BI Data Analytics

Since now IBM Cloud OPS team supports Cognos Environment and there is need to open ticket and have delays in response times to detect issues, we can set up Job to run some quick reports to run every 5 minutes. While scheduling, need to keep in mind Reports total tun time covers 3-4 minutes run time so that Job will keep running all the time. Exclude times in schedule where maintenance/backup going on.  Reports to be run in sequence so that it doesn't impact actual reports run by users. You can set Job run history to more time to see it on Page itself  You can set up to send an email via even after job completion to include run time. When you stop getting emails, it means there was an outage/issue in the environment. You can create Audit report to check mean, median and mode for Job run time performance to compare run times against.   This method can test dashdb and report run times consistency; however, actual navigational/interactive report run times can't b...

Cognos Analytics on Cloud 11.0.6 RFEs raised for features not available on cloud and/or defects identified: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=108702 https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=104089 https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=108313 https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=104089 http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=108701 http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=108899

Below IBM document explains behavior of copy/move or overwriting impact of objects:- https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSEP7J_11.0.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.wig_cr.doc/c_gtstd_copy_move_items.html If you copy and overwrite an existing report, the copied report ID and links replace those of the existing report. In this case, you might need to update links, such as links to job schedules. If you move and overwrite an existing report, the existing report ID and links are maintained. In this case, references to the moved entry are broken. However, this doesn't work in all cases and we see drill through links broken in some cases. Best approach in such case is to use cognos deploy method where you update reports in separate folder in same environment and import it to destination location. You can create single export and import tasks to use for all such updates.

Environment: Cognos 11.0.6 on Cloud Issues/Observations: Some time when you right click on Package to see it's properties, it is missing. On Laptop, sometime report output is cutting some content on header or footer end. On zooming out, problem resolves.

In IBM Cognos Cloud, we don’t have access to Extension and Views creation. We can use Theme customization for a role to get similar effects of having Portal Tabs. Create Role and provide require Capabilities. Add groups and members. –> Manage/Accounts Area In  Team Content, create separate dummy folder with no content in it. Purpose is to restrict folder navigation for users in designated role to dummy empty folder. Create Wrapper Report with one html item per page. Use Report properties to show page as Tab. Embed Main Portal Report link ( copying from Property menu – Embed). Modify frame property to have no border and width- Height to be 100% Update Theme to have logo and color of Navigation and app bar to make them transparent . You can download default theme spec.json and update navigation and application bar's color, logo path to return blank, Name of Theme.  In Manage – Select Role Properties – Customization Add Dummy Folder be the folder User can nav...

Below are the list of issues faced during upgrade to ICA 11.0.6. Got error when trying to rename report Navigate to the report and click the 'More' icon beside its name. From the menu, select 'Properties. From here there are two methods to change the report's name: a) Click on 'Advanced' to see more properties. b) Click 'Set...' beside 'Languages' Error : Firewall Security Rejection  2. When running multiple reports, get  error Data source adapter error: java.sql.SQLRecoverableException: No more data to read from socket and on clicking Ok, the screen doesn't go away. It needs to be closed and go to actual report 3. Save As option Save As Option takes to main Team Content Folder instead of folder where the report was residing. 4. List within List is causing caching issue and On report prompt page doesn't reflect changes to outputs. 5. On reports using multiple pages, page down causes Query Service Internal E...

Problem: When we try to right click on query to see Tabular data, there is pop up comes for requesting "Allow Clipboard Access". The option is already set  in Report Studio Property to allow access to clipboard. Solution: 1. Go to Tools -> Internet Options.  2. Go to Security tab.  3. Select “Internet” zone, then click on “Custom level…” button.  4. Scroll down to “Scripting” section (at the bottom few).  5. Under “Allow Programmatic clipboard access” option, check or select (tick) Enable. Default action for this option is Prompt, which cause the pop-up message whenever there is any attempt to access the Clipboard.  6. Click Ok twice to exit from Internet Options.

If anyone is using IBM Cognos Analytics Version 11.0.0.0 to 11.0.5.0, there is security bulletin released by IBM to notify vulnerability where sensitive information can be revealed in its logs files:- http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg22000095 The recommended solution is to apply version 11.0.6.0 as soon as viable.

Below are some of the changes in LCM for IBM Cognos Analytics and should be used to identify reports to assess efforts ( Planning Phase) may be needed for upgrade process from IBM Cognos 10.2.2:- There is no reporting or exporting of results to capture differences and failures, progress. Prompts fill out using  'Capture Prompt Values' not working in IBM Cognos Analytics version. Reports having images as references to templates and using Layout component reference need to be validated for any issue. Validate impact where Java Scripts are used  such as multi select auto cascading implementation

Below new features I found interesting from IBM Cognos Analytics 11.0.6:- Users of Report content can view Data Lineage without going into edit mode. This features enable consumer of report to see source of data and also helpful for report author to see the source while testing the report. Now you can create Report views for Active reports In interactive mode reports, users have ability to freeze or pin column headers so that they stay in view when scrolling. It is available for List object only. It can be enabled by setting the 'scrollable area height' property.  Formatting applied on the List are also maintained. When creating a report, to add a scroll bar to a list prevent the list to accompany multiple pages use 'scrollable area height' List property to enable it. Now we are able to modify queries built in report studio using data modules. In the new version of Cognos Analytics (Cognos 11), sorting is an out of the box feature. Authoring is no longer requ...

In Cognos 10.x and 8.x , this was the simple to handle on Cognos Connection or via Repot Studio interface.  In Cognos 11.0.6, You  need to load classic view (Cognos Connection) to go back to this interface to change the package. In Cognos Cloud environment, we have single environment for Development and UAT. In such cases, when we move content from Dev folder to UAT area, we need to switch to classic mode to change the package.

There is nice feature of Data Player added in IBM Cognod Analytics. We can use data player feature in a Dashboard to show trends transition over time filter. This will auto play the filter to next selection and refresh charts on dashboard. This works fine with fast data retrieval queries. However, if the query for chart is slow compared to filter query, it can result in chart data not changing while data player changes to the next selection. There is need to control the time the data player transitions to have the consistency between Data Player filter and output.