#installing samples

In this post we describe the installation of the Cognos Samples on an IBM Cognos BI and TM1 platform. 

We will describe how to get the following samples working:

The Go Sales and Great Outdoors databases for compatible and dynamic query mode.

The Go Sales Dynamic Cube samples (requires the previous step).

A selected number of TM1 samples.

A selected set of IBM Cognos PowerCube samples.

Sample packages and content for the above (requires the previous steps).

Prerequisites:

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence 10.2.1

IBM Cognos TM1 10.1

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

A supported database system, in this case Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

The IBM BI Cognos Samples installation file bi_smps_10.2.1_mp_ml.tar.gz

All the above is running on a Windows 64bit environment.

1. Installing the Cognos Samples installation package

Note that the samples come in a separate installation file not included in the product installation file.

Once you have downloaded the samples file (bi_smps_10.2.1_mp_ml.tar.gz) place it on a machine from which the BI server has access to.

Unzipp the installation file twice (7Zip) and locate the installation file for your operation system. In this case "issetup.exe" found in the folder "winx64h".

Run the installation wizard and follow the screens.

When asked for the installation location enter the installation path of the Cognos installation, something like "C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\c10_64".

This will not really install anything, it will just put the samples material in your Cognos BI installation directory. You can check this by going to "\\installationpath\webcontent\samples", so something like "C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\webcontent\samples".

If you haven't already done so, open IBM Cognos Configuration and start your BI server.

2. Restore Go Sales and Go Sales Data Warehouse databases

The most logical thing to do first is to restore the Go Sales and Go Sales Data Warehouse sample databases. These databases will serve as the source for the relational and ROLAP sample models and the Dynamic Cube samples. 

Navigate to the samples installation location, something like "C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\webcontent\samples".

Open the "datasources" folder and open the "sqlserver" folder.

Locate the files "GOSALESDW.zip" and "GOSALES.zip" and unzip them.

Make sure that you can reach these files from your database server, or copy them to a location that can. First up is the Go Sales Data Warehouse.

Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and connect to your database server.

Right-click in the navigation tree on "Databases" and click "Restore Database".

Enter "GOSALES" in the "To database" field.

Click "From device" and then "Add" in the specify backup location screen.

Navigate to the location where you extracted the files "GOSALES.zip" and "GOSALESDW.zip" and select that folder.

Enter the file names "GOSALES".

Click ok till you are back in the "Restore Database" screen and select the backup set for restore.

If you want, you can select under "Options" where you want to put the database on disk.

Click "OK" and wait.

If you are born under a full moon, you should see a display saying "The restore of database 'GOSALES' completed successfully.

You should see the database GOSALES in the databases tree. Browse around a bit to make sure that there are actually tables in them with data.

Repeat the above steps for "GOSALESDW" so everywhere it says "GOSALES", use "GOSALESDW" instead.

If you want you can now clean up the files in the samples folder.

All Parts:

1. Installing the Cognos Samples installation package 2. Restore Go Sales and Go Sales Data Warehouse databases 3. Create data source connections for the samples databases 4. Running the Dynamic Cube Samples 5. Installing the TM1 Samples 6. Create Data Source Connections for TM1 7. Create Data Source Connections for PowerCubes Samples 8. Installing the IBM Cognos Content Store Samples

3. Create data source connections for the samples databases

Next step is to make these data sources known to Cognos. So we are going to create the Data Source Connections for it. 

Go to your Cognos environment and open IBM Cognos Administration.

Go to the Configuration tab and select Data Source Connections and click the "New Data Source" icon.

In the "New Data Source Wizard" enter  the name "great_outdoors_sales", make sure this is exact, if not you will have to change the FM models later on.

Click next.

Select the data source type, in this case "Microsoft SQL Server (SQL 2008 Native Client)".

Select "Configure JDBC connection". If you want to use Dynamic Query Mode (DQM), and you should, enable this.

Click next.

Now you have to enter the connection string. Here you have some options. If you have a default setup it's not difficult.

Enter the SQL server name and the name of the database GOSALES.

