Data catalogs (Cognos Analytics)

Cognos Analytics can be connected to a catalog such as IBM® Knowledge Catalog.

IBM Knowledge Catalog is an extension to IBM Cloud Pak for Data that provides self-service access to data assets for knowledge workers who need to use those data assets to gain insights.

For more information, see the following topics:

A catalog in IBM Knowledge Catalog can reference one or more connected assets that refer to data sources. Cognos Analytics can import and reuse the connection details. Currently, only details for connected assets that correspond to databases supported by Cognos Analytics are imported.

Notes about IBM Knowledge Catalog connections in Cognos Analytics

Cognos Analytics displays IBM Knowledge Catalog schemas and tables the same way that it displays data for other types of data server connections.
Cognos Analytics administrators do not manage the connection details of a connected IBM Knowledge Catalog asset. Connection details are managed by the database administrator in IBM Knowledge Catalog.
You can create Cognos Analytics connections to multiple catalogs.

Before you begin

To connect to a IBM Knowledge Catalog, you must first add the IBM Knowledge Catalog certificate to your Cognos server:

Confirm that your certificate is signed by a trusted root authority by entering the IBM Knowledge Catalog URL into a browser and seeing a padlock to the left of the URL.

If you import a self-signed certificate and try to create an external catalog connection to IBM Knowledge Catalog, the following message might appear:
```
MSR-WKC-2404 Invalid connection string, user name or password
```
If your certificate is self-signed, replace it with a trusted TLS certificate by following the steps in Using a custom TLS certificate for HTTPS connections to the IBM Software Hub platform.
Follow the steps in Creating a secret to store shared custom certificates.

Connecting to IBM Knowledge Catalog server

Click Manage > Data server connections.
In the Data server connections page, click the Add data server icon .
Select External Catalog as the type.
In the Edit External Catalog connection page, enter the following text in the Server URL field:
jdbc:wkc:url_for_knowledge_catalog_server

url_for_knowledge_catalog_server is the URL to the IBM Cloud Pak for Data main landing page for the Cloud Pak for Data instance with IBM Knowledge Catalog installed.

For example, if your Cloud Pak for Data URL is https://cpd.test.cloud.ibm.com, then the Server URL value would be:

jdbc:wkc:https://cpd.test.cloud.ibm.com

Tip: Leave the Connection properties field blank.
In the Authentication method section, select Use the following signon.
Tip: Use the following signon is the only valid authentication method for an external catalog connector.
Click the plus sign icon .
On the Credentials tab, enter a valid IBM Knowledge Catalog user ID and password.
Tip: Specify a username and password with which you want to connect to IBM Knowledge Catalog. The user credentials are the credentials that are defined in the Cloud Pak for Data instance. You can choose to use the Cloud Pak for Data admin user ID or another Cloud Pak for Data user ID with access to IBM Knowledge Catalog.
Click Test to ensure that the connection works.
Click Save to save the connection in Cognos Analytics.