix commands1.pdf

Note--Rm-fr(For deleting the folder containing files).

Security in cognos

In Framework Manager, security is a way of restricting access to metadata and data across Cognos 8
products. There are different types of security in Framework Manager:
1.Data Security

You can restrict the data represented by query subjects in a project by creating a security filter. The
security filter controls the data that is shown to the report authors when they set up their reports.For
example, your Sales team consists of a Sales Director, and four Sales Managers. You create a security
filter that includes the groups directors and sales managers, and apply the filter to the

salary query subject. When the package is available for report authors, and a report is generated for
the Sales Managers and the Sales Director, only the Sales Director can see the salary information for
the sales managers.
2.Object Security

You secure an object directly by allowing users access to the object, denying users access tothe
object, or keeping it hidden for all users.

Metadata security can be applied directly to objects in a project. When you add object-based security, you apply a
specific user, group, or role  directly to the object. You choose to make the object visible to selected users or groups.

If you do not set object-based security, all objects in your project are visible to everyone who has
access to the package. When you apply security to one object, all objects in the model will also have
security applied to them. They will not be visible to anyone. Once you set security for one object, you
need to set it for all objects. You can do this by setting security on the root namespace.
3.Package Security

You can define metadata security when you create and publish packages in Framework Manager. You
can also define metadata security after creating the package. A package is a secured subset of a
project. A package can be published and can be included in other packages. You can add entries that
were created in both third-party authentication providers and Cognos 8 as members of a Cognos
group. You can organize your security by specifying which users, groups, and roles have access to
certain parts of the published model.

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Note---User , Group and Roles are the access permissions given.

In Cognos 8 you can do it in three stages

1) Package Level

2) Object level

3) Data level

Package level

Expand the namespace

R click on package > Click on Edit Package

Package Access window appears

Remove All users from it

Click Adds

select Cognos

Select Report Administrator

OK it

save the package in Framework Manager (FM)

Publish the package

----------------------------------------------------

Object Level

Expand the namespace

R click on a table > Click on Specify Object Security

On specify Object Security window

click on ADD

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On select users and group dialog box

select Cognos

Select Report Administrator & Consumers

Click Add

In new window under allow Report Administrator deny consumer

Now R click on namespaces

click on Specify Object Security

Here allow both consumers & Report Admin

Right click on packages

Explore package

window opens

Select Object security tab appears

You will be allowed see who is allowed and who is not

-------------------------------------------------------

Data level

Right click on a table

Select query subject

select specify security filter

specify data security dialog box appear

click on ADD

select Cognos

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select consumers

Ok it

click the first row

click on insert

In Filters folder

select the appropriate filter

save the package and publish it

 

Row Level Security

You can use session parameters to map a data item to one of the ldap user values.
depending on what you authentication source is and if the necessary values are there.

EX: Your ldap has employee # your data has a table with employee # manager# other columns and this
table is joined to you model. You need to do this to all query subject that you want to secure you map
a FM query item to the session parameter employeenumber (from your ldap source). This will filter on
the users employee number.
Now to go one step further let's say you have employee and managers as users if your ldap source has
them in different groups you can create a different mapping to equate the employee number of the
managers to the manager# query item this will allow the managers to see all of their staff.

Data contained in Content Store

The content store includes all entries in the portal, such as:
● Public folders
● Packages
● Reports
● Data sources
● Distribution lists and contacts
● Printers
● The Cognos namespace● deployment specifications
Cognos Content Store Database Tables

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Table name Description

CMSYSPROPS This table has the Content Store Version.