The sign-on choice will depend on how you want to log on to your database.

Test the connection.

If your SQL Server instance is configured correct and relatively default, you should only enter the server name and the database name for the JDBC connection.

Test the connection and finalize the wizard.

Repeat the above steps for the database "GOSALESDW" and with "great_outdoors_warehouse" as data source name.

You should now have 2 new entries in your Data Source Connection pane in IBM Cognos Administration.

If you experience any issues with configuring the connection string for the JDBC connection, it can be useful to consult the following pages:

IBM Cognos Proven Practices: The IBM Cognos 10 Dynamic Query Cookbook

Getting error "XQE-DS-0006 Unable to logon to data source" while making a JDBC connection to SQL Server in Cognos 10.1.1

Error "XQE-DS-0006 Unable to logon to data source" testing a JDBC connection to SQL Server 2008

All Parts:

1. Installing the Cognos Samples installation package 2. Restore Go Sales and Go Sales Data Warehouse databases 3. Create data source connections for the samples databases 4. Running the Dynamic Cube Samples 5. Installing the TM1 Samples 6. Create Data Source Connections for TM1 7. Create Data Source Connections for PowerCubes Samples 8. Installing the IBM Cognos Content Store Samples

4. Running the Dynamic Cube Samples

Now you can install the Dynamic Cube samples. Remember that it is required that the previous steps need to be executed successfully before enabling the Dynamic Cubes samples. This means restoring the sample databases and creating the necessary data source connections for it in IBM Cognos Administration. Also make sure that the Cognos user that is going to run the Dynamic Cubes has trusted credentials.

Open IBM Cognos Cube Designer.

Click the "Open Project" button, locate and open the file "model.fmd". You can find this file in the folder "\\installationlocation\webcontent\samples\models\great_outdoors_dynamiccube\sqlserver"

Log on

If correct, you should now see a source and project definition based on the GOSALESDW database.

In the project explorer three, locate the "gosldw_sales" cube, right-click and choose publish.

In the Publish options you can select "Add the dynamic cube to the default dispatcher" and "Start the dynamic cube".

Make sure that the user assigned to the cube in Cognos has trusted credentials. 

Click ok.

Repeat these steps, based on the same model, for gosldw_target and gosldw_sales_and_target

Go to IBM Cognos Administration and select "Data Stores" in the "Status" tab. Verify that the dynamic cube is visible and available.

  That should do it. 

All Parts:

1. Installing the Cognos Samples installation package 2. Restore Go Sales and Go Sales Data Warehouse databases 3. Create data source connections for the samples databases 4. Running the Dynamic Cube Samples 5. Installing the TM1 Samples 6. Create Data Source Connections for TM1 7. Create Data Source Connections for PowerCubes Samples 8. Installing the IBM Cognos Content Store Samples

5. Installing the TM1 Samples

The TM1 Samples consist out of a number of *.zip files. Each *.zip file contains all the files for a TM1 Server.

Locate the sample TM1 files. These can be found under "\\installationpath\webcontent\samples\datasources\cubes\TM1".

Locate and unzip the greatoutdoors.zip file.

Copy the resulting folder to a location that your TM1 server has access to.

Open IBM Cognos Configuration (if you have multiple, make sure you select the right one).

Right click "TM1 Server" in the tree and create a new TM1 server called "greatoudoors" of type "TM1 Server instance".

In the TM1 Server configuration path type the path to the unzipped folder greatoutdoors/datafiles.

In our folder the tm1.cfg was not pointing to the ../datafiles directory. So we just copied it to the datafiles directory. And then pointed the server configuration path to the datafiles directory.

Start the TM1 Server, open IBM Cognos TM1 Architect and verify that the "greatoutdoors" TM1 Server is running.

As this is a joint BI/TM1 installation, the tm1.cfg file needs to be adapted to point to the BI environment.

Add or adjust the ServerCAMURI parameter and make it point to the dispatcher URI of your IBM Cognos BI environment.

Add or adjust the ClientCAMURI parameter and make it point to the gateway URI of you IBM Cognos BI environment.

