IBM Support

PF-SRV-6116 Error loading IBM Cognos Administration on IIS 7

Troubleshooting


Problem

An error is displayed while attempting to launch IBM Cognos Administration but end-users are able to access IBM Cognos Connection without problem. IIS 7 has been configured to host the IBM Cognos 8 BI web content.

Symptom

The following error message is displayed:

"PF-SRV-6116 Unable to process the document, target is not valid or the target was not received."

Cause

By default handlers defined in IIS 7.0 for either CGI or ISAPI modules do not process the full path information in a URI.

Environment

Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7.0

Resolving The Problem

In order for Cognos Administration to function properly the handler mapping created in IIS 7 must be manually edited to allow full path information to be processed by the handler.


Steps:
(1) Locate the relevant handler mapping file.
TIP: Depending on how IIS is set up the handler mapping will have been written to one of the following files:
  • C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationhost.config
  • or <c8_install_location>\c8\cgi-bin\web.config
    • TIP: cgi-bin\web.config is the most likely of the two locations that IIS is using.

(2) Search the relevant file (or both of these files) for the relevant CGI or ISAPI entry:
  • If your report server is configured to use CGI (the default) then look for this line:
    <add name="CGI-cognos" path="*.cgi" verb="*" modules="CgiModule" resourceType="Unspecified" />
  • If your report server is configured to use ISAPI then look for this line:
    <add name="ISAPI-cognos" path="cognosisapi.dll" verb="*" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="C:\Program Files (x86)\cognos\c8\cgi-bin\cognosisapi.dll" resourceType="Unspecified" preCondition="bitness32" />

(3) As a precaution, make a backup copy of the file (that this entry is found in) before proceeding

(4) Modify this entry by adding the attribute: allowPathInfo="true"


  • For example, if using CGI then it would become:
    <add name="CGI-cognos" path="*.cgi" verb="*" modules="CgiModule" resourceType="Unspecified" allowPathInfo="true" />
  • For example, if using ISAPI then it would become something similar to:
    <add name="ISAPI-cognos" path="cognosisapi.dll" verb="*" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="C:\Program Files (x86)\cognos\c8\cgi-bin\cognosisapi.dll" resourceType="Unspecified" preCondition="bitness32" allowPathInfo="true" />

(5) Save the modified file.
(6) Restart IIS.

[{"Product":{"code":"SSEP7J","label":"Cognos Business Intelligence"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"Install and Config","Platform":[{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"10.2.2;10.2.1;10.2;10.1.1","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
15 June 2018

UID

swg21390241