Verify system requirements
Use the following tables to check the minimum hardware and software requirements to install and run IBM® Cognos® Analytics components on one computer. Additional resources may be required for distributed or production environments.
The following table lists the hardware requirements and specifications for a single computer installation.
Hardware requirements
Requirement |
Specification |
|---|---|
Operating system |
Microsoft Windows UNIX Linux® |
|
Processing |
Minimum: 4 CPU cores for one user. For each deployment, a sizing exercise is highly recommended. |
RAM |
Minimum 10 GB. For more information, see Memory settings. |
Operating system specifications |
File descriptor limit set to 8192 on UNIX and Linux |
Disk space |
A minimum of 3.5 GB of free space is required to install the software and 5 GB of free space on the drive that contains the temporary directory used by IBM Cognos components. An environment variable points to the temporary directory. On Windows this variable is TMP. On UNIX and Linux, this variable is IATEMPDIR For all databases, the size will increase over time. Ensure that you have sufficient disk space for future requirements. |
Printer |
To ensure that reports print properly on Windows, Adobe Reader requires that you configure at least one printer on the computer where you install the Application Tier Components. All reports, regardless of the print format that you choose, are sent as temporary PDF files to Adobe Reader for printing. |
Email server |
To email reports, the system requires the ability to use and access an email server. |
Software requirements
The following table lists the software requirements and specifications for a single computer installation.
Requirement |
Specification |
|---|---|
Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE) |
An IBM JRE is provided as part of the install with IBM Cognos Analytics on all operating systems. |
Database |
You must have one of the following databases available to store IBM Cognos data:
The Easy (previously Ready to Run!) option installs and configures an Informix database as the content store. TCP/IP connectivity is required for all database types. |
Web browser |
For all Web browsers, the following must be enabled:
For Microsoft Internet Explorer only, the following must be enabled:
|
Requirements for map visualizations
The maps that you create in dashboards and reports use a cloud-based tile map and polygon service. You must have internet access from your workstation so that your web browser can access the service through an HTTPS connection.
Internet access to the service is not required from the Cognos Analytics server. The service provides the base maps and the polygons only. No user data is sent to the cloud service.