CMOBJNAMES This table has the names of all the objects in the content store.
Users, Roles \ Group Distribution list and contact information such as Email, phone number, Fax
CMOBJPROPS1
Given name etc are stored in this table
CMOBJPROPS2 Report scheduling information is stored. This table has fields like hour, day week etc
CMOBJPROPS3 Stores Screen Tip and Object description provided while creating the objects are stored here
Stores the printer paper setting details like height and width of A3 , A4 , letter and 11X17 paper
CMOBJPROPS4
orientations
CMOBJPROPS6 Has the details of the all packages which were published using the FM.
This table stores the XML of all reports and models. This is basically to maintain the metadata
CMOBJPROPS7
about the structure of the reports and models.
Contact information is stored in this table. This table has columns like Contact Email and
CMOBJPROPS10
Contact.
CMOBJPROPS11 This table stores the data sources configuration details like connect string, the cube location etc.
It stores the names of parameter passed to the range prompts.
CMOBJPROPS13
The binary value in CPARMVALUE is XML compressed with gzip.
CMOBJPROPS14 Has details regarding the versions, creation time etc of the objects in the content store.
This table provides the status of the multiple services of Cognos like Log Service, Monitor
CMOBJPROPS16
Service, Report Service, System Service, Job Service
Stores performance details of each component like “query Studio, Analysis Studio, Event Studio”
CMOBJPROPS17
etc
CMOBJPROPS18 This table stores the drill path from the source to the final target report.
Stores details regarding which are all the reports for which prompting has been enabled. And
CMOBJPROPS20
also has the details of which are the reports which has the default report options overridden.
CMOBJPROPS24 Stores the printer configuration details
Stores the data regarding the objects deployed, like the deployed folder, the reports, the number
CMOBJPROPS25
of folders present in the deployment archive, etc
This table stores the data about all the packages imported / exported in C8, with the properties
CMOBJPROPS26
selected during the process.
CMOBJPROPS27 Has the details regarding the data source created in the content store using Cubes.
CMOBJPROPS30 Stores the registration , service description etc details about portlets in this table
Has the custom logging level for each of the Cognos services, CMID can be be linked to
CMOBJPROPS31
CMOBJNAMES for the names of each of the services
CMOBJPROPS32 Has the details of the stored procedures used as the query items in the FM model.
CMOBJPROPS33 Detail related to users, user groups user roles.
Has the details regarding the drill through parameters of the drill through reports. The parameter
CMOBJPROPS34
assign values are present in coded format
CMOBJPROPS36 Has the list of all the Models published using framework manager
This table has the details of the routing sets configured for server / load balancing for each
CMOBJPROPS37
package published in the content store
Configuration details about number of items to retrieve in studios, for a package are saved under
CMOBJPROPS38
this table.
Has values for properties of reports and views. PROPID can be linked to CMPROPERTIES for
CMOBJPROPS39
property names
CMOBJPROPS52 Contains the properties for the connections
CMOBJPROPS55 Has the URI for icons for each entry in Cognos Connection

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CMLOCALES Has the locale ids associated with each language supported by Cognos 8

Performance tuning in Cognos

Causes
 Zero-footprint web-client
 Web-tier : one or more web-servers
 Application tier : one or more application-servers
 Data tier :
o o Connection to content store (JDBC)
o o Connection to query databases
o o Connection to Cubes
o o Connection to metric store (JDBC

Please find the attached documents for performance

tuning.

Cognos_8_Arch_and cognos_8_performan high_availability_with

_tune.pdf ce_tuning_settings.pdf in_the_application_tier.pdf

Different types of application servers in Cognos.

Please find the document attached.

applicationservers.p
df

Installation of different types of application servers

bwas05_c8.4_installi
ng_cognos8.pdf

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Please find the document attached.

Joins in Oracle
INNER: The returned data must be present in both the joined tables.
The join returns data from one or both of the tables even if it
does not match data from the other table. Null is used for the
missing values.

OUTER:
The join includes all the data from the first table, whether or
not it matches data from the second. The join includes data from
the second table only if it matches data from the first table.

LEFT:
The join includes all the data from the second table, whether or
not it matches data from the first. The join includes data from
the first table only if it matches data from the second table.

RIGHT
The join includes all the data from each table, whether or not

FULL-it matches data from the other table.

Services in Cognos and their uses

IBM Cognos services

After you install and configure IBM Cognos BI, one dispatcher is available on each computer
by default. Each dispatcher has a set of associated services, listed in the following table.

Service Purpose

Agent service Runs agents. If the conditions for an agent are met when the agent runs,
the agent service asks the monitor service to run the tasks.

Annotation Enables the addition of commentary to reports via the IBM Cognos
service Dashboard. These comments persist across versions of the report.

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Service Purpose

Batch report Manages background requests to run reports and provides output on behalf
service of the monitor service.

Content Enhances the overall system performance and Content Manager scalability
Manager cache by caching frequent query results in each dispatcher.
service

Content  Performs object manipulation functions in the content store, such as

Manager service add, query, update, delete, move, and copy

 Performs content store management functions, such as import and

export

Data movement Manages the execution of data movement tasks in IBM Cognos BI. Data
service movement tasks, such as Builds and JobStreams, are created in Data
Manager Designer and published to IBM Cognos BI.

Delivery service Sends emails to an external SMTP server on behalf of other services, such
as the report service, job service, agent service, or data integration service

Event Creates, schedules, and manages event objects that represent reports,
management jobs, agents, content store maintenance, deployment imports and exports,
service and metrics

Graphics service Produces graphics on behalf of the Report service. Graphics can be
generated in 4 different formats: Raster, Vector, Microsoft® Excel XML or
PDF.

Human task Enables the creation and management of human tasks. A human task such
service as report approval can be assigned to individuals or groups on an ad hoc
basis or by any of the other services.

