Product:
Cognos Controller Web 10.4.2
Microsoft Windows 2019 server
Problem:
At a new installation when browse to the controller web, you get a error after you have logged in.
Error Message:
Server Error in ‘/ibmcognos’ Application.
A potentially dangerous Request.Path value was detected from the client (&).
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: A potentially dangerous Request.Path value was detected from the client (&).
Source Error:
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
Stack Trace:
[HttpException (0x80004005): A potentially dangerous Request.Path value was detected from the client (&).]
System.Web.HttpRequest.ValidateInputIfRequiredByConfig() +11986128
System.Web.PipelineStepManager.ValidateHelper(HttpContext context) +52
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:4.0.30319; ASP.NET Version:4.7.3770.0
Possible solution:
Some of the configuration files contain wrong characters. The web server does not like to get the & sign in the URL that is sent in the request between CA11 and CONTROLLER WEB. You get same error in IE or Chrome web browser.
In this case the com.ibm.cognos.fcm.web.properties file had some / replaced with & characters
Ensure that the lines point correct
biUrl=http://servername.domain.com/ibmcognos/bi&v1&disp
should be
biUrl=http://servername.domain.com/ibmcognos/bi/v1/disp
Open D:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\fcmweb\wlp\usr\servers\fcm.web\com.ibm.cognos.fcm.web.properties in notepad++ to edit.
Check also files like D:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\analytics\templates\ps\portal\variables_CCRWeb.xml
More information:
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-install-controller-web