Single server installation

A single server installation allows you to run all of the IBM® Cognos® Analytics server components on the same machine.

You need administration privileges to install and uninstall IBM Cognos Analytics.

Before you begin

You must specify fully qualified host names in the values for the following Cognos Configuration fields. Each value you specify must also appear in either the field Subject Alternative Name > DNS names or the field Subject Alternative Name > IP addresses.
  • Environment
    • Gateway URI
    • External dispatcher URI
    • Internal dispatcher URI
    • Dispatcher URI for external applications
    • Content Manager URIs
  • Environment > Configuration Group
    • Group contact host
    • Member coordination host
  • Security > Cryptography > Cognos
    • Server common name
    • Subject Alternative Name > DNS names
    • Subject Alternative Name > IP addresses

Procedure

  1. Sign in to Passport Advantage and navigate to Download software and request media. Follow the instructions on screen to select the installer and repository you want to download.
  2. Double click the installer file, and follow the directions in the installation wizard to copy and install the files to your computer.

    Installation log files are found here: <installLocation/uninstall/logs>.

  3. Once completed, navigate to Drivers folder <InstallLocation\drivers> and place appropriate JDBC drivers for Content Store and Audit databases.
  4. Navigate to shortcut location and launch Cognos Configuration.
  5. If the Gateway option was selected, modify the Gateway URI to the following format: <http://applicationTierServer:applicationTierPort/bi/v1/disp.

    Use HTTPS if SSL is being used. For more information, see SSL Documentation.

  6. Configure the Audit Database.
    1. Right click on Logging > New Resource > Destination.
    2. Set the name to Audit.
    3. Set the type to Database.
    4. Right click on New Resource > Database > Audit.
    5. Set the name to Audit.
    6. Select the type in Select your database type.
    7. Select the database server and port number.
    8. Set database user ID and password.
    9. Set the database name and encryption.
  7. Configure the Authentication Provider.
    1. Right click Authentication Source > New Resource > Namespace.
    2. Set the name.
    3. Set the Type (Group)
    4. Set the Type

    For more authentication details, please refer to Configuring Cognos Analytics guide, Chapter 7

  8. If Content Store is Db2, fill in the following fields:
    1. Database Server and port number.
    2. User ID and Password for the database.
    3. Database name and encryption.
  9. If Content Store is not Db2, complete the following steps:
    1. Right Click Content Manager and select Delete. Confirm deletion.
    2. Right Click Content Manager > New Resource > Database.
    3. Set the Name.
    4. Set the Type (Group).
    5. Set the Database Server and Port number.
    6. Set the User ID and Password for the database.
    7. Set the Database name and Encryption.
  10. Configure a mail Server.
    1. Click Notification.
    2. Set the SMTP mail server.
    3. Set account and password, if applicable.
    4. Set default sender, if applicable.
    5. Set the SSL encryption enabled value.
  11. Configure a notification store.
    1. Click Notification > New Resource > Database.
    2. Set the name as Notification Store.
    3. Select your notification store database type in Type.
    4. Set the database server and port number.
    5. Set the User ID and password.
    6. Set the Database name.
    7. Set the Encryption.
  12. Test the configurations to ensure settings are valid. Do this by clicking Configuration > Action Menu > Test.

If you have not set up a Gateway you can now access IBM Cognos Analytics here: serverName:9300/bi.

Required and Optional tasks after installation

The following chart shows required and optional tasks after installing components.

Table 1.
Task Resources Required or Optional

You must use one of the supported enterprise-level databases as the content store in a production environment.

The content store is a database that Content Manager uses to store global configuration data, global settings (such as the language and currency formats shown in the user interface), connections to data sources, and product-specific content.

See Guidelines for creating the content store and Installing and configuring Content Manager for the content repository.

 Required

Configure after installing components.

These configuration actions are critical to the success of your installation.

See JDBC Drivers for Audit an Notification Store Databases.

 Required

For authenticated logon, you must configure IBM Cognos Analytics components with an appropriate namespace for the type of authentication provider in your environment.

See Authentication Provider.

 Required

You can create an audit database to store log messages.

See Audit Database.

 Optional

Configure your IBM® Cognos® Analytics mail server to send notifications using IBM Cognos Event Studio.

See Mail Server Setup.

 Optional

You can use a separate database for notification in situations where you run large volumes of batch reports and email.

By default, the notification server uses the same database that Content Manager uses for the content store.

See Notification Store Documentation.

 Optional
Configure your web server.

You must configure your web server before users can connect to the IBM® Cognos® Analytics portal. For IBM Cognos Analytics for reporting, you must also set the content expiry for the images directory in your web server so that the web browser does not check image status after the first access.

See Gateway Documentation.

This tool automates the configuration steps based on the IBM Knowledge Center article – Configuring IIS with Cognos Analytics.

See Internet Information Services Automated Script

To view and browse images in the Reporting, configure Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) on your web server. Report authors can browse for images to include in reports in a way that is similar to browsing a file system. On Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) web servers, you must first enable the WebDAV feature, and then configure your web server to access the image location.

See WEBDAV on IIS Documentation.

  
Configure your web server (continued)

To view and browse images in the Reporting, configure Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) on your web server. Report authors can browse for images to include in reports in a way that is similar to browsing a file system. On IBM HTTP Server or Apache HTTP Server, you must add directives to your server configuration file, and then configure the directory access.

See WEBDAV Apache/IBM HTTP Server.

After you complete this web server procedure, the server can handle requests for static files (such as .js, .html, .css), load balance requests to IBM Cognos Analytics, and route SSO requests through the IBM Cognos Analytics gateway code.

See Apache / IBM HTTP Server (IHS) Scripts