Setting up Interactive Performance Assistant (IPA)

Set up Cognos Analytics Interactive Performance Assistant (IPA) so that authors can analyze the performance of their reports and dashboards.

About this task

To set up IPA, you first enable the feature in the Manage component. You must also create an IPA database and import the IPA deployment that is installed with Cognos Analytics.

By default, IPA data is written to the Notification database defined in Cognos Configuration. If no Notification database is configured, then the IPA data is written to the Content Store database.

Tables with the 'IPA' prefix will get created in the IPA database. Ensure that you verify that these tables exist.

Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server are supported database types.

Notes:
  • IPA records are captured only during a specific report's execution and not system-wide. The IPA records stored in the database are truncated 10 hours after their creation.
  • The IPA database can be used with SSL-secured connections. For more information, see Using the SSL protocol for database communications.
  • The performance detail reports that are included in the deployment IBM_Cognos_IPA.zip are in English only.

Procedure

  1. Enable the DISP.zipi.IPAEnabled parameter.
    1. Click Manage > Administration console.
    2. Click the Status tab.
    3. Click System.
    4. Click the Actions button next to System, and then select Set properties.
    5. Click the Settings tab.
    6. Click Edit next to Advanced settings.
    7. Type DISP.zipi.IPAEnabled in the Parameter field.
    8. Type true in the Value field.
      Tip: Ensure that the letters in true are all lower case.
    9. Click OK twice to apply the setting.
  2. Log in to the IPA database (the Notification database, if configured, otherwise the Content Store database) and confirm that the following tables are generated and populated with data:
    • IPA_ACTIVITY_ACTIONS
    • IPA_BUCKETS
    • IPA_COGDATES
    • IPA_COGTIMES
    • IPA_CUBE_REQ
    • IPA_LOGRECORDS
    • IPA_RECORDETAILS
    • IPA_REPORT_REQ
    • IPA_SERVERS
    • IPA_USERS
  3. Create a data source, named IPADATA, that points to the IPA database that you verified in step 2.
    The IPADATA data source is used for the information contained in the reports supplied in the IPA deployment named IBM_Cognos_IPPA.zip.
  4. Import the deployment IBM_Cognos_IPPA.zip, located in the install_location\deployment folder.

    For more information, see Importing a deployment archive.

    A folder called ZIPI is created in Team content.

  5. Verify that IPA is configured correctly to collect performance data and populate tables in the IPA database.
    1. In Team content, navigate to a report and click it to open it.
    2. Click the Edit icon Edit icon to go in Author mode.
    3. Select the chevron chevron icon next to the run button run options button and then select Show run options.
    4. Enable the Include performance details option and click OK.
    5. Click the Run HTML icon Run HTML button .
    6. If you want to run a specific page of the report, go to Report > Pages, select the page and then click the Run page icon Run HTML button.
    7. Confirm that you can click links in the relevant IPA performance reports to access details about the report you just ran. The performance reports are located in Team content > ZIPI > Interactive Performance Assistant.

Results

Authors can now generate and analyze performance data about their reports and dashboards.