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.

c8 represents where Cognos 8 is installed.

Find the httpd.conf file in the Apache/conf directory. Make a copy of this file as a backup. (Either copy it to another directory or make a copy with a different name.) Open the httpd.conf file in a text editor.

At the bottom of the file, add the following lines:

ScriptAlias /cognos8/cgi-bin "c:/program files/cognos/c8/cgi-bin"
<Directory "c:/program files/cognos/c8/cgi-bin">
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride FileInfo
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from All
</Directory>

Alias /cognos8 "c:/program files/cognos/c8/webcontent"
<Directory "c:/program files/cognos/c8/webcontent">
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride FileInfo
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from All
</Directory>

Save the http.conf file and restart Apache.

Going to the virtual directory (ex., http://localhost/cognos8) will now bring up the Cognos 8 welcome page.

Notes:

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• The ScriptAlias section must be before the Alias section.
• The actual directory path has quotation marks around it because of the space in the path; otherwise, the quotation marks are not necessary.
• By default, access to any directories on the server is denied by Apache. The <Directory> section explicitly allows Apache to access the Cognos 8 directories. If this is mis-configured, then you will see the a 403 error, and “client denied by server configuration” errors in the Apache error.log file.
• The “cognos8″ string can be changed to another name, but only if the Gateway URI parameter in Cognos Configuration is also changed. The cgi-bin string cannot be changed.

Troubleshooting

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Apache will not start after editing the httpd.conf file

If Apache will not start, there is likely a problem with the syntax in the httpd.conf file. Hopefully the message will give an indication of the problem. If you cannot find the problem, revert to the backup copy and start again.