IBM Cognos 10 BI: Components & User Interfaces

IBM Cognos 10 BI: Components & User Interfaces

Please visit http://vmanoria.blogspot.in/2012/04/ibm-business-intelligence-software-its.html to know about Business Intelligence and Cognos capabilities and  http://vmanoria.blogspot.in/2012/04/cognos-101-installation-and.html for Cognos 10 BI Server installation & configuration. IBM Cognos BI includes web-based and Windows-based user interfaces that provide a business intelligence experience that is focused upon the needs of different users. Here we would discuss essential tools & user interfaces of Cognos 10 which we can use to implement and use BI.

In below figure, We can see different components and how they are fitting in. The top most layer, where we can see Cognos Connection, Administrator, Business Insight and different studios. They all are web-based and end-user needs not to install any client side software if he has latest web browser installed.

Bottom layer is basically data layer where you may have homogenous or heterogeneous database systems. Data may be relational or multi-dimentional. On top of it, we can see three modeling tools there - Framework Manager, Transformer and Metric Designer. All of them are client based installation.

We’ll maintain the flow of components from top to bottom as shown in below BI components figure.

Lets start with Welcome Screen. From this interface you can open different interfaces as per your requirement.

  

IBM Cognos Connection

IBM Cognos Connection is the portal to IBM Cognos software. IBM Cognos Connection provides a single access point to all corporate data available in IBM Cognos software.  Cognos Connection is -

• Customizable portal interface to all Cognos 10 content (reports, analyses, queries, agents, metrics, and packages)

–        Public Folders are shared and secured by user or group

–        My Folders is private

• Launching point for different capabilities based on permissions

–        Studios, administrative functions

• Used to set preferences

–        Language, run options, home page

• Access and personalize content

–        Access and view content, live or saved output versions

–        Open the report for editing

–        Personalize the view by setting prompt values, output format, language

–        Schedule the report to be run in the future or at recurring intervals

 IBM Cognos Administration

Cognos Administration is a central management interface that contains the administrative tasks for Cognos BI. It provides easy access to the overall management of the IBM Cognos environment and is accessible through Cognos Connection. Cognos Administration is organized into three sections:

• Status

Use the links in this section to monitor activities, server status, and system metrics, and change some system settings.

• Security

Use the links in this section to define users, groups, and roles for security purposes, configure capabilities for the interfaces and studios, and set properties for the user interface profiles (professional and express) that are used in Report Studio.

• Configuration

Use the links in this section to set up data source connections, deploy IBM Cognos BI content from one content store to another, create distribution and contact lists, add printers, set styles, manage portlets and portal layout, start or stop dispatchers and services, and change system settings.

You can also perform the following administrative tasks:

• automating tasks
• setting up your environment and configuring your database for multilingual reporting
• installing fonts
• setting up printers
• configuring web browsers
• allowing user access to Series 7 reports from IBM Cognos Connection
• restricting access to IBM Cognos software

 Aside from the typical administrative tasks, you can also customize the appearance and functionality of different IBM Cognos components.

IBM Cognos Configuration

Use IBM Cognos Configuration

• to set the initial configuration of IBM Cognos components after you install them
• to configure IBM Cognos components if you want to change a property value or you add components to your environment
• to start or stop the service for an IBM Cognos component on the local computer

You can run IBM Cognos Configuration in either interactive or silent mode. In interactive mode, you use a graphical user interface to configure the IBM Cognos component. In silent mode, the tool runs in the background and requires no interaction from you as part of an unattended installation.

If you change the value of a property, you must save the configuration and then restart the IBM Cognos service to apply the new settings to your computer.

