Prerequisites to a working FM

Cognos Framework Manager (FM) is a windows based client application for designing the cognos  data  model. After you have installed it, and before you start modelling your data with FM, you will need the following things configured.

1. Connectivity to COGNOS Server

Try to reach out the COGNOS SERVER, use Telnet on command line. If you see a black screen after executing these commands individually, you are good to go to next step.

Telnet  <Cognos-server-name> 80

Tenet  <Cognos-server-name> 9300

You can also use a browser to test this, people usually avoid browser to avoid browser settings causing issues. Try the below links.

http://<Cognos-server>:80/ibmcognos/cgi-bin/cognosisapi.dll

http://<Cognos-server>:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch

If your tests fail, you will have to contact your system administration team to check the firewall and open ports (80 and 9300) between your computer and cognos server.

2. Connectivity to Database Server

        Check if the database server is reachable, use ping command. Install respective    database client and make a connection to the server using client.For example, if your database is Teradata, install Teradata SQL assistant on your machine, and create a DSN entry in the ODBC list.

3.  Cognos configuration Environment Settings

Open the Cognos Configuration on your client machine. In the Environment update the Gateway URI and Diapatcher URI, just replace localhost to your <Cognos-server> and cognos.cgi (Gateway URI) to cognosisapi.dll

                 
                     If you have questions or suggestions, do comment.

Processes Spawned by COGNOS BI

In the task manager of Cognos Server You will find two main processes, "cgsLauncher" and "cogbootstrapservice" - and java of-course - meaning, if you kill any of these processes the cognos application will go down. You will also find "CAM_LPSvr", which is related to the cognos authentication with LDAP, one process for each authentication provider.

The dispatcher spawns “BIBusTKServerMain” and “BmtMDProviderMain”, whenever it sends a request to the cognos server. If you kill any of these processes, the report which was running will throw an error. BIBusTKServerMain carries the report result while BmtMDProviderMain is the process for the Metadata Service, which handles metadata requests including lineage, queryMetadata, updateMetadata, and testDataSourceConnection.

The gateway tier has no cognos process running under it. In case you have a gateway component on separate machine, try to open cognos configuration there, you will see that there is no start/stop service button.

Also, whenever you run Cognos Configuration, you will see the process “cogconfigw” in the backend.

Framework Manager, initiates “bmtui2”.

If you have questions or suggestions, do comment.  

Versions applicable : 10.1

Cognos is not writing to AUDIT Tables

Audit database is not a mandatory component in the cognos installation, yet, it is an important one. Once, I ran one of the audit report and realized that the DB was last updated a month ago. Cognos was not recording any information in the AUDIT tables. If you are also facing the same problem, keep reading :)

Check if the log level for each dispatcher is set to “Basic”. Launch Cognos Administration Goto Configuration -> Dispatcher and Services-> Set properties

-> Settings. If not set it.

Other most common problem is ipfclientconfig.xml, Audit database may not receive any data from the
system while the ipfclientconfig.xml is active. If you find this file at the location ../Configuration/. Rename it

(I like renaming it to ipfclientconfig.xml.off). The presence of this file indicates that AAA trace is being performed. Renaming will switch off the tracing, good thing is that, you don’t have to restart cognos services.

Lastly, if your problem is still unsolved, check this specific case. If you have not installed Fix Pack 1 for version 10.1.1 and you are using SQL Server 2008 for your audit database, there may be another reason. Even though, Audit DB tested successfully when you created the Audit DB in Cognos Configuration, the syntax “Servername\Instance” in Audit –Database – Resource Properties will not work. Change it to Servername:Portnumber.

Also, make sure you set the Enable TCP property to True.

If you have questions or suggestions, do comment.

Datasource connection to an Oracle DB

QE-DEF-0285 Logon failure.
QE-DEF-0068 Unable to connect to at least one database during a multi-database attach to 1 database(s) in:
testDataSourceConnection
UDA-SQL-0432 Unable to locate the gateway "cogudaor".

I encountered this error while testing a brand new Datasource connection to an Oracle Database.

In my attempt to find the cause I first tried to reach the oracle database from Cognos Server using ping command. Then, reviewed TNSNAMES.ORA file. Also, used SQL Developer and could successfully connect to the oracle database.


Something was wrong at the Cognos End. And I was sure cogudaor is the culprit. "cogudaor" is Windows gateway for establishing connections to an Oracle data source. On UNIX the gateway is listed as "libcogudaor".

I thought maybe the gateway file has gone corrupt and I have to reinstall Cognos again. After some more research, I found that the query engine for Cognos (version 10.1.1 64 bit server) is still a 32-bit application. This means that you need 32-bit Oracle driver in order to make a connection to the database. By the way, Cognos 10 has introduced a new 64-bit query engine called Dynamic Query Mode but this has not yet been extended to cover relational databases.

I was using a 64-bit oracle client, I uninstalled it and quickly installed a 32-bit oracle client. Unfortunately I was still facing the same error. Continued some more research (there are actually so many reasons for this error).

Finally, Adding ORACLE_HOME in the environment variables solved my problem. Phew !! As it turns out Cognos was unable to locate the oracle directory.

As I said, there are many things that can cause this error. If you have questions or suggestions, do comment.

Environment Specifications:
Stand-Alone Cognos installation
OS : Windows 2008 server R2
Cognos Server : 10.1.1 64-bit
Web server  : IIS 7
Database : Oracle 11g 64 bit