Configuring Cognos TM1 for Cognos Analysis for Excel single sign-on

Allowing single sign on (SSO) that is configured for the IBM® Cognos® Business Intelligence authentication to work through IBM Cognos Analysis for Excel when accessing a Cognos BI secured IBM Cognos TM1® server requires some addition configuration steps to be applied to the Cognos TM1 installation.

About this task

Similar to the steps required to allow access to BI secured TM1 servers for TM1 Web, CAFE access requires some files to be dropped into the IBM Cognos BI Gateway install and some configuration settings to be implemented as well.

Cognos Analysis for Excel requires an instance of Cognos BI Gateway for a dedicated entry point. This Cognos BI Gateway instance must be enabled according to the steps described in Using Cognos TM1 Applications with Cognos security. In particular, this ensures that the Gateway installation will be supplemented by the three files that are required (pmhub.html, planning.html, and variables_plan.xml).

Note: The required files are included in the bi_interop.zip file that is located in the directory <TM1 installation location>\bi_interop.

Procedure

  1. On the Cognos BI Gateway installation that is selected for the Cognos Analysis for Excel entry point, navigate to Cognos_root\templates\ps\portal\ where Cognos_root is the directory that Cognos BI has been installed to.
  2. Open the file variables_plan.xml.
  3. Verify that the <url>../pmhub.html</url> tag exists below <url>../planning.html</url>. The following text is an example of the variables_plan.xml file:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<CRNenv>
<urls>
<url>../planning.html</url>
<url>../pmhub.html</url>
</urls>
<cookies>
<param name="cam_passport"/>
<param name="CRN"/>
</cookies>
</CRNenv>
  4. Close the file.
  5. Navigate to Cognos_root\webcontent where Cognos_root is the directory that Cognos BI has been installed to.
  6. Open pmhub.html to edit it.
  7. Add the PMHub service locations. This enables SSO to operate.
  8. Make sure that the user account that is running the web server has permission to access pmhub.html. If you cannot access the pmhub.html in a web browser, check the pmhub.html file properties.
  9. Edit the PMHub configuration screen.
    1. In a web browser, enter http://servername:port number/pmhub/pm/admin to open the configuration screen.

      For example: http://localhost:9510/pmhub/pm/admin

    2. Expand the node for configurations > com.ibm.ba.pm.resource.security.dictionary and enter values for the following properties:
      • CAMBIURL
      • CAMGatewayURL
Parent topic: Cognos TM1 and Cognos Analysis for Microsoft Excel