For distributed installations, ensure that you configured all computers where you installed Content Manager before you change default configuration settings on other IBM Cognos computers. For example, you can

• change the default user and password for Cognos Content Database
• change a URI
• configure cryptographic settings
• configure IBM Cognos components to use IBM Cognos Application Firewall
• configure temporary file properties
• configure the gateway to use a namespace
• Enable and Disable Services
• configure fonts
• configure font support for Simplified Chinese
• change the default font for reports
• save report output to a file system
• change the notification database

After you change the default behavior of IBM Cognos components to better suit your IBM Cognos environment, you can configure Portal Services, configure an authentication provider, or test the installation Test the Installation and Configuration.

1) IBM Cognos Workspace

IBM Cognos Workspace is a Web-based tool that allows you to use IBM Cognos content and external data sources to build sophisticated interactive dashboards that provide insight and facilitate collaborative decision making.

You can view and open favorite dashboards and reports, manipulate the content in the dashboards, and email your dashboards. You can also use comments and activities for collaborative decision making and use social software such as IBM Lotus® Connections for collaborative decision making.

Create dashboards with Workspace to give business users in your organization an integrated Business Intelligence experience that includes collaborative decision making. A dashboard allows users to quickly complete a wide variety of tasks such as viewing and interacting with reports and collaborating and sharing information.

When you create an interactive dashboard, you are assembling IBM Cognos content. You can also add content from HTML and text sources.

IBM Workspace is -

• Interactive, self-service workspace
• Assemble and share dashboards

–        Assemble content for a personal or shared dashboard without IT intervention

–        Arrange elements in an intuitive, WYSIWYG interface

• Interact with information for greater understanding

–        Personalize the look and feel with easy formatting options

–        Create calculations

–        Select alternate visualizations

–        Conduct further analysis in context

–        Examine data lineage

• Share and collaborate on key information

–        Add comments to clarify and question

–        Search for existing content and begin authoring in context

IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced

IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced provides a single, integrated environment for advanced business users who need to do more than consume reports and dashboards that are authored for them. This solution does not require you to use different user interfaces depending on whether the data is dimensional or relational and whether your primary task is report authoring or data exploration. You can use it to author new reports on relational or dimensional data. With Business Insight Advanced, you can create and format a wide variety of reports, including lists, cross tabs, charts, and financial statement style reports. In addition, you can use it for OLAP exploration and can mix exploration and authoring activities seamlessly without switching interfaces or modes.

Workspace  Advanced is -

• Web-based, drag-and-drop content authoring interface designed for business users
• Relational or dimensional data
• Multiple data layouts and visualizations
• Styles and formatting
• Format, layout, and distribution
• Incorporate external data
• Content can be run as standalone report or incorporated into Business Insight workspace
• Leveraged as starting point for further enhancement by professional authors as needed

IBM Cognos Report Studio

IBM Cognos Report Studio is a robust report design and authoring tool. Using IBM Cognos Report Studio, report authors can create, edit, and distribute a wide range of professional reports. You can author entire range of enterprise reports with relational or dimensional data sources, and show data in lists, crosstabs, and various kinds of charts. You can write a report once and distribute it to many users in multiple languages and formats.

Main features are -

• Web-based professional report authoring environment
• Create new reports or enhance content created by business users
• Provides fine-grain control over layout formatting and presentation for production ready formatting
• Additional capabilities for the professional author

–        Extend reports with interactive maps and prompts

–        Multiple logical pages for varied content

–        Interactive tables of contents

–        Create offline Active Reports

–        Incorporate statistical analysis

• Any report can be used as a template. You simply create and format a report and then use it as your starting point for all other reports, leaving the original report unchanged. A report intended to be used as a template usually does not contain data so that the report can be used with multiple packages. You can start from numerous pre-defined templates, or blank report as shown below.

Your users can interact with the reports you distribute if you add prompts or enable drill-through access to another report, or both.  By answering prompts when a report is run, your users customize the contents of the report to meet their information needs. One authored report can then meet the requirements of many users. By enabling drill-through access to another report, your users can navigate from one report to the next.