Index data Provides basic full-text functions for storage and retrieval of terms and
service indexed summary documents.

Index search Provides search and drill-through functions, including lists of aliases and
service examples.

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Service Purpose

Index update Provides write, update, delete, and administration functions.

service

Job service Runs jobs by signaling the monitor service to run job steps in the
background. Steps include reports, other jobs, import, exports, and so on.

Log service Records log messages generated by the dispatcher and other services. The
log service can be configured to record log information in a file, a
database, a remote log server, Windows® Event Viewer, or a UNIX® system
log. The log information can then be analyzed by customers or by Cognos
Software Services, including:

 security events

 system and application error information

 selected diagnostic information

Metadata Provides support for data lineage information displayed in Cognos Viewer,
service Report Studio, Query Studio, and Analysis Studio. Lineage information
includes information such as data source and calculation expressions.

Metric Studio Provides the Metric Studio user interface for monitoring and entering
service performance information

Migration Manages the migration from IBM Cognos Series 7 to IBM Cognos BI.
service

Monitor service  Manages the monitoring and execution of tasks that are scheduled,
submitted for execution at a later time, or run as a background task

 Assigns a target service to handle a scheduled task. For example,

the monitor service may ask the batch report service to run a report,
the job service to run a job, or the agent service to run an agent.

 Creates history objects within the content manager and manages

failover and recovery for executing entries

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Service Purpose

PowerPlay® Manages requests to run PowerPlay reports.

service

Presentation  Transforms generic XML responses from another service into output
service format, such as HTML or PDF

 Provides display, navigation, and administration capabilities in IBM

Cognos Connection

Query service Manages Dynamic Query requests and returns the result to the requesting
batch or report service.

Report data Manages the transfer of report data between IBM Cognos BI and
service applications that consume the data, such as IBM Cognos BI for Microsoft
Office and IBM Cognos Mobile.

Report service Manages interactive requests to run reports and provides output for a user
in IBM Cognos Connection or a studio.

Definition Of Metric Studio:

Metric Studio is a performance tool for managing monitoring and analyzing metrics, projects, and
other performance measures within an organization. It helps you ensure that your organization’s
performance is consistent with its targets and goals.

A metric, as Metric Studio uses the term, is a key performance indicator (KPI) related to time. In other
words you use Metric Studio to monitor KPIs between one period and the next. A scorecard shows
graphically whether the metric has improved, got worse or stayed the same. Metrics have both status
(whether the metric is within scope) and trend (performance relative to last period).

What ‘improved’ and ‘got worse’ actually mean is defined when the metric is set up. In other words, a
bigger number might mean performance has improved or slipped, depending on what it is measuring.

Metrics are grouped into types; all metrics of the same type have the same behavior, so this saves
time when defining the metric. For example, all revenue measures might have the same type.

With Metric Studio, performance can be displayed either as a list report or a line chart. Often a chart
makes it easier to spot trends.

Actions can be set up to improve performance of a metric. Projects track long-term business activities
associated with a scorecard.

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Sometimes it is useful to attach a Cognos 8 report to a metric, to give you more detail about the
metric data and this feature is available.

Impact diagrams show the relationship between different metrics.

Data warehouse Design:

Data Warehousing Design

At Ace star Solutions we design and build star-schema data warehouses following the popular Kimball
methodology. A data warehouse is essentially a database and is a combination of two sorts of
database tables, ‘fact’ tables and ‘dimension’ tables.

Fact tables – a ‘fact’ table records the measures that are included in the data warehouse, for example
quantity sold, revenue etc.

Dimension tables – these contain descriptive information. An example of a dimension table might be
called D_Products and contain a list of product codes and descriptions.

A Star Schema

A simple star schema is shown above. There is only one table join between each table, which speeds
up processing when using it for reports and analyses. Note that only the details of the actual sale are
held in the sales fact table F_Sales. Product details, customer details and the date are held in separate
tables.

Multi-layered design. The star schema warehouse is built in three layers, each of which is usually a

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database. The staging layer holds the raw data as it comes in, for example a spreadsheet containing
product details would be stored in a table in the staging layer.

The enterprise layer is the place where things are added to the data, for example revenue might be
calculated by multiplying quantity sold and price.

Finally, in the presentation layer the dimension and fact tables the end users have access to are
created (see diagram above).

Data Marts A data warehouse usually has more than one fact table. Each fact table will then have its
own star schema (but they usually overlap) and each is called a data mart. So one or more data marts
go to make a single data warehouse. A large corporation may have only one data warehouse, but this
will include many data marts.

Build of data warehouse:

The building of a data warehouse is known as extract, transformation, load (ETL for short).

