Setting up connectivity to Microsoft SQL Server data sources

To connect to Microsoft SQL Server data sources, the dynamic query mode requires that you copy the appropriate Java™ Archive (.jar) file of the JDBC driver to the directory that is accessible to the web page that will invoke the applet. The file that you copy is based on the data source security strategy.

Before you begin

To access data from an SQL Server database by using the Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server, you must have the following components installed on your computer:
  • Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server
  • Java Runtime Environment

About this task

The file requirements are dependent on the data source security strategy. For non-integrated security connections that pass the saved sign-on information, the dynamic query mode requires access only to the Microsoft JDBC driver. For integrated security connections that use the service credentials to connect to the data source, the dynamic query mode requires access to both the Microsoft JDBC driver and its associated 32-bit or 64-bit authentication dynamic linked library (DLL).

To find out the names of the JDBC driver .jar files and dynamic linked libraries .dll that are required to set up the connection for your version of SQL Server, see the Microsoft SQL Server documentation.

Use the following instructions to configure Microsoft SQL Server integrated security connectivity for use within IBM® Cognos® Analytics with Watson installed on a Windows operating system.

Procedure

  1. Download and install the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver from the Microsoft website.
  2. In the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver installation directory, locate and copy the <version>.jar file to the cognos_analytics_server_install_location\drivers directory.
  3. In the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver installation directory, locate and copy the 32-bit or the 64-bit version of <version>.dll to the cognos_analytics_server_install_location\bin (or bin64) directory.
  4. For changes to take effect, stop and restart the IBM Cognos service.

What to do next

After you copy the driver files for your data source, users can create dynamic cubes. For more information, see the Dynamic cube modeling chapter of the IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes User Guide.