IBM Cognos Query Studio

Using IBM Cognos Query Studio, users with little or no training can quickly design, create, and save ad-hoc queries and reports to meet reporting needs that are not covered by the standard, professional reports created in IBM Cognos Report Studio. In Query Studio, you can

• view data

Connect to a data source to view data in a tree hierarchy. Expand the query subjects to see query item details.

• create reports

Use the data source to create reports, which you can save and reuse. You can also create a new report by opening an existing report, changing it, and saving it using another name.

• change the appearance of reports

Improve the layout of your report. For example, you can create a chart, add a title, specify text and border styles, or reorder columns for easy comparison.

• work with data in a report

Use filters, summaries, and calculations to compare and analyze data. Drill up and drill down to view related information.

IBM Cognos Analysis Studio

With Analysis Studio, users can explore and analyze data from different dimensions of their business. Users can also compare data to spot trends or anomalies in performance. Analysis Studio provides access to dimensional, online analytical processing (OLAP), and dimensionally modeled relational data sources. Analyses created in Analysis Studio can be opened in IBM Cognos Report Studio and used to build professional reports.

Use the interactive drag-and-drop environment in Analysis Studio to explore and analyze data to find answers to business questions.

Using Analysis Studio, you can –

● find and focus on items that are important to your business

● understand trends and anomalies

● compare data, such as details to summaries, or actual results to budgeted results

● assess performance by focusing on the best or worst results

● establish relative importance using calculations such as growth or rank

● share your findings with others

Like IBM Cognos Series 7 PowerPlay Web, Analysis Studio helps you answer business questions quickly and easily. Analysis Studio supports the same drill up and down behavior and drag-and-drop control as PowerPlay Web, while addressing demands for more effective ways to analyze large amounts of data

IBM Cognos Event Studio

In Event Studio, you set up agents to monitor your data and perform tasks when business events or exceptional conditions occur in your data. When an event occurs, people are alerted to take action. Agents can publish details to the portal, deliver alerts by email, run and distribute reports based on events, and monitor the status of events. For example, a support call from a key customer or the cancellation of a large order might trigger an event, sending an email to the appropriate people.

Use Event Studio to notify decision-makers in your organization of events as they happen, so that they can make timely and effective decisions. You create agents that monitor your organization’s data to detect occurrences of business events. An event is a situation that can affect the success of your business. An event is identified when specific items in your data achieve significant values. Specify the event condition, or a change in data, that is important to you. When an agent detects an event, it can perform tasks, such as sending an e-mail, adding information to the portal, and running reports.

The IBM Cognos Platform includes a new service to support enhanced event management functionality called the Human Task Service. This service is based upon an open specification called WS-Human Tasks. IBM Cognos BI includes the following types of human tasks that you can see in the task inbox:

• Approval requests
• Ad-hoc tasks
• Notification requests

You can create tasks from the following components:

• IBM Cognos Event Studio (notification requests and approval requests)
• The My Inbox area of IBM Cognos Connection (notification requests and ad-hoc tasks)
• A watch rule set up for a report (notification requests only)

IBM Cognos Metric Studio & Designer

Use Metric Studio to create a customized scorecarding environment to monitor and analyze metrics and projects throughout your organization. Metric Studio helps you translate your organization’s strategy into relevant, measurable goals that align each employee's actions with a strategic plan.

A rich scorecarding environment shows you quickly where your organization is successful and where it needs improvement. Metric Studio tracks performance against targets and indicates the current status of the business so that decision makers at every level of the organization can react and plan. Use the flexibility of Metric Studio to model metrics and their relationships based on any standard or proprietary scorecarding and management methodology that you already use.

Metric Designer is the IBM Cognos 8 modeling tool used to create extracts for use in IBM Cognos scorecarding applications. Extracts are used to map and transfer information from existing metadata sources such as Framework Manager and Impromptu Query Definition (.iqd) files.

