Cognos Integration for IBM Connections hints #2

IMPORTANT: your cognos directory where you have the cognos transformer and BI files as well as your connections install files with the cognos parts should be in a directory with NO spaces in the name. just another hint.

Another one of the problems I faced when building it was the cognos-setup.bat would run properly, but then the cognos-configure.bat would error out.

EVERYTHING you do for the Cognos installation is built around the cognos-setup.properties file. Which if you saw my previous post, you will already gather some understanding.

The docs outline how you need to set up a new instance under Websphere. But again, not being a Cognos person initially, some defaults or expectations were unknown.

Luckily I reread the docs and also found this page from the infocenter to IBM Connections 2.5, emphasis is mine.

If you are installing IBM Cognos BI and IBM Lotus Connections to the same IBM WebSphere Application Server, you must create an additional profile for one of the applications. Do not use the same profile for both applications.

Since I was building everything on one box, I needed to make sure my cognos-setup.properties file was properly setup.

First, as the documentation shows, you do this:

IBM AIX, Linux:
manageprofiles.sh -create -templatepath WAS_install_root/profileTemplates/default -adminUserName

         Microsoft Windows:
         manageprofiles.bat -create -templatepath WAS_install_root\profileTemplates\default -         adminUserName
 This will create a new application profile, lets say Appsrv02.

You need to know more details so go look here(this is my machine, but you should be able to follow the syntax):
D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv02\logs\AboutthisProfile.txt

You will see details that look like this:

Application server environment to create: Application server
Location: D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv02
Disk space required: 200 MB
Profile name: AppSrv02
Make this profile the default: False
Node name: conexNode02
Host name: conex
Enable administrative security (recommended): False
Administrative console port: 9062
Administrative console secure port: 9045
HTTP transport port: 9081
HTTPS transport port: 9444
Bootstrap port: 2811
SOAP connector port: 8881
Run application server as a service: False
Create a Web server definition: False
Performance tuning setting: Standard

Now that we have these details, you can then insert them into the cognos-setup.properties file here:

# Default profile is located here: /profiles/
# Example: /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01 uses the profile name AppSrv01
was.profile.name=AppSrv02

And also here:

# The WebSphere Application Server node where the Cognos BI server instance will be created (this must be an existing node)
# The node name can be found in /profiles//logs/AboutThisProfile.txt
cognos.was.node.name=conexNode02

 Once you do this, you should be on your way.

IBM Cognos and IBM Connections 4 Install hint #1

After my new found love in IBM Cognos, I decided to take a stab at getting it configured.

Not such a difficult task, yet, one or two things really killed me, so if you get these, here is some help.

Read the documentation, honestly, it helps.

BUT even documentation can not help you when your brain is too tired to pay attention.

Once you get to the step about running the cognos-setup.bat file and editing the cognos-setup-properties file, you may experience this error when you review your cognos-setup.log file:

Using Cognos setup properties file: C:\Installs\conex4\IBM_Connections_Install\Cognos\CognosConfig\cognos-setup.properties
Performing validation check ...
JAR file(s) found in JDBC driver directory:
C:\Installs\conex4\IBM_Connections_Install\Cognos\CognosConfig\BI-Customization\JDBC
was.install.path: WebSphere Application Server exists
Checking existence of profile: AppSrv01
[AppSrv01]
Using profile: AppSrv01
cognos.was.node.name: Found node [betaboxNode01]
cognos.biserver.issetup: Will use issetup.exe to install Cognos BI Server
C:\Installs\conex4\Cognos 10.1.1\BI\winx64h\issetup.exe
cognos.transformer.issetup: Will use issetup.exe to install Cognos Transformer
C:\Installs\conex4\Cognos 10.1.1\bimodel_win32_10.1.1_ml\win32\issetup.exe
Using cognos.locale: EN
All properties provided for Cognos database
All properties provided for Metrics database
Failed to connect to Cognos content store DB. Error: [jcc][t4][2043][11550][3.63.75] Exception java.net.ConnectException: Error opening socket to server betabox.us.voicerite.com/192.168.x.x on port 446 with message: Connection refused: connect. ERRORCODE=-4499, SQLSTATE=08001
Failed to verify the JDBC connection to Cognos Content Store database. Please check the error message.

My good friend, Wannes Rams, a fellow Redbook Thought Leader, pointed out to me that port 446 is not what it should say, but 50000. Indeed, he was correct as most people know.

