Set up the installation using a file generated from the Installation wizard

By default, each time you install IBM® Cognos® Office components using the installation wizard, the options that you select are recorded in a transfer specification file. Therefore, if you already installed IBM Cognos Office components on a deployment computer, you can use the generated transfer specification file as a template for unattended installations on different computers. You can do this by starting the installer from the command line and passing the response file in as an argument.

You can check if the unattended installation was successful by checking the return status. A value of zero (0) indicates success and all other values indicate that an error occurred.

Procedure

  1. Use the installation wizard to install the IBM Cognos Office component, such as IBM Cognos Analysis for Microsoft Excel or IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office, on your computer.
  2. Go to [installation_location]/instlog.
  3. Locate the transfer specification file (.ats) that was generated:
    • If you installed IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office, the file name is ts-COC-version-yyyymmdd _hhmm.ats.
    • If you installed IBM Cognos Analysis for Microsoft Excel, the file name is ts-COR-version-yyyymmdd _hhmm.ats.
  4. Copy the transfer specification file to the computer where you plan to install the IBM Cognos Office component.
  5. On the computer where you plan to install the software, download and extract the installation package.
  6. In a text editor, open the transfer specification file (.ats) that you copied.
  7. In the section named License Agreement, change the I AGREE= property to y.

    This action means that you are accepting the license agreement. To read the terms of the license agreement, see the LA_language_code and notices files in either of these locations:

    • in the installation package - in the root installation directory for the operating system
    • on the computer from which you copied the response.ats file - in the c10_location\license\product directory
  8. Save the transfer specification file in the directory where you extracted the contents of the installation package, and in the same folder that contains the installer executable file, issetup.exe.
  9. Open a Command Prompt window, and then change to the directory in which the installer, issetup.exe, is located.
  10. Type the following command, where location is the file path location of the transfer specification file:

    issetup -s location/filename.ats

    The progress of the installation appears in the Windows taskbar.

    If zero (0) is not returned, check the log files for error messages. Errors are recorded in the installation directory in the following log file:

    • For IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office, the file name is tl-COC-version-yyyymmdd-hhmm_summary-error.txt.
    • For IBM Cognos Analysis for Microsoft Excel, the file name is tl-COR-version-yyyymmdd-hhmm_summary-error.txt.

    If errors occur before sufficient initialization occurs, log messages are sent to one of the following log files in the Temp directory:

    • For IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office, the file name is tl-COC-version-yyyymmdd-hhmm.txt.
    • For IBM Cognos Analysis for Microsoft Excel, the file name is tl-COR-version-yyyymmdd-hhmm.txt.