If IBM Cognos Metric Studio is installed and configured as part of your IBM Cognos BI environment, you can navigate to Metric Studio content in the Content tab and add the following Metric Studio content to a dashboard:

1. Watch lists
2. Scorecards
3. Strategies
4. Metric types
5. Individual metrics

When you add an individual metric to the dashboard, historical data for the metric displays in a form of a bar chart. For any other IBM Cognos Metric Studio content that you add, the content displays as a list of metrics for the selected item. Each metric in the list has a hyperlink that opens the individual metric in Metric Studio.

IBM Cognos Framework Manager

IBM Cognos Framework Manager is the IBM Cognos BI modeling tool for creating and managing business related metadata for use in IBM Cognos BI analysis and reporting. Metadata is published for use by reporting tools as a package, providing a single, integrated business view of any number of heterogeneous data sources.

Framework Manager can rapidly create relational and dimensional models (Dimensionally Modeled Relational) through a guided workflow-driven modeling process, check the execution path of the queries, define filters, and configure data multi-language support and security filters.

To enhance the business view of the model, you can use Framework Manager to:

–        model for predictable results (star schema)

–        model for OLAP-style queries (model dimensionally)

–        create one or more business views

–        add calculations

–        create and apply filters

–        add prompts

–        set row level security

IBM Cognos Transformer

Transformer is a proven and relatively simple tool for modeling dimensional hierarchies and levels for PowerCubes.

Transformer is a data modeling tool designed for use with IBM Cognos 8 version 8.3 and subsequent releases. You use this component to create a model, a business presentation of the information in one or more data sources. After you choose a supported product locale (language), add dimensional metadata, specify the measures (performance indicators), and apply custom views, you can create PowerCubes based on this model. You can deploy these cubes to support OLAP reporting and analysis.

A model can contain any number of regular or calculated measures, together with logical groupings that use measure folders. A regular measure is numeric data in a transactional data source. A calculated measure is new numeric data that is derived from other measures, functions, and constants, such as Profit, which is calculated from the measures Revenue and Cost. A measure folder can group existing measures into a logical collection and, if needed, can be assigned a calculated value itself.

IBM Cognos Map Manager

In a map that contains region layers, you can now create new region layers from existing ones using Map Manager. Each new region within the new layer is made up of one or more complete regions from the existing region layer.

As the report author, you can use this new feature to customize maps when the regions in the supplied maps do not correspond to the way information is managed and reported on. For example, your Sales Territories may not match the States layer. You can create a Sales Region Layer with a region such as Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and so on). As a result, you avoid having to create a new map layer in MapInfo, a task requiring additional knowledge as well as licensing of the original MapInfo data.

It is not, however, possible to use portions of one region to form a new region. For example, you can combine the state regions of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to form a sales region, but you cannot use portions of any region, such as cities, to form a new region. Use Map Manager to load an existing IBM Cognos map file, define the new region layer, and then save the map with the new layer.

Install IBM® Cognos® Map Manager if you want to -

● convert maps from non IBM sources

● assign alternate names for map features

● assign alternate languages for map features

IBM Business Intelligence Software & Its Core Capabilities

Introduction

Business intelligence is defined as “mission critical” by many senior executives today. Organizations are pressured constantly to understand and react quickly to information. In addition, the complexity and volumes of data for all aspects of the environments in which organizations operate is increasing. Markets, regulatory environments, customer and supplier data, competitive information, and internal operational information all impact how data is viewed and interpreted.

The term 'Business Intelligence' was used as early as September, 1996, when a Gartner Group report said:

By 2000, Information Democracy will emerge in forward-thinking enterprises, with Business Intelligence information and applications available broadly to employees, consultants, customers, suppliers, and the public. The key to thriving in a competitive marketplace is staying ahead of the competition. Making sound business decisions based on accurate and current information takes more than intuition. Data analysis, reporting, and query tools can help business users wade through a sea of data to synthesize valuable information from it - today these tools collectively fall into a category called "Business Intelligence."

