Installing Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Server on Windows

by admin on April 23, 2008

This tutorial walks through the installation of IBM Cognos 8.3 Business Intelligence Server on Windows.

To start the installation, double click the issetup.exe in the win32 directory. On Windows Vista or Windows 2008 server, right click issetup.exe and select ‘Run as Administrator’.

Accept the license agreement and click Next.

Select a location for the install. By default, Cognos 8 will be installed in c:\program files\cognos\c8.

Expand the selection. Select Cognos Content Database if you need to install the Apache Derby content store. This is not checked by default, as it is only for stand-alone development or demo systems.

A Program Folder will be created in the Windows Start menu. You can change the name from Cognos 8 if you have other versions of Cognos 8 co-existing on this same server.

An installation summary page will appear. Click next to start the installation.

The installer will copy over the files.

When the files have been copied over, this page will appear. Check ‘Start Cognos Configuration’ and click the Finish button to open Cognos Configuration.

Cognos Configuration opens.

Under the file menu, select save, or click the save icon, to accept the default settings. Cognos Configuration will verify the settings and write to several configuration files. Close the dialogue window when the save is complete. If a red X or an exclamation mark appears, click the Details button to see the error or warning message.

Click the play button to apply the configuration and to start the Cognos 8 service. If a red X or an exclamation mark appears, click the Details button to see the error or warning message. As we did not configure a mail server, a warning will appear. Not having a mail server will only affect the notification services, so we can proceed with the installation and configure the mail server at another time.

Two Windows services will have been installed and started: Cognos 8 and Cognos Content Database.

To quickly test the installation, open up a web browser and type in the following URL to test the content manager: http://localhost:9300/p2pd/servlet. If it is running correctly, this message will appear.

To test the dispatcher, type in this URL: http://localhost:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch. The browser will be redirected to http://localhost:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch?b_action=xts.run&m=portal/cc.xts&gohome=, which will bring up Cognos Connection. The images and formatting will be absent because we are connecting directly to the Cognos servlet running on the default application server (Apache Tomcat).

At this point, the web server (usually IIS on Windows) is to be configured. However, for this tutorial we are installing Cognos as a stand-alone application independent of any third party products so we will skip the web server configuration. It can be configured at a later time. To see the graphics in Cognos Connection, copy the contents of the webcontent folder from c8/webcontent to c8/webapps/p2pd. Refresh the browser after the copy is complete.

This tutorial walked through the installation of Cognos 8.3 on Windows. By using the Cognos Content Database (Apache Derby) and Tomcat, it is a true stand alone installation, suitable for a demo or a small development environment. For a more robust system, it is highly recommended to use a web server gateway, which can be added at anytime.

Post to Twitter

{ 47 comments }

muhammad aamir June 17, 2008 at 7:57 am

hi,

I want to learn cognos because it is needed at my office ,so kindly could you arrange some cognos related good tutorials like you have explained installation process.so it will help me to learn cognos.

muhammad aamir June 17, 2008 at 7:58 am

it good

jack July 1, 2008 at 5:52 am

it is very good

RAJ allam July 1, 2008 at 7:16 pm

could you please send me the cognos 8 material.

Regards
RAJ

RAJ allam July 1, 2008 at 7:17 pm

it ’s marvelous …Thanx

satish challa July 3, 2008 at 12:34 pm

thanks for the information
if u don’t mine can u send me the cognos FAQs

robjack July 28, 2008 at 10:09 am

This is an excellent and thorough tutorial. However, when I attempted to install a newer version of Cognos I ran into a problem. When I open cognos configuration, an error message pops up indicating that the JRE has changed and the current cryptographic information is not compatible with the new JRE. I’ve set JAVA_HOME to the cognos JRE and it still doesn’t work. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Nishant Shah August 4, 2008 at 8:50 am

Hi,
During cognos configuration i got an error like:
1. [ ERROR ] The database connection failed.
2. [ ERROR ] Content Manager is unable to access the content store. Verify your database connection parameters and then contact your database administrator

So please guide me to what to do

cognos08 August 11, 2008 at 12:49 pm

So if i wanna install sample database, what do i need to do. Do i have to configure IIS8 (not iis7)) with SQL05 or Oracle 10G ? do i need vista business or home premium will do, I’d appreciate the reply,
thanx.