You need to make the .db.host lines in these 2 sections of the cognos-setup-properties file look like this with the :50000 at the end:

# Information for the Cognos Content Store database
# Supported database types:
#    DB Type    : Value
# ===========================
#    DB2        : db2
#    Oracle     : oracle
#    SQL Server : sqlserver
cognos.db.type=db2
# Format the cognos.db.host property as: host_name:port
cognos.db.host=servername.org.com:50000
cognos.db.name=COGNOS
cognos.db.user=lcuser
# Note: Password is stored in clear text; leave blank to supply at run time
cognos.db.password=yourpassword

# Information for the Metrics database
# Supported database types:
#    DB Type    : Value
# ===========================
#    DB2        : db2
#    Oracle     : oracle
#    SQL Server : sqlserver
metrics.db.type=db2
# Format the metrics.db.host property as: host_name:port
metrics.db.host=servername.org.com:50000
metrics.db.name=METRICS
# The local database name is used by the database client on the Transformer server to reference the Metrics database.
# For DB2, this is the Metrics database local catalog alias name.
# For Oracle, this is the Metrics database local TNS name.
# For SQL Server, this is the Metrics database instance name.
metrics.db.local.name=METRICS
metrics.db.user=lcuser
# Note: Password is stored in clear text; leave blank to supply at run time
metrics.db.password=yourpassword

A small but potentially time wasting thing that I hope has saved someone. 

Not Excited About IBM Cognos?..You Should Be

As part of the IBM Social Business Social Residency this week, run by the IBM Redbooks, we had the luxury of having a great conversation with Mark Heid from IBM. (I hope to publish more on this for the IBM Social Business Insight Blog in the near future.)

Mark is the Program Director of Social Analytics at IBM and luckily, he is based in Raleigh. His session was the highlight of my week by far! As I tweeted earlier today, I am such a geek and have fallen in love again with a technology.

No slides, no marketing pitch, just here is what we do and what YOU can do with a product like IBM Cognos Consumer Insight. Man have I been an idiot to ignore this for so long. but let me backtrack a bit.

Most likely I can not do the product justice, but here is what we gleaned from today and see if you agree with me. I suspect most of my technical friends will agree, for the rest of you I am going to try to shape the description in a way to help you see why this is just so cool.

For those that do not know what analytics are, analytics is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It is the idea that one can measure or chart details culled from disparate sources of data into an algorithm which could lead you to a conclusion about, well, anything.

Big Data is a term for all the mounds of data streams that companies, even you at home, amass but are unable to sort properly or see the string which holds it all together.

When you combine analytics with your Big Data you start to find patterns that emerge that can be very meaningful to your business or life.

As an example, if a store or restaurant has a loyalty or rewards card, as many do, your purchases are recorded and in most cases scoured for tangible information to assist the business in providing you even better service next time or perhaps coupons to match your lifestyle.

Before you cry foul over privacy, IBM does not perform any analysis unless you have opted in. Businesses let you know when you get their cards that the data will be used potentially and you have the right to opt out of this analysis. I doubt many of you have opted out or even thought about it. But that is another blog post for a later time.

While I am in Raleigh my credit card companies are probably trying to gauge if I will be returning again soon or was this a one off event, like a vacation. If the same credit card companies followed my social media stream they would of course realize this is a class which we have come to Raleigh and not likely to return in the near future.

In contrast, I am quite sure most of our credit card companies recognize that we all "vacation" in Orlando every January around the 3 rd week of the month. I know Disney looks forward to us coming at least.

Think about the upcoming US Presidential election and how much sentiment is being expressed online over it. Poring over the data and analysis could provide a much better indication of who might win over any data those annoying robocalls or political pollsters can provide. Anything which gets rid of political robocalls and pollsters calling me I am VERY in favor of helping.

Real time analysis of what is happening in your IBM Connections world could be greatly beneficial to your HR staff as far as understanding employee sentiments, to Finance around perhaps costs which are not always so clear for some projects and from a Sales angle you could glean which of your sales people is up or down at any given time. No more guessing.

The cost for the full product is not cheap, it is a 6 figure deal and then some. But there are numerous uses for this even without looking at a retail angle. As a Business Partner I see numerous ways to work with the product and I would imagine so would you. Think of government entities which need to analyze their usage of consumables, small businesses which want to find what holds their client base to them or a financial institution looking to plan for offerings not seen before but gleaned from the data.

What is the downside, aside from the cost, you ask? It sounds too good to be true. The part for IBM Connections is real time for the last 2 years but if you wanted to devour lots of data and social media, the process will take a little longer. The reason is because syntax and tweaking of the searches, data review and such is time consuming and we don't all have IBM Watson in our offices. The programming language which would require one to invest quite a bit of time as well to be able to make the data turn into gold.

Why write this 2 years or so after Connections was an entitlement to Cognos 10? Because like you I watched or listened to various presentations, read posts but it never spoke to me like Mark did today and that is what made all the difference. As a long time Lotus person my focus was elsewhere, and for good reason, but as we evolve as partners and the technology evolves in looking for that next ledge to jump off, this is a good one.

I hope Mark will continue his relationship with all of us and thus future blog posts can delve into this deeper, but for now I feel like a new window has opened and I "get" it and I hope you can appreciate why as well.

Lastly, if you want to see it in action you can go to this IBM page and test it out.