Normally, Business intelligence (BI) is seen as a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. Business intelligence applications can be:

• Mission-critical and integral to an enterprise's operations or occasional to meet a special requirement
• Enterprise-wide or local to one division, department, or project
• Centrally initiated or driven by user demand

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence version 10.1 is the revolutionary new business intelligence release from IBM that breaks down the barriers to analytics. It is revolutionary because it expands traditional BI capabilities with planning, scenario modeling, real-time monitoring, and predictive analytics. These capabilities deliver power in an easy-to-use and unified experience that is collaboration and social networking enabled.

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence version 10.1 enables organizations to gain all the perspectives they need to increase performance by providing the following functions:

• Analytics that everyone can use to answer key business questions—sharpening individual skills and improving business outcomes
• Collective intelligence to connect people and insights to gain alignment—collapsing the time needed to align, decide, and act
• Actionable insight everywhere it is needed in real-time, mobile, and business processes that enable instant response to changing business conditions

 Built on a proven technology platform, IBM Cognos Business Intelligence version 10.1 is designed to upgrade seamlessly and cost-effectively scale for the broadest of deployments. It provides you and your organization the freedom to see more, to do more, and to make smart decisions that drive better business results.

Business Intelligence capabilities

1) Query & Reporting –

These capabilities for authoring reports, viewing reports and modifying reports and queries that meet all the needs of users, no matter where or how they work:

• Professional report authors can design, build and securely distribute multilingual reports to the enterprise.
• Business users can easily create their own reports on the fly or modify existing reports using trusted data without having to ask IT.
• IT administrators can deploy, manage and expand the reporting application from a central console that streamlines administrative tasks.
• The mobile workforce can access and interact with reports on mobile devices, in Microsoft Office applications, in embedded and in-process business intelligence and while disconnected.

2) Analysis –

Analysis capabilities meet the needs of all users in your organization with a single, intuitive workspace. With this workspace, everyone can:

• Access all the information—at all angles and perspectives—they need to drive informed decisions.
• Seamlessly transition to deeper analysis capabilities and perform complex analysis tasks quickly and easily to get to the “why” behind an event or action.
• Validate key information and drive business decisions by incorporating statistical evidence in reports.
• Drill-down into and filter real-time data and incorporate analysis of a broader range of alternative scenarios to build “what-if” projections.
• Deliver the power of predictive analytics into the hands of business users.

3) Scorecarding –

With scorecards, you can track performance based on key performance indicators (KPIs) to link corporate strategy to operational tactics. Scorecards enable you to set quantifiable goals for any time period and monitor progress on specific projects and activities. You can create strategy maps, impact diagrams and other elements and maintain metrics in a centralized data store to ensure consistent definitions.

Scorecards from IBM business intelligence software help you:

• Align strategy with operations.
• Communicate strategy and track your progress.
• Ensure accountability for performance.
• Share with more user communities.
• Enjoy simple deployment and administration.

4) Dashboarding –

With IBM business intelligence dashboard capabilities, you can:

• Analyze information and share the results to follow a train of thought or generate a unique perspective.
• Assemble and format all kinds of content by dragging-and-dropping, filtering, modifying and arranging layout, adding colors and text and personalizing widgets. Change display, add calculations, prompt, drill up and down and sort data with more advanced dashboard capabilities.
• Distribute dashboards and integrate them with IBM® Connections for improved collaboration and alignment.
• Access and interact with dashboards regardless of language or location with mobile applications.
• Schedule, burst and distribute professionally authored dashboards to a broad audience of consumers including those who need disconnected access to their dashboards.

5) Rich BI in Mobile applications –

Mobile apps for business intelligence make information available when and where it’s needed. Using IBM business intelligence mobile apps for Apple, BlackBerry and Android, you can interact with reports, analysis, dashboards and more on smart phones, tablets and notebook computers. And, the IBM business intelligence platform can help IT support these mobile apps and provide the same type of experience to everyone.

