Adding a location to a connection

Add a location to your connection that will serve as a container for reports that are saved to cloud. The location in Cognos Analytics maps to a bucket that you created in your Cloud Object Storage environment.

About this task

For a demonstration, watch this video:

Determining the region

Procedure

  1. Click Manage > Storage.

    The Cloud storage page appears.

  2. Click the connection to which you want to add a location.

    The Location list page appears.

    Tip: If this message appears: Test failed icon Error accessing cloud storage connection 'connection_name', try this solution.
  3. Click the Create location icon Create location icon or, if no locations exist yet, click Add location.
    The Add location page appears.
  4. Enter a name for your location.
  5. In the Select bucket field, select a bucket that you created using your Cloud Object Storage service.
  6. If you want, enter a key prefix.
    Tip: Key prefix is an optional field that acts like a folder in your cloud object storage environment. If you do not enter a key prefix value, your objects are saved at the root of your bucket.

    • If you enter a key prefix for an Amazon S3 bucket, and a user saves a report to that bucket:

      • The report is copied to a folder in the bucket in the Amazon S3 environment.
      • The folder name is the same as the key prefix value.

      • Example

        A Cognos Analytics user saves the report Product line revenue to the cloud, and selects an AWS service and a bucket that was assigned the key prefix value Revenue. The user selects PDF and Excel formats and English (New Zealand) as the language.

        Result

        The report output files Product line revenue-en-nz.xlsx and Product line revenue-en-nz.pdf appear in the Amazon Management Console, in the location aws_service_name/aws_bucket_name/Revenue.

    • If you enter a key prefix for an IBM COS bucket, and a user saves a report to that bucket:

      • Note: A folder is not created in the bucket in the IBM COS console. Instead, the report appears in the list of bucket objects with key_prefix_value/ prepended to the report name.

      • Example

        A Cognos Analytics user saves the report Product line revenue to the cloud, and selects an IBM COS service and a bucket that was assigned the key prefix value Revenue. The user selects PDF and Excel formats and English (New Zealand) as the language.

        Result

        The report output files Revenue/Product line revenue-en-nz.xlsx and Revenue/Product line revenue-en-nz.pdf appear in the IBM COS console, in the location ibm_cos__service_name/ibm_cos_bucket_name.

    • If you enter a key prefix for an MinIO bucket, and a user saves a report to that bucket:

      • The report is copied to a folder in the bucket in the MinIO browser.
      • The folder name is the same as the key prefix value.
  7. Select the region.
    Important: You must choose the same region that was used when you created your bucket in your cloud object storage environment. For more information, see Determining the region for your Cognos Analytics bucket.
  8. Click Test icon Test.
    • Copy icon Test success indicates that the location is configured properly.
    • Test failed icon Test failed indicates that the location is not configured properly. Try this solution.

What to do next

After you add a location successfully, Cognos Analytics users can save their report output in this cloud location. For more information, see Saving output to cloud.