Uday August 28, 2008 at 3:55 pm

When I install cognos 8.1 and during configuration I get error
1. [ ERROR ] The database connection failed.
2. [ ERROR ] Content Manager is unable to access the content store. Verify your database connection parameters and then contact your database administrator .
In this eg. cognos 8.3 installation “cognos content database ” is installed by default where as in 8.1 its not there . Please advice

esther September 12, 2008 at 12:44 pm

When I install cognos 8.3 and during configuration I get error
1. [ ERROR ] The database connection failed.
2. [ ERROR ] Content Manager is unable to access the content store. Verify your database connection parameters and then contact your database administrator .
In this eg. cognos 8.3 installation “cognos content database ” is installed by default where as in 8.1 its not there . Please advice

Perla Fazio September 26, 2008 at 5:04 am

Benissimo,
grazie

chakravarthy October 4, 2008 at 7:18 am

this is very good. and could u please send about cognos business components.

shravan October 17, 2008 at 6:25 am

When I install cognos 8 and during configuration I get error
1. [ ERROR ] The database connection failed.
2. [ ERROR ] Content Manager is unable to access the content store. Verify your database connection parameters and then contact your database administrator .

please help me

Bharat October 23, 2008 at 4:35 am

Hi

Its Amazing. The tutorial helped me a lot. It will be gr8 if u send me the cognos configuration settings with the Oracle HTTP server. ur help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Jaime October 29, 2008 at 12:45 am

Hello
I’m Mexican and I’m looking Cognos, you could teach me how to configure IIS 8.3 on Cognos 7, and since it installed and there are some sections that do not work if someone could show me any tutorial or guide, I would appreciate deeply.
Thank you

jaimedcj@hotmail.com

gotiva November 3, 2008 at 4:38 pm

I just got a job at the company that is currently migrating from Cognos 7 to Cognos 8. Do you happen to have any good tutorial on how to use Cognos 8: Report Studio, Query Studio and Analysis Studio.
Thanks,
Gotiva

venu November 4, 2008 at 1:37 am

The information is very good.
I have installed Cognos 8 in the system.
But the graphics in Cognos site is still absent.
Please advice.
Thanks,
Venu

Vinod November 8, 2008 at 11:10 am

Thanx for the information. How to set up the Cognos content store.

Ramani J December 8, 2008 at 2:15 am

Hi Venu,
the graphics in Cognos site is still absent because of u copied the webcontent folder itself and pasted. But to solve that problem u need to Copy the CONTENT of the webcontent and paste it. if u do so it will work fine.

“venu on November 4th, 2008 1:37 am The information is very good.
I have installed Cognos 8 in the system.
But the graphics in Cognos site is still absent.
Please advice.
Thanks,
Venu”

Bubba December 12, 2008 at 7:46 am

FYI – If you install this with IIS as the web server you need to go into IIS and enable CGI. IIS is installed with CGI disabled by default.

Senthil December 30, 2008 at 9:29 pm

Icon graphics does not appears on the cognos connection page after copying CONTENTS from “webcontent” folder

folder “sample” was copied from “webcontent” to c8/webapps/p2pd location, but the issue still persist. Any help is
greatly appreciated.

Actually I could not able to find the “webcontent” folder under “c8/webcontent” location, but instead it was found
under “c8/crn_11mr2/webcontent” Is this a correct location.

arvind srivastava January 20, 2009 at 5:06 am

hi,

I want to learn cognos because it is needed at my office ,so kindly could you arrange some cognos related good tutorials like you have explained installation process.so it will help me to learn cognos.

amit January 20, 2009 at 5:07 am

could you please send me the cognos 8 material.

Ram January 29, 2009 at 4:27 am

Hi,

Could any one send me the cognos 8 material.

Thanks and Regards,
Ram

Ram January 29, 2009 at 4:29 am

Hi,

Could any one send me the cognos 8 material.