With IBM business intelligence capabilities provided in mobile apps, you can:

• Experience insight wherever you are through quick and simple access to business intelligence.
• Interact with information like never before in a rich, visual and interactive experience.
• Confidently and easily deploy relevant and reusable business intelligence to any device.

6) Disconnected BI

IBM Cognos® Active Report provides an interactive analytics experience in a self-contained BI application for browsing and exploring data offline. Mobile workers can take their data with them to discover opportunities and analyze trends even when they are nowhere near a network.

Explore information without having to rely on online connectivity. Access the business intelligence you need while offline for uninterrupted productivity. Provide business intelligence to individuals regardless of their location, situation or connectivity.

7) Statistics –

Including statistics with business reporting is critical for facilitating fact-based decision-making. This can be a challenge because it often requires using different—and sometimes disconnected—software. You need to be able to incorporate statistics into core business reporting without having to struggle with multiple tools, the overhead of exporting data to different systems or the complexities of bringing results back together in a single output.

IBM business intelligence software includes statistics capabilities that simplify the process of incorporating statistical results with core business reporting, reducing the time it takes to analyze data and prepare business presentations based on that analysis. You can validate business information and drive business decisions by adding statistical evidence to reports that can be delivered easily to broader business communities.

 8) Real-time Monitoring –

Real-time monitoring includes these features:

• Drill-down capabilities and exception management. Users can quickly determine the root cause of an issue.
• Business-defined alerts. Users can set watch points, collaborate and alert all parties to sudden issues to address exceptions based on business rules.
• Robust self-service query, reporting and analysis. Users can create and author reports, query any data source and analyze information on their own with a flexible, drag-and-drop report authoring environment.
• Simplified administration. Administrators have a central place to set up data sources and analytic models to present current information, historical data or aggregated views.
• Centralized security. User, group and role-based access provides access control to events, cubes, views, dimensions, rules, alerts, portlets and dashboards.

9) Collaboration –

With built-in collaboration and social networking, you can harness the collective intelligence of your organization to connect people and insights and gain alignment in your organization and with key stakeholders. IBM business intelligence software provides built-in collaboration and social networking capabilities to fuel the exchange of ideas and knowledge that naturally occurs in decision-making processes today.

Establish decision networks and expand the reach and impact of information
Share insights and solicit ideas with a broad set of social networking capabilities provided by IBM® Connections. Integrated access to blogs, wikis and message boards enable you to expand the reach and impact of your information and gather input from different perspectives.

Provide transparency and accountability to ensure alignment and consensus
Raise the value of your business intelligence by increasing user understanding of the information it contains. IBM business intelligence software provides a broad set of report-level features to help you better describe your data, capture insight about it and prescribe how to use it.

Communicate and coordinate tasks to engage the right people at the right time
Put better decisions into action with workflow and task management capabilities that connect people with insights and coordinate decisions with activities in a seamless, closed-loop environment. Assign ownership, manage initiatives and track projects.

10) Planning and budgets –

For the best business outcomes, your company needs to plan and forecast effectively. You must also get the right information to the right people in the form they need it—and be able to make changes quickly. For most companies, regardless of size or industry, the corporate budgeting, forecasting and planning processes present a formidable challenge. Finance professionals and line managers alike most often describe annual planning and budgets as  burdensome and time-consuming. 

IBM enterprise planning and financial analytics capabilities support a full range of business requirements. From high-performance, on-demand customer and profitability analysis and flexible modeling to enterprise contribution, these planning and budgeting solutions meet the needs of manufacturing, sales and service, finance, human resources, marketing and more. You can rapidly create, compare and assess budgets, plans, business scenarios, conditions, drivers, rates and assumptions and then evaluate what-if scenarios critical to forecasting future performance.

