cognos analytics implementation tips, tricks & gotchas
TRANSCRIPT
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Implementation Tips, Tricks & GotchasPresented by Norm Goddard
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
• Introductions
• Cognos Analytics Installation Considerations
• Breaking Down Configuration Differences
• Demonstration: Report Upgrades
• Q & A
Agenda
Analytics empowering clients to see farther & go faster
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: It’s Who We Are and What We Do.
Business Value – Improve business processes via analytic solutionsVendor Agnostic – Data & analytics focus with leading technology expertisePartner Approach – Trusted advisor and evangelist, change cultures Our People are the Best – Experienced, passionate, professionals
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Senior BI Architect, CCG19 years Consulting Experience Previously worked for IBM and Cognos for over 10 yearsIBM Certified Cognos Analytics Developer
Meet Your Speaker
Norm [email protected]
P: 813.968.3238
CASE STUDY
Background• One of the first to IBM Cognos Analytics v11 Installations• IBM Cognos Analytics on IBM SoftLayer
Challenges • Large enterprise for a national company• Four environments (Dev, QA, UAT, Production)• Load balancers
Benefits of Cognos Analytics• Ease of use for business• Reduction of manual data processing• Reduced on-site infrastructure costs
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Architecture• 2 Gateways• 4 Application Servers• 1 Content Manager• 1 Standby Content
Manager• 2 Load Balancers
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Installation Differences • “Glass” interface hosted on application tier allows gateway to be optional• Gateway only required for:
• Single signon• Third party portal integration• Serve static content on the web server• Publicly available web server outside firewall
Poll Question
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Installation Differences cont’d • Easy install (Ready to Run! In
previous versions)• Full version of IBM Cognos
Analytics• Informix installed/configured for
content store• Apache directory server
• Custom install• Choose components as in
previous releases• Recommended for existing
customers as it enables legacy components by default
• Legacy switch can be done after install but it’s difficult
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Installation Differences cont’d
• Easy install then gives 2 choices• First install
• Easy install option installs all components needed for single server
• Create administrator credentials for environment
• Connect and install• Expand on a running
environment• Provide url and administrator id
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Installation Differences cont’d • Custom Install also give 2 choices
• First install• Content manager required on first install and other components can be
selected
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Installation Differences cont’d
• Connect and Install (Expand)• Add additional components to an
existing environment (standby cm, application server(s), optional gateways)
• Need to have at least the primary Content Manager configured and running to use this
• Different than typical installs where you could run multiple installs at the same time with just the components needed for that server. Now need to have the CM running at minimum
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Configuration Differences • Load balancer required now if more than one application server
• Persistence “Sticky session” needs to be set on the application load balancer• Configuration server property
• Identifies server that manages configuration values• Found under Environment settings in IBM Cognos Configuration• Runs on the active Content Manager• Automatically set in Easy install using Connect and install• On active Content Manager can use the Reset to Default option
• If using the new Data Modules feature and the environment is distributed the setting ‘Location of directory for data file’ must be changed to a network path
• Set under Manage -> Configuration in the browser, not in IBM Cognos Configuration
• JDBC file path has changed -> install_location\drivers
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Configuration Differences cont’d • Web server configuration
• IIS configuration• http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21976435
• Apache configuration• http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21978208
• URL Rewrite on the web server• Redirect web requests from the web tier to the application tier
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Upgrade Considerations• Upgrading 11.0.x to future versions can be installed in same path• Images
• Different default path (..\webcontent\bi\samples\images)• Reside on the application server(s)
• 11.x will require a load balancer if more than 1 application server, 10.x did not require this
• Have network path for Data Modules if required, 11.0.3 stores data sets in the content store now, previously were stored in file system
• User interface very different from 10.x• No IBM Cognos Connection, replaced with Welcome• One Reporting tool, user interface profiles not available, yet
• Customized files may not work
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Report Upgrades• Images
• Different default path (..\webcontent\bi\samples\images)• Reside on the application server(s)• May need to update images depending on path used in previous version
• Upgraded many complex reports without issues• Reports containing HTML or javascript will need to be checked as in any
other upgrade of IBM Cognos• Reports created by users in Query, Analysis Studio and other legacy tools
will need to be converted to Reports
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Demo – Using IBM Cognos Analytics
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Review
• Installation differences and options
• Configuration changes
• Upgrade considerations
SEE FARTHER. GO FASTER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com
Coming Next…
[LIVE WEBINAR]
The Power of Predictive – Integrating Weather into Your Data
12pm EST | Tuesday, September 27th
• Ahmed Sherif will demonstrate business use cases for integrating third
party weather data into your BI for more powerful predictive analytics.
Register at: go.ccgbi.com/weather.html
Questions?
Thank you!
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