Enabling SSL for communications with Db2 and Informix databases

You can enable secure sockets layer (SSL) protocol for communications between IBM® Cognos® Analytics and IBM Db2 and Informix Dynamic Server databases.

The databases that can be configured are the Content Manager, Notification, Mobile, Human Task and Annotation Services, and Logging databases.

Before you begin

Ensure that you enable SSL on your database server before you perform the steps in IBM Cognos Configuration.

Procedure

  1. Follow the documentation for your database version to enable SSL for the database server and to export the SSL certificate.
  2. Obtain the root Certificate Authority (CA) certificate, as well as any intermediate certificate authority certificates, and copy them to the computer where Cognos Analytics is installed, in a location that's easy to access.
  3. For each certificate that you copied to your computer, run this command: 
    installation_location\ibm-jre\jre\bin\keytool 
-import -trustcacerts -file "certificate_location\certificate_name.crt" 
-keystore C:\Progra~1\ibm\cognos\analytics\ibm-jre\jre\lib\security\cacerts 
-alias alias
    Notes:
    • If you are importing more than one certificate, ensure that you specify a unique alias for each certificate.
    • If you are prompted for a keystore password, type changeit, which is the default password for the JVM keystore.
    Example
    You want to import, to the root folder of your C drive, two certificates:
    • a Root CA certificate, rootca.crt
    • an Intermediate certificate, myteam_int.crt for use by your team
    For the Root CA certificate, type the following:
    C:\Progra~1\ibm\cognos\analytics\ibm-jre\jre\bin\keytool 
-import -trustcacerts -file "c:\rootca.crt" 
-keystore C:\Progra~1\ibm\cognos\analytics\ibm-jre\jre\lib\security\cacerts 
-alias rootca
    For the Intermediate certificate, type the following:
    C:\Progra~1\ibm\cognos\analytics\ibm-jre\jre\bin\keytool 
-import -trustcacerts -file "c:\myteam_int.crt" 
-keystore C:\Progra~1\ibm\cognos\analytics\ibm-jre\jre\lib\security\cacerts 
-alias myteam_int
  4. Start IBM Cognos Configuration.
  5. Under Data Access, click the database name that you want to configure. For example, to configure the content store database, under Content Manager, click the database name.

    Other databases that can be configured are Notification, Mobile, Human Task and Annotation Services, and Logging.

    Tip: To configure the Logging database, go to Environment > Logging.
  6. In the properties pane, click the SSL Encryption Enabled property, and set its value to True.
  7. Test the connection.
  8. Save your configuration, and restart your IBM Cognos Analytics services.