Product:
Cognos Controller 10.4.2
Windows Server 2012
Problem:
When open Data Entry – Reported Values, the field are in wrong order.

Solution:
The normal look of data entry is like this:

The rows can be moved, by you click on them and drag them to new position in the dialog.

The settings are stored in the ccr.config file for your user in her windows profile.

To reset the values, we suggest that the user close cognos controller client and go to folder

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Cognos\ccr

and erase file ccr.config.

Then start Cognos Controller client and it should be back to normal layout.

Inside the ccr.config file this lines control above dialog:

<Layout>
<add key=”DE_ROW_ACTUALITY” value=”1″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_PERIOD” value=”2″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_COMPANY” value=”3″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_CONSTYPE” value=”4″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_GROUP” value=”5″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_CURRTYPE” value=”6″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_SUBMISSION” value=”12″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_FORM” value=”7″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_CLOVER” value=”8″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_JOURNALTYPE” value=”9″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_DIM1″ value=”10″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_DIM2″ value=”11″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_DIM3″ value=”13″ />
<add key=”DE_ROW_DIM4″ value=”14″ />
</Layout>

 

More information:
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-install-controller-local-client

Product:
BigFix Client
Microsoft Windows 2012

Problem:
How install the Big Fix client/agent on the Windows server?

Solution:
On the ILMT linux server you can search for the client files with find . -name ClientMSI*

Copy the files you need over to your Windows server

Copy BigFixAgent.msi setup, its .mst files and the actionsite.afxm masthead file to a folder of your target computer, for instance C:\install\bigfix. Actionsite.afxm file is in the /var/opt/BESInstallers/Client folder of the Linux server.

Then create a CMD file with following content:

msiexec.exe /i “BigFixAgent.msi” TRANSFORMS=”1033.mst” REBOOT=ReallySuppress MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL=Disable /qn

Start a DOS prompt as administrator and go to the \install\bigfix folder

Run your installagent.cmd file, to install.

If you run the BIGFIXAGENT.MSI it can look like this

You will have a new “BES Client” windows service on your computer after the installation.

You must copy the actionsite.afxm file to the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Client to make the client start.

Client/Agent can be downloaded from https://support.bigfix.com/bes/release/10.0/patch2/

More information:

https://help.hcltechsw.com/bigfix/9.5/platform/Platform/Installation/c_installing_the_client_with_msi.html

https://help.hcltechsw.com/bigfix/9.5/platform/Platform/Installation/c_using_login_scripts.html

https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/1697611/Events/Webinar.%20Basic%20ILMT%20Skills%20for%20IT%203.16.17.pdf

https://www.ibm.com/software/passportadvantage/subcaplicensing.html

https://exploringtm1.com/tm1-ilmt/

Product:

Microsoft Powershell

Problem:
You are low on disk space, or the Cognos BI have created some large file (dump files or log files) and you want to know where they are.

Solution:
Enter below text in notepad++ and save as checksize.ps1 in your c:\temp folder

$folder = “C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos”
Get-ChildItem $folder -recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |Sort-Object length -descending| Select-Object -first 27 @{Name=”MegaBytes”;Expression={“{0:F2}” -f ($_.length/1MB)}} , Fullname | Export-Csv c:\temp\LargeFiles_Report.csv

Start Powershell from Start menu
Go to temp folder with command cd /temp
Enter ./checksize.ps1 to run the script


Open the Largefile_report.csv in notepad++

You need to change the first line to your folder for Cognos products e.g. $folder = “D:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\analytics”

Then you check the list to find the files that you do not need, and can remove them, to get more space.

More Information:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/powershell-script-finding-large-size-files-your-windows-milad-mousavi/?articleId=6610936483329257472

http://woshub.com/find-large-files-with-powershell/ 

https://blog.danskingdom.com/find-largest-or-smallest-files-in-a-directory-or-drive-with-powershell/

Product:
Cognos Analytics 11.1.7
Microsoft Windows 2016 server
Problem:
Can i store the Native SQL query the users send to the database for later troubleshooting?

Solution:
Activate logging of the SQL query to the AUDIT database.
Setup the AUDIT database logging in Cognos Configuration.
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-configure-audit-reporting-cognos-analytics

Browse to Cognos Analytics (ibmcognos) and go to Manage > Administrative Console > Configuration > Dispatchers and Services. Click on the Set Properties – Configuration icon.
Click the Settings tab, choose logging as category.

Go down to Generate comments in native SQL and mark it.
Click OK.
Run some reports to test the system.
Open SQL Developer and go to your AUDIT database and check the

COGIPF_NATIVEQUERY table.

 

 

More Information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-see-which-user-generating-query-cognos-analytics

https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/bid/102418/What-s-Wrong-with-IBM-Cognos-Audit-Data

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/cognos-ipf-audit-table-descriptions

https://cognoshub.blogspot.com/2015/02/cognos-sql-native-sql-and-pass-through.html

https://www.wisdomjobs.com/e-university/ibm-cognos-tutorial-196/auditing-4398.html

Product:
Cognos Analytics 11.1.7
Microsoft Windows 2019 Server

Problem:
The selection of non-production environment is missing from the installation of CA11, why?

Solution:
New Cognos BI version have that you set the production or non-production from inside the Cognos Connection portal.

After you have done the installation, go into the production environment – go to Manage – Licenses and select Production. Click Apply.

This will make the files in folder C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\analytics\iso-swid to change names.

You have both a production and non-production file here, CA11 will switch the ending .sample to the file that is not used. It will also keep the file date, so you will not easy notice the switch.