First we extract the data from its various data sources. These will usually be database tables from
various systems within an organisation, but are often supplemented by other files such as
spreadsheets and text files.

In the transformation process we have the opportunity to massage the data into what we want for the
data warehouse. This is where most of the action takes place. Apart from adding calculations and data
from various tables where necessary, this is where we check that the data is consistent. For example
dates on different systems in the organisation are often stored in different ways. These differences
must be resolved in the transformation process.

In transformation codes must be translated. This is known as data cleansing.

The load process creates the data warehouse. In a dimensional star schema data warehouse this
means loading the dimension and fact tables. Often the dimensions do not change much – for example
a price list might only change annually – so not all dimensions need to be loaded every day. Even
then, the dimensions can often be updated with changes and additions rather than being completely
rebuilt each time.

Fact tables – for example your daily sales – need to be updated more often, usually on a daily basis.
This involves checking that all records in the fact tables link correctly to the dimension tables, as this
is vital for the star schema to join together properly and have any meaning.

Monitoring the build. In most organisations the data warehouse build will need to be monitored to
ensure that the data has arrived at its destination and is correct. This monitoring can be done in a
number of ways (home-made scripts for example) but should involve some form of automation. A
good ETL package will provide tools for monitoring the load such as log files, a shcheduler and reject
files for rejected input records. A sophisticated ETL system will be able to send out email alerts when
things go wrong, and in some cases correct the problem and reinput the data.

Difference between Star Schema and Snowflake Schema:

Star Schema: Star Schema is a relational database schema for representing multimensional data. It is
the simplest form of data warehouse schema that contains one or more dimensions and fact tables. It

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is called a star schema because the entity-relationship diagram between dimensions and fact tables
resembles a star where one fact table is connected to multiple dimensions. The center of the star
schema consists of a large fact table and it points towards the dimension tables. The advantage of star
schema is slicing down performance increase and easy understanding of data.

Snowflake Schema: A snowflake schema is a term that describes a star schema structure normalized
through the use of outrigger tables. i.e dimension table hierarchies are broken into simpler tables.

In a star schema every dimension will have a primary key.

 in a star schema a dimension table will not have any parent table.
 Whereas in a snow flake schema a dimension table will have one or more parent tables.
 Hierarchies for the dimensions are stored in the dimensional table itself in star schema.

 Whereas hierarchies are broken into separate tables in snow flake schema. These hierarchies helps
to drill down the data from topmost hierarchies to the lowermost hierarchies.
 

Installing IBM Cognos 8 BI Server Components in Multiple

Locations (Distributed Installations)

Installing IBM
Cognos 8 BI Server Components in Multiple Locations (Distributed Installations).doc

How to set the IBM Cognos ReportNet installation to Small,

Medium, or Large in Cognos Configuration or via the startup.bat
or startup.sh file

Use Cognos Configuration to set the application size appropriately, or alternatively edit the
appropriate startup batch files.

Small, Medium and Large refer to the amount of memory (heap size) allocated to the Java
process. For ReportNet there are two Java processes: (1) the Content Manager Service (CM); (2)
the Reportnet Dispatcher Service (BiBusTkServerMain).

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Steps:To change the setting in Cognos Configuration:

1. Stop the Cognos ReportNet services.

2. Under Environment, find the ReportNet Service. Right-click the Cognos ReportNet entry and
select delete.

3. Right-click the ReportNet Service, select New Resource => Configuration.

4. Type Cognos ReportNet as the configuration name, and change the Type to the desired
configuration of Small, Medium, or Large.

5. From the File menu, click Save.

6. Restart the Cognos ReportNet services.

It is also possible to change the setting manually by modifying the startup.bat (Windows) or
startup.sh (UNIX) file to use the right configuration. Stop the Service before making manual
changes, and restart it once the changes have been made.

Remove the # from the configuration line in the Startup file that you would like, and ensure the
other configurations are not used by inserting a # at the beginning of the line. Save the file, and
restart the server by using the startup.bat or startup.sh script.

Here are the entries for a Small configuration:

rem "for machines with 1GB RAM"

set CATALINA_OPTS=-Xmx768m -XX:MaxNewSize=384m -XX:NewSize=192m
-XX:MaxPermSize=128m %DEBUG_OPTS%

rem "for machines with 2GB RAM"

rem set CATALINA_OPTS=-Xmx1152m -XX:MaxNewSize=576m -XX:NewSize=288m
-XX:MaxPermSize=128m %DEBUG_OPTS%

rem "for machines with 3GB RAM"

rem set CATALINA_OPTS=-Xmx1536m -XX:MaxNewSize=768m -XX:NewSize=384m
-XX:MaxPermSize=128m %DEBUG_OPTS%

PRABIR SINGH