Cognos Business Intelligence 10 installation on Linux

Preface

This document describes the process of installing Cognos BI Server 10.1 and Transformer 10.1 on a 64bit Linux. (Distribution used is CentOS 5.5 64bit).

This document also describes the configuration of external Congnos applications that connect to the server.

Preliminary steps

• Download 64bit Linux version of the Cognos BI Server
• Download Transformer for Linux (only available as 32bit)
• Download compat-libstdc++-33.i386, compat-glibc.i386 and openmotif22 library or make sure yum (or other package management software) has it in its catalog
• Download unixODBC software or make sure yum (or other package management software) has it in its catalog
• Download MySQL ODBC Connector 5.1.5 for Linux
• Download appropriate Java JRE (64bit if possible). At the time of writing, the best supported JRE was 1.6.12

Software installation and configuration

• If not already installed, install Java JRE or SDK
• Before installation, the JAVA_HOME variable must be set in /etc/bashrc:# Use your installation directory
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/latest/
• You will run into trouble unless you install these 32bit support libraries:
  yum install compat-libstdc++-33.i386
yum install compat-glibc.i386
yum install openmotif22.i386
• Install BI Server by running the issetup program in the linuxi38664 directory. This will install Cognos Server in /opt/cognos/c8_64. Note: If you want to install the Content Store, you have to explicitly select it during installation.
• Install Transformer by running the issetup program in the linuxi38632 directory. This will install Cognos Transformer in /opt/cognos/c8.
• Set the Cognos library path in /etc/bashrc:
  export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/ibm/cognos/c10_64/bin64
• This is a good time to check if you have SELinux installed and operational. SELinux secures your linux installation, but it also disturbs Cognos a lot. Set SELinux level to Permissive.
• Copy /opt/cognos/c8_64/bin64/jre/1.5.0/lib/ext/bcprov-jdk14-134.jar to the lib or lib/ext directory under your Java JRE installation directory
• Run /opt/cognos/c8_64/bin64/cogconfig.sh, save the config and start the service with the play button
• Install unixODBC. I have the 32bit version installed, but you may want to try the 64bit version first:
  yum install unixODBC.x86_64
• Install MySQL ODBC Connector from RPM. Again, you might want to try the 64bit version first:
  rpm -i mysql-connector-odbc-3.51.19-0.x86_64.rpm
• Check that the unixODBC library is properly symlinked. You should have /usr/lib64/libodbcinst.so link to libodbcinst.so.1.
• Configure unixODBC by setting up the following files
  • /etc/odbcinit.ini – this is where all the DB drivers are configured:
    #/etc/odbcinit.ini
[MySQL]
DRIVER = /usr/lib64/libmyodbc5.so
UsageCount = 1
  • /etc/odbc.ini – this is where the data sources are configured:
    #/etc/odbc.ini
[MYSQL-Tuotanto]
Driver = MySQL
SERVER = server IP
PORT = 3306
DATABASE = dbname
USER = username
PASSWORD = password
# sqlDescribeColumn returns table names, must be equal to Framework Manager computer ODBC setting in order for native queries to work
OPTION = 1024
CHARSET =utf8

• Install/register the MySQL driver and data source:
  odbcinst -i -d -f /etc/odbcinst.ini
odbcinst -i -s -l -f /etc/odbc.ini
• You can test the datasource availability and connection:
  odbcinst \-s \-q
#Outputs: [data source name]
isql \-v datasourcename username password
# Starts a console
• Add Apache configuration to /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:
  #
# COGNOS
#
ScriptAlias /ibmcognos/cgi-bin "/opt/ibm/cognos/c10_64/cgi-bin/"
Alias /ibmcognos "/opt/ibm/cognos/c10_64/webcontent/"
<Directory "/opt/ibm/cognos/c10_64/webcontent/">
Options Indexes ExecCGI
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
# Allow access from LAN and localhost
Allow from 192 10 127.0.0.1
</Directory>
<Directory "/opt/ibm/cognos/c10_64/cgi-bin/">
Options Indexes ExecCGI
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
# Allow access from LAN and localhost
Allow from 192 10 127.0.0.1
</Directory>
#END COGNOS

Workstation configurations when using the Linux server

When you use a different computer to access the Cognos services on the server, configure the workstation Cognos as follows:

• If you are using 32bit Cognos programs, open the configuration utility in the Cognos 32bit folder C:\Program Files (x86)\cognos\c8\bin\cogconfigw.exe and for 64bit programs the from the 64bit folder C:\Program Files\cognos\c8_64\bin64\cogconfigw.exe
• Select the Environment node in the tree
• Set Gateway URI to point to the Linux server IP instead of localhost
• Set Dispacher URI for external applications to point to the Linux server IP instead of localhost
• Save configuration