Leave for the moment the IntegratedSecurityMode to 1  and restart the IBM Server.

Now log in with the Cognos user. This will not work for the moment. Log on with the sample username again (should be admin/apple), go to the security options and make your Cognos user an admin (or other, just make sure that user has at least read rights on the greatoutdoors server components).

Now switch the IntegratedSecurityMode to 5 and restart, it should now be possible to log on with the Cognos user and consult the greatoutdoorsserver.

Repeat the above steps for TM1 Sample *.zip files and don't forget to take another portnumber in the TM1s.cfg file. Do at least the FinanceFact.zip as well.

If you have trouble with the TM1s.cfg file or the integrated security, check the manual or this and this post.

6. Create Data Source Connections for TM1

Next step is to make these data sources known to Cognos. So we are going to create the Data Source Connections for it.

Go to your Cognos environment and open IBM Cognos Administration.

Go to the Configuration tab and select Data Source Connections and click the "New Data Source" icon.

In the "New Data Source Wizard" enter the name "TM1_SalesPlan", make sure this is exact.

Click next.

Select the data source type, in this case "IBM Cognos TM1".

Click next.

Now you have to enter the connection string. Here you have some options. If you have a default setup it's not difficult.

Enter the TM1 administration server name and the name of the server "greatoutdoors".

The sign-on choice will depend on how you want to log on to TM1.

Test the connection.

Finalize the wizard.

Repeat these steps for the at least the FinanceFact server with the connection name "TM1_FinanceFact".

You should now have 2 new entries in your Data Source Connection pane in IBM Cognos Administration.

All Parts:

1. Installing the Cognos Samples installation package 2. Restore Go Sales and Go Sales Data Warehouse databases 3. Create data source connections for the samples databases 4. Running the Dynamic Cube Samples 5. Installing the TM1 Samples 6. Create Data Source Connections for TM1 7. Create Data Source Connections for PowerCubes Samples 8. Installing the IBM Cognos Content Store Samples

7. Create Data Source Connections for PowerCubes Samples

To install the pre-run IBM Cognos PowerCubes, locate the PowerCube files and place them on a location that is accessible from your IBM Cognos environment. If you installed the samples by default this will be \\ibmcognosinstallpath\webcontent\samples\datasources\cubes\PowerCubes\EN\.

Log onto your Cognos environment with admin capabilities and go to IBM Cognos Administration.

Select the tab "Data Source Connections" and click the "New Data Source" button.

As name enter "sales_and_marketing" and click next.

In the specify the connection screen select "IBM Cognos PowerCube" as type and click next.

In the "Windows location" text box type the path to the PowerCube. This will be something like "\\installationpath\webcontent\samples\datasources\cubes\PowerCubes\EN\sales_and_marketing.mdc"

Test the connection.

Finish the wizard.

You should now see a new Data Source Connection in IBM Cognos Administration.

Repeat the above steps for :

employee_expenses

go_accessories

go_americas

go_asia_pacific

great_outdoors_sales_en

  That should do it.

All Parts:

1. Installing the Cognos Samples installation package 2. Restore Go Sales and Go Sales Data Warehouse databases 3. Create data source connections for the samples databases 4. Running the Dynamic Cube Samples 5. Installing the TM1 Samples 6. Create Data Source Connections for TM1 7. Create Data Source Connections for PowerCubes Samples 8. Installing the IBM Cognos Content Store Samples

8. Installing the IBM Cognos Content Store Samples

If you have executed all the previous steps successfully, you can now import the sample Cognos material into the Content Store. What will work and what not will depend on which parts of the previous steps you completed successfully. Also note that the previous steps did not include all possible samples, e.g. you also have samples for Microsoft SSAS Cubes, IBM DB2 Cubing Services etc.

Copy the deployment zip files to the IBM Cognos BI deployment folder. You can find that location in the IBM Cognos Configuration of your BI installation.

Run the import wizard to import the Cognos deployment files.

All done, now you can use the samples. Note that the Framework Manager models and Transformer models are also included in the sample files for when you want to adjust the sample material.

All Parts: