Cognos Integration Requirements

The following are the prerequisites necessary for IBM Automatic Data Lineage to connect to this third-party system, which you may choose to do at your sole discretion. Note that while these are usually sufficient to connect to this third-party system, we cannot guarantee that the connection or integration will be successful since we have no control, liability, or responsibility for third-party products or services, including for their performance.

• The scanner is developed against Cognos Analytics 11.0.8. It also aims to support Cognos Business Intelligence version 10. While Automatic Data Lineage can’t guarantee automatic support of every new Cognos Analytics version, Cognos Analytics 12.0.3 was successfully tested with the scanner and newer versions might work as well.
• Certain Cognos SDK libraries that match the version of the Cognos server; these libraries are described further in the following section
• User having the following roles:
  • Directory Administrator with read permission (ensures that all reports will be available for extraction)
• Connection parameters:
  • Cognos Gateway URL
  • Anonymous access indication or all of the following
    • User name
    • User password
    • ID of the namespace that the user belongs to
• Server must be accessible via network and running
• Cognos scanner does not use Manta's connectors truststore. Certificates for secure connections need to be imported into Java default truststore. See Importing certificates into Java default truststore for detailed instructions.

• To handle many large Framework Manager models (FMD project files of about 100MB or more), it might be necessary to increase the maximum heap space for a JVM, both on the Cognos side and the Automatic Data Lineage side.

  • For the Automatic Data Lineage side, this can be done in Process Manager as described in Scenario-Execution-Runtime-Limits. Depending on the size of the Framework Manager model, 10 or even 15GB may be needed.

  • For Cognos, Adjusting the memory resources for the IBM Cognos service describes how to increase allocated memory in Cognos.

• To process Dynamic Cubes and the related data flows, Cube Designer project files in FMD format need to be provided manually and the manual mapping file searchPathMappingManual.csv describing the relations between package search paths and file locations needs to be edited accordingly. The Dynamic Cube configuration for the Cognos scanner is described in detail on the page Cognos Resource Configuration.
  • The manual mapping also requires certain knowledge of Dynamic Cube usage in the company and the ability to determine which Dynamic Cubes are used in some reports in Cognos Analytics.

Cognos SDK Libraries

Manta cannot distribute Cognos SDK libraries because they are owned by IBM and licensed accordingly. However, Cognos SDK and its libraries are usually included in the contract when a Cognos Analytics software license is purchased / subscribed to by a customer. Copy the following libraries

• axis.jar
• axisCognosClient.jar
• jaxrpc.jar
• axisCrnpClient.jar

from <COGNOS_SDK_INSTALL_DIRECTORY>/sdk/java/lib to <MANTAFLOW_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY>/cli/scenarios/manta-dataflow-cli/lib-ext, restart the Manta Service Utility, and be sure to reboot Manta Apache Services when finished.

NOTE: These files are associated with the dispatcher component of Cognos (as opposed to the Content Manager component).

Cognos Scanner Overview

The Cognos scanner extracts XML specifications of reports, interactive reports, data modules, Framework Manager models, and data sets from the content store as well as database connection information. It analyzes reports and all the objects that the reports depend on and produces data lineage. If the Cognos scanner and relevant database scanners are configured properly, Manta Viewer can display lineage starting with databases or uploaded files, flowing through Framework Manager models or data modules right into the report's query objects, and finally to the visualization elements called report items.

Supported Features

• Framework Manager models (including multilingual definitions)
• Reports dependent on a Framework Manager model or a Dynamic cube
• Report queries (including SQL-based queries and queries created using operations such as joins and unions)
• Data modules with all the possible data sources for data modules, such as:
  • Databases
  • Other data modules
  • Data sets
  • Uploaded files such as XSLX, CSV, and others
• Reports dependent on a data module up to Cognos Analytics version 11.0.x
• Database connection support, even reports with SQL placed directly in query objects
• Almost all report visualizations
  • Map visualization and other visualizations based on report data stores (as of R42.2)
• Report queries
• Filters in report queries
• Publishing expressions (calculations) that are used to calculate various data items
• Multilingual Framework Manager models: Please note that objects in Cognos reports are NOT multilingual; their names are unique and can be set in edit mode. Report items can have localized labels, but these labels can't be easily matched to the relevant report item, which is why non-localized technical names are used as object identifiers in Manta viewer.
• Dynamic Cubes provided as Cube Designer projects (including multilingual definitions and virtual cubes)
• Dynamic Cubes defined in a stand-alone Cube Designer project and referenced via Framework Manager models
• Data modules in Cognos Analytics 11.1 and newer (as of R42.5)

Known Unsupported Features

Automatic Data Lineage does not support the following Cognos features. This list includes all of the features that IBM is aware are unsupported, but it might not be comprehensive.

• Multilingual reports
• Dynamic Cubes designed in Framework Manager as part of a DQM package
• Data sources based on Power Cubes, TM1 Cubes. Note that Cognos Finance, Cognos Now, and Cognos planning data sources are not even supported by Cognos Analytics itself as of 11.0.4.
• Dashboards and stories
• Reports using a lot of advanced query macros and prompts might not be accurate, as they use run-time information that Automatic Data Lineage can't analyze
• Framework Manager package relationships (causing missing indirect lineage)