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:

• 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

404 error – Object not found

The 404 error indicates that the virtual directory does not exist. Double check the alias names in the httpd.conf file.

403 error – Access forbidden

The 403 error indicates a permissions problem. The Apache server might be running under an account that does not have read access to the Cognos 8 directories. Another possibility is that the alias is pointing to the wrong directory. The error.log file in the apache/logs directory should have an error message with more specific details.

Another item to check is to ensure that the web server has read access to the cogstartup.xml file in the c8/configuration directory.

Unable to connect to the Cognos BI server

If you see this error, then the virtual directories are configured correctly. The problem is that the Cognos 8 service is not running.