Specifying file system locations for reports

You can specify the locations in which you want to save the output of reports in the Cognos® Analytics reporting tool.

You must configure the root directory of the locations that you specify in the Cognos Analytics reporting tool. You must stop and restart the Cognos Analytics server after you specify the locations.
Specify the locations for report output if you want to share reports with an external application, such as a web site. The reports are saved to this location every time they are updated so that current content is always available. You can also save reports on a local network for users who do not have access to Cognos Analytics software.

You can specify multiple locations for the report output.

  1. Go to the URL for your Cognos Analytics server. The format of the URL is similar to this URL: http://myhostname:9300/bi
  2. Click Manage in the Welcome portal, then click Administration console.
  3. Click the Configuration tab.
  4. Click Dispatchers and Services.
  5. Click the Define File System Locations icon Image shows the Define File System Locations icon..
  6. On the Define file system locations page, click New.
  7. Specify a name and the directory for the location on the file system, and then click Finish.
    For example, enter sales.
    The directory is created the first time that the output of a report for the directory is created.
    Repeat this step to configure more file system locations.
The location that you specified is appended to the file system root location that is specified in the IBM® Cognos Configuration GUI. In the IBM Cognos Configuration GUI, the file system root location is referred to as the Archive Location File System Root.

When users select Save report as an external file as the report delivery method when they run or schedule a report, the report output files are saved to this location each time the report runs.