Enabling RSVP recordings for specific users

Starting with IBM® Cognos® Analytics 12.0.2, you can enable RSVP recordings for a specific user without restarting the Cognos Analytics service.

To enable this functionality, specify the Reporting.RecordUser advanced setting, with the user ID as the setting value.

If the user that is specified in Reporting.RecordUser exists in multiple namespaces, RSVP recordings are generated for each matched user in each namespace.

Performance is impacted when RSVP recordings are enabled. Disable the recordings when they are no longer needed. To turn off the recordings, set Reporting.RecordUser to blank.

Note: An administrator can also enable RSVP recordings in the install_location\configuration\rsvpproperties.xml file. RSVP recordings that are enabled this way affect all users and all report executions, which has a significant impact on the system performance. For more information, see Enabling RSVP recordings for the whole system.

About this task

The value for Reporting.RecordUser can be set only with the advanced settings user interface (not in the rsvpproperties.xml file).

When Reporting.RecordUser is enabled, the following additional properties can also be enabled by setting their values accordingly:

Reporting.RecordAsynch
Determines whether asynchronous processing is enabled when recordings are enabled. By default it is enabled. Disabling asynchronous processing might lead to timeouts when running large reports, and it prevents the cancel dialog box from appearing when running classic reports.
Values:
  • 0 - Asynchronous processing is disabled
  • 1 - Asynchronous processing is enabled (default)
Reporting.DatasetRecordingMode
Specifies whether the retrieved main data sets and partial data sets are written to an xml file in the temp/rsvp directory. This property might turn off the 'allRows' query optimization hint.
Values:
  • 0 - No data sets are recorded
  • 1 - Master data sets and partial data sets are recorded (default)
  • 2 - Master data sets are recorded, but partial data sets are not recorded. This setting does not affect query hints.
Reporting.ExternalServicesRecordingMode
Specifies how SOAP requests and responses are written to a file.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is written to a file
  • 1 - The SOAP requests and responses are written to a file (default)
Reporting.KeepOnlyFaultRecordings
Controls whether recordings for successful requests are kept or discarded. When the Reporting.RecordUser and KeepOnlyFaultRecordings properties are both enabled, only recordings for requests that fail are kept. Initially, recordings are created. Then, as a final step before the response is returned, a check is made to determine if the request succeeded. If it did, the recording folder is removed. Otherwise, the recorded data is kept.
Values:
  • 0 - All recordings are kept (default)
  • 1 - Only recordings for the failed requests are kept
Reporting.RecordChartAssembly
Controls if chart assembly information is written to file.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 - The chart assembly information is written to a file
Reporting.WriteAuthoredDThroughTargetFiles
Controls whether to record authored drill-thorugh files.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 - The following drill-up or drill-down files are written to the recordings folder: _loadState_drill.xml, _loadState_mgr.xml, _storeState_drill.xml, _storeState_mgr.xml, drill_reportSpec_after.xml, drill_reportSpec_before.xml
Reporting.WriteContextMetadataXml
Specifies whether context metadata XML is written to file.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 -Context metadata XML is written to the temp/rsvp directory.
Reporting.WriteDrillUpDownFiles
Specifies whether to write drill-up and drill-down intermittent state files.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 - The following drill-up and drill-down files are written to the recordings folder: _loadState_drill.xml, _loadState_mgr.xml, _storeState_drill.xml, _storeState_mgr.xml, drill_reportSpec_after.xml, drill_reportSpec_before.xml.
Reporting.WriteIntermediateXml
Specifies whether intermediate XML is written to a file.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 - Intermediate XML is written to the temp/rsvp directory.
Reporting.WriteMetadataCache
Controls whether metadata cache is written to a file.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 - Metadata cache is written to the temp/rsvp directory.
Reporting.WriteParameters
Controls if the SOAP request parameters are written to a file.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded
  • 1 - The SOAP request parameters are written to a file (default).
Reporting.WriteRefQueryItemCollectionXml
Controls whether ref query item collection is written to a file.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 - Ref query item collection is written to the recordings folder.
Reporting.WriteReportSpecToFile
When this property is enabled, the passed report specification passed is written to an xml file in the recordings folder.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 - The V5 report specification that is being executed is recorded.
  • 2 - Same as 1, but also records the V5 specification prior to any preprocessing of the specification.
  • 3 - Same as 2, but also records the V5 specification after preprocessing (before the edit specification option is applied).
Reporting.WriteROM
Controls whether read-only memory (ROM) is written to file.
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 - ROM is written to the temp/rsvp directory.
Reporting.WriteRunnableReportSpec
Controls whether to write a runnableReportSpec.xml file
Values:
  • 0 - Nothing is recorded (default)
  • 1 - Recording are written to the runnableReportSpec.xml file.

All these properties are also available in the rsvpproperties.xml file, without the Reporting prefix. The values that are specified through the advanced settings user interface override the values that are specified in the rsvpproperties.xml file.

These properties can be enabled before or after Reporting.RecordUser is enabled. The new value is picked up the next time a report runs.

Note: The RecordingsEnabled property can be set up only in the rsvpproperties.xml (or rsvpproperties.xml.sample) file, if you want to enable RSVP recordings for all users.

Procedure

  1. Click Manage > Configuration > System > Advanced Settings.
  2. In the Key field, type Reporting.RecordUser, and in the Value field, type the user id.
    Tip: The User ID can be found in Manage > Accounts > Namespaces > namespace name, in the user properties page, on the General tab in the Advanced section.
  3. Click Apply.
  4. Refresh your browser window.
  5. To specify any of the additional settings, repeat the same steps.

    For example, to enable recordings for the Reporting.WriteROM setting (read-only memory (ROM) is written to a file), type the property name in the Key field, and specify the value of 1.

    Note: When Reporting.RecordUser is enabled, Reporting.RecordAsynch is by default set to 1, unless changed by the administrator. With this value, the asynchronous processing is enabled.

Results

The RSVP recordings are written to the Cognos Analytics install_location\temp\rsvp directory.