Thanks and Regards,
Ram

4rambabu@gmail.com

Mayuri January 30, 2009 at 1:37 am

Do I need to install any more componenets such as Framework, Report models etc? Or BI server as mentioned in the above installation include all those components?

Viji February 11, 2009 at 7:32 am

Hi,

I’m new to Cognos. Could you please send me a good tutorial for Cognos 8.

Thanks,
Viji.R

Nagabhushan K N February 11, 2009 at 10:43 am

Hi,

This was a very good tutorial, I would also want your help in Restoring the Samples

Any information on this could be very helpful for me

Regards

Bhushan

Nagabhushan February 20, 2009 at 9:56 am

You Saved my life, I am new to this product and I was struggling to find out how to open Cognos Connection,

thanks a lot, the information provided by you is wonderful.

If you have any information on the user administration or how to create user or use the Active Directory user to use cognos,, Please e-mail me @ nagabhushan.iyer@gmail.com

Thank a Ton

whisnu February 24, 2009 at 9:37 am

Nice article ….
Thank’s

Bhagavan Narayana February 26, 2009 at 11:57 am

It’s really nice

murugesh March 3, 2009 at 5:36 am

It is working, simply superb. Could you please help me out to configure gateway server.

thanks

Syed March 12, 2009 at 11:36 pm

Hello,

Can anyone tell me whats the best resource to learn Cognos? and if I can find some tutorial?

Thanks

Peter March 26, 2009 at 4:24 pm

Trying to configure cognos to send all mail from single account DoNotReply@DomainName.com or server GUI actualy letting people (or schedule jobs) to type reply address.

Looks harder then it should be, why does Cognos cost this much!?
LOL

Help please
P

Vinod April 12, 2009 at 3:12 pm

Please send me the cognos configuration on IIS7/Windows Vista Home premium on Oracle 10g database

Hassan April 23, 2009 at 1:11 pm

Please send me the cognos configuration on IIS7/Windows Vista Home premium on Oracle database and also some tutorial on using it. My company is going to start using it and i want to get familiar with it. Thanks

Hassan April 23, 2009 at 1:19 pm

hassan.sankoh@gmail.com is my email.

laura April 28, 2009 at 11:49 am

Please send me the cognos configuration on IIS7/Windows Vista Home premium on SQL Server 2008

laura April 28, 2009 at 12:14 pm

Hi,
During cognos configuration i got an error like:
1. [ ERROR ] The database connection failed.
2. [ ERROR ] Content Manager is unable to access the content store. Verify your database connection parameters and then contact your database administrator

So please guide me to what to do

swanand April 29, 2009 at 4:39 am

It was a nice article.I follwed all above steps but didnt succeed.
I am trying to install cognos 8.2 on MS Vista.

Content store is not able to create tables in the database. I tried it with default derby database and also with MS SQL Server express edition.

so while registering content store database.It fails and gives error “[Register]“.

Please let me know if any solution on sarjunwadkar@gmail.com

Web Knight May 5, 2009 at 2:36 pm

I am an intern trying to install correctly a standalone Cognos 8.3 on XP for studies; I get errors on setting up a local host; anyone to give me a direction is really appreciated. thanks

admin May 5, 2009 at 8:41 pm

@Web Knight : You might need the Microsoft loopback adapter: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839013

indu June 18, 2009 at 1:47 am

Hi,

I tried to install cognos 8.4, i’m unable to open the localhost page.. i’m getting error messages on this page. Can anyof give me the solution..

Hi June 21, 2009 at 8:33 pm

Hi

I would appreciate some help with configuring Oracle 9i client as a reporting data source for Cognos 8.3 using JDBC

thanks

Vibin C July 5, 2009 at 11:23 pm

Hi

Its really good.
If i want to install cognos 8.3 on Vista, which webserver i need to use. I heared like, Cognos doesn’t support IIS7. Can you please arrange a demo like this for webserver configuration in Vista.

Thanks
Vibin C

Ashwini July 8, 2009 at 5:35 am

Hi,

I tried installing using given steps. I am using Tomcat. I am not able to view the demo packages provided by cognos in public folder. Can you help me with this.

Comments on this entry are closed.

Next post: