Seven steps for troubleshooting business intelligence software
Every phase of a business intelligence project has its particular challenges, from gathering accurate business requirements to keeping the production applications running smoothly. As business intelligence applications move into operational roles, performance and availability is continually tested against higher and higher expectations. Outages are not tolerated. In this high pressure environment, the IT staff and managers who are tasked with keeping the business intelligence systems humming need to consider carefully how best to overcome the inevitable technical issues that arise.
- How can business intelligence projects move along quicker?
- How can the productions systems be kept running with less effort?
- How can costs be kept low? How can stress be reduced?
- How can we continue to fix bugs and introduce enhancements without upsetting this delicate balancing act?
The answer lies in defining a systematic troubleshooting process specific for business intelligence applications.
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Compiling the Cognos 8 SDK Java Samples on Windows
When the Cognos 8 SDK is installed, the java libraries (jar files) are installed in the ..\c8\sdk\java\lib folder. The sample applications are located in individual directories in the ..\c8\sdk\java folder. Also included are two scripts, build-samples.bat (for Windows) and build-samples.sh (for Unix and Linux) for compiling the java samples. Here are the steps for compiling the samples:
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Creating an Input File for Access Manager Batch Maintenance
Creating users in a Series 7 namespace can be automated with Access Manager Batch Maintenance, but writing the required input file is an error prone and time consuming chore. This Visual Basic script will take a list of users from a comma-delimited file (it could be exported from Excel or some other system), create the users in the namespace, create the user classes, assign the users to their user class and then create a signon for the user. When the file is ready, the input file is run with Access Manager Batch Maintenance (via a batch file, so additional code can be inserted here if necessary). Finally, an email message is sent with the log file attached.
Notes:
- This example is written in Visual Basic, and it can be run as is on a Windows system under the Windows Scripting host (a vbs file). It can also be integrated into a Visual Basic or Cognos Script application.
- The message is sent via Outlook on the machine where the script is run. If you are not using Outlook or Outlook is not installed where this script is being run, then this subroutine must be replaced by alternate code.
Download the files:
Series 7 Impromptu Automation
Here are two sample scripts to illustrate how to automate Impromptu using the Cognos Script macro language. Cognos scripts can be easily integrated into a Visual Basic, VB Script or an ASP script, as the language follows the same conventions as Visual Basic.
The first script will run a report and save the output as a pdf file. The format can easily be changed to csv or another supported format. This script is useful when you have long running reports that you would like to run in off hours.
This second script runs the report and saves the output, like in the first script, but it also sends it as an email attachment. It uses Microsoft Outlook libraries to create and to send the message.
Download the sample code here:
Silent Installation of Cognos 8
If you have many servers to install and configure, the unattended install feature of Cognos 8 can be a real time saver. It will save you from clicking through the installer multiple times and reduces the chances of missing a component. This feature is also useful when installing remotely, where the GUI will be slow, or in the case of Unix and Linux, when X-Windows is not available.
The installation of Cognos 8 product is divided into two steps: first, copying over the files from the installation package and second, configuring parameters with Cognos Configuration.
Configuring an Apache web server for Cognos 8 BI Server
The first post-installation task after installing Cognos 8 is to configure the web server gateway. This article will step through configuring Apache for use with Cognos 8. For Cognos ReportNet, the same instructions apply, but the directories will be different.
Create the web aliases or virtual directories.
| Virtual directory |
File System Directory |
Permission Required |
| cognos8 |
c8/webcontent |
read |
| cognos8/cgi-bin |
c8/cgi-bin |
execute |
c8 represents where Cognos 8 is installed.
Troubleshooting BI software
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