In short, with Cognos Business Intelligence software from IBM, you can:

• Equip users with what they need to explore information freely, analyze key facts, collaborate to gain alignment with key stakeholders and make decisions with confidence for better business outcomes.
• Provide quick access to facts with reports, analysis, dashboards, scorecards, planning and budgets, real-time information, statistics and the flexibility to manage information for more informed decisions.
• Integrate the results of “what-if” analysis modeling and predictive analytics into your unified workspace to view possible future outcomes alongside current and historical data.
• Support where users need to work with business intelligence capabilities for the office and desktop, on mobile devices, online and offline.
• Meet different analytics needs throughout your business with solutions that are integrated and right-sized for individuals, workgroups or midsize businesses and large organizations or enterprises.
• Implement a highly scalable and extensible solution that can adapt to the changing needs of IT and the business with flexible deployment options that include the cloud, mainframes and data warehousing appliances.
• Start addressing your most pressing needs with the confidence that you can grow your solution over time to meet future requirements with the integrated Cognos 10 family of products.

You can download IBM Cognos BI Developer Edition (30 days trial) from below link -

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/download/search.jsp?pn=Cognos+Business+Intelligence+Developer+Edition

You are also encouraged to view demo videos to understand core Cognos BI functionalities using below link - 

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/cognos/business-intelligence/trials-demos.html

Cognos 10.1 installation and configuration steps on Windows XP 32-bit

Here IBM Cognos 10.1 BI Server installation & configuration steps are shown thru snapshots for Windows XP SP3 - 32 bit environment. However steps should not be very different for Windows 2000/2K3/2K8 on 32-bit or 64-bit environment. 

Step-1) Please unzip the package and run 'issetup.exe' from 'win32' folder.

Step-2) From below shown screen you can download Installation guide which is very helpful if you are doing so first time.

Step-3) Read the license agreement carefully and accept terms.

Step-4) Select the location where you want to install it.

Step-5) Select components to be installed. If you want to create content store in DB2/Oracle/MSSQL Server then you need to select last option as shown below. Otherwise select all options (Recommended). I am going to create content store in IBM DB2 9.7 here.

Step-6) With last screen installation is complete successfully. Select the check box to open IBM Cognos Configuration. However you can also open it from Start -> All Programs -> IBM Cognos 10 -> IBM Cognos Configuration.

Step-7) This is the place where you can see & change the configuration for C10 BI server. I am going to set content store in DB2 9.7. If during installation you had selected all 4 components then you need not to follow below steps, directly go to Step-10. If you don't have IBM DB2 installed on machine, you can download express edition of DB2 from http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/im/udbexp/ and install it. Its free and easy to install.

Set environment variables ( first 4) as shown below. 

Step-8) Create DB as instructed below and set Db name, user id and password in Cognos Configuration as shown in snapshot.

Start-> Run Program-> type 'db2cmd' and press enter.

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>db2 create db cm pagesize 32 k

DB20000I  The CREATE DATABASE command completed successfully.

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>db2 connect to cm

   Database Connection Information

 Database server        = DB2/NT 9.7.2

 SQL authorization ID   = VMANORIA

 Local database alias   = CM

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>db2 update db configuration using applheapsz 102

4

DB20000I  The UPDATE DATABASE CONFIGURATION command completed successfully.

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>db2 update db configuration using locktimeout 24

0

DB20000I  The UPDATE DATABASE CONFIGURATION command completed successfully.

SQL1363W  One or more of the parameters submitted for immediate modification

were not changed dynamically. For these configuration parameters, all

applications must disconnect from this database before the changes become

effective.

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>db2stop force

11/15/2010 20:22:30     0   0   SQL1064N  DB2STOP processing was successful.

SQL1064N  DB2STOP processing was successful.

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>db2start

11/15/2010 20:22:37     0   0   SQL1063N  DB2START processing was successful.

SQL1063N  DB2START processing was successful.

CREATE BUFFERPOOL BP32K IMMEDIATE  SIZE 250 PAGESIZE 32 K ;

CREATE BUFFERPOOL BP4K IMMEDIATE  SIZE 250 PAGESIZE 4 K ;

CREATE  SYSTEM TEMPORARY  TABLESPACE TBS32K PAGESIZE 32 K  MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE EXTENTSIZE 16 OVERHEAD 10.5 PREFETCHSIZE 16 TRANSFERRATE 0.14 BUFFERPOOL  BP32K ;

CREATE  USER TEMPORARY  TABLESPACE TBS4K1 PAGESIZE 4 K  MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE EXTENTSIZE 16 OVERHEAD 10.5 PREFETCHSIZE 16 TRANSFERRATE 0.14 BUFFERPOOL  BP4K ;

CREATE  USER TEMPORARY  TABLESPACE TBS4K2 PAGESIZE 4 K  MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE EXTENTSIZE 16 OVERHEAD 10.5 PREFETCHSIZE 16 TRANSFERRATE 0.14 BUFFERPOOL  BP4K ;

CREATE SCHEMA VMANORIA AUTHORIZATION VMANORIA;

CREATE SCHEMA ADMINISTRATOR AUTHORIZATION ADMINISTRATOR;

GRANT  DBADM,CREATETAB,CONNECT,IMPLICIT_SCHEMA,SECADM ON DATABASE  TO USER ADMINISTRATOR;

GRANT  CREATEIN,DROPIN,ALTERIN ON SCHEMA VMANORIA TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION;

GRANT USE OF TABLESPACE TBS32K TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION;

GRANT USE OF TABLESPACE TBS4K1 TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION;

GRANT USE OF TABLESPACE TBS4K2 TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION;

GRANT USE OF TABLESPACE TEMPSPACE1 TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION;

GRANT USE OF TABLESPACE USERSPACE1 TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION;

GRANT USE OF TABLESPACE SYSCATSPACE TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION;

Step - 9) Copy DB2 drivers from 'C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\java' folder to 'C:\Program Files\IBM\Cognos\c10\webapps\p2pd\WEB-INF\lib' as shown below.

Step-10) Test the connection in IBM Cognos Configuration before we start the service. Once its OK we can start the service.

 

Start the Cognos service by clicking on the Play button.

 You will get a “test phase warning” that the testing of the mail server failed.  No mail server has been configured, click OK and then Continue.

 

When the Cognos service has started, click Close.

 Step-11) Now, we are ready to configure IIS server to run Cognos application. If IIS server is not installed on your machine, please follow these steps - 

1.                   Open Control Panel.  Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
2.                   Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
3.                   Ensure the Internet Information Services (IIS) check box is selected.
4.                   Highlight Internet Information Services (IIS), and then click Details.
5.                   Ensure all of the check boxes for the subcomponents are selected.
6.                   If any of the check boxes are grayed out, highlight the subcomponent, click Details, and then select all of the check boxes.
7.                   When you are finished, click Next>, then wait for the configuration.  Click Finish, then close the Add or Remove Programs dialog box, and then close Control Panel.

Once its up and running, Open Control Panel.  Double-click Administrative Tools.  When the Administrative Tools window comes up, double-click Internet Information Services:

 In Internet Information Services, in the left pane, expand Default Web Site, right-click Default Web Site, point to New, and then click Virtual Directory.

Click Next. Under Alias, type ibmcognos, and then click Next.

Browse to C:\Program Files\IBM cognos\c10\webcontent, click OK, and then click Next.

Deselect the Run scripts check box, so only Read is selected; click Next.

 Click Finish. 

Right-click the ibmcognos virtual directory folder, point to New, and then click Virtual Directory. Click Next.

 

Under Alias, type cgi-bin, and then click Next. 

Browse to C:\Program Files\IBM\cognos\c10\cgi-bin, click OK, and then click Next.:

Step-12) Once done with above steps, Open IE (I am using IE8) and open link http://localhost/ibmcognos 

It would show you below screen. With this IBM Cognos 10.1 is installed & configured successfully and its ready for use.