The content of the file does not change, only a smart switch of the file name ending. The ILMT program will pick up this file to report on what type of installation you have.

 

More information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ag_manage.doc/c_license_roles.html

What to know before IBM Audits Your IBM Cognos Analytics and Planning Analytics Licenses.

https://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf

https://www.softwareone.com/en/blog/all-articles/2020/10/20/ibm-licensing-understanding-the-basics

https://www.middlecon.se/var-nya-ilmt-expert-christer-borg/

Product:
Planning Analytics 2.0.9
Cognos Controller FAP service 10.4.2
Microsoft Windows 2019 server

Problem:
I want my tm1 developer be able to restart the Cognos Controller FAP service without login to the Windows server.

Suggested Solution:
Create two batch files (cmd) to run to start and stop of the FAP service.
Place the batch files in folder c:\scripts on the server where you have both Tm1 instance and FAP service installed.
Then create TI process to call the batch (cmd) files.

Enter below in notepad and save as STARTFAP.CMD

ECHO OFF
REM program to start fap service
REM https://ss64.com/nt/sc.html
REM print — to file
echo ———— >> “c:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\Server\FAP\fapstart.txt”
REM start the service
SC start “IBM Cognos FAP Service”
REM SC start “sdata”
REM print time to file
echo FAP STARTED >> “c:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\Server\FAP\fapstart.txt”
echo %date% %time% >> “c:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\Server\FAP\fapstart.txt”

Enter below in notepad and save as STOPFAP.CMD

ECHO OFF
REM program to stop fap service
REM https://ss64.com/nt/sc.html
REM print —- to file
echo ——— >> “c:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\Server\FAP\fapstart.txt”
REM stop the service
SC STOP “IBM Cognos FAP Service”
REM SC STOP “sdata”
REM print time to file
echo FAP STOPPED >> “c:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\Server\FAP\fapstart.txt”
echo %date% %time% >> “c:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\Server\FAP\fapstart.txt”

Test the files by run them from a administrator command prompt. Check that the log file fapstart.txt is created.


Set the “IBM Cognos FAP service” to Manual.
Start TM1 architect and create a new TI process, enter below text, and save as FAPSTOP

Then create other TI process, enter below text, and save as FAPSTART

Ensure you use correct ‘ or ” at the difference places.

If you share your FAP folder as FAP$ , on the windows server, to the TM1 developer group, then they can check both the error.log file and your fapstart.txt log file.

More information:
https://www.tm1forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=12599

https://www.toolbox.com/tech/big-data/question/run-an-external-command-from-tm1-052112/  

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-perform-fap-reset-sequence-re-synchronise-controller-data-publishing-tm1

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/safe-method-restart-tm1-servers-ensure-it-does-not-break-controller-fap-publish

Product:
Cognos Controller 10.3.x
Microsoft Windows 2012 server

Problem:
After restore of a backup of a database, when you run the upgrade script in DBCONV you get a error message:

Running DB step: 882 ….
com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerException: Cannot create more than one clustered index on table ‘xdbtrickle’. Drop the existing clustered index ‘idx_xdbtrickle_vat1’ before creating another

Solution:

Ask the DBA to drop the two index. And then run the upgrade again.

After the DBA have restored a backup of the Cognos Controller database, you need to go to the controller server, and inside Cognos Controller Configuration add the new database (if it not already exist). Fill in the fields as appropriate. Data source is the SQL host (server).

Click on the green arrow to go to the database conversion.

Click on CONNECT and then on UPGRADE.

When done, and no errors, click on CLOSE.

Then you should in Controller Configuration go to Report Server tab and click on the CHECK icon, to update the data sources in Cognos BI.

The sql commands that give issues are:

IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sysindexes WHERE id = object_id(‘XDBTRICKLE’) AND name = ‘NC_XDBTRICKLE_SEQUENCNO’)
CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX NC_XDBTRICKLE_SEQUENCNO ON xdbtrickle (sequenceno ASC);

IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sysindexes WHERE id = object_id(‘XDBTEXTTRICKLE’) AND name = ‘NC_XDBTEXTTRICKLE_SEQUENCNO’)
CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX NC_XDBTEXTTRICKLE_SEQUENCNO ON xdbtexttrickle (sequenceno ASC);

 

More information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-backup-and-restore-db2-databases-use-cognos-controller

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-move-controller-databases-new-database-server-basic-instructions

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-cognos-controller-104x-fix-list

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/cognos-controller-builds-ccr-name-and-database-version

Currently Supported Versions of Controller (incl. Interim Fixes):

Updater Kit Build CCR Version DB Version Comment
10.4.2000.1063 10.4.2000.292 10.4.2 IF7 1010 Generally available (FixCentral)
10.4.2000.1018 10.4.2000.270 10.4.2 IF3 1010
10.4.2000.1013 10.4.2000.267 10.4.2 IF2 1010
10.4.2000.1002 10.4.2000.259 10.4.2 IF1GA 1010 Generally available (FixCentral)
10.4.2000.185 10.4.2000.252 10.4.2 RTM 1010 Available via Passport Adv. (full install)

See more at IBM web site.

Product:
Cognos Controller FAP service 10.4.2
Microsoft Windows 2019 server

Problem:
How do i know if the FAP service stopped working, even do the windows “IBM Cognos FAP Service” is running?

Suggested solution:
Ask the IT department monitor team (splunk) to collect the log file from the FAP service on the TM1 server.
You find the file error.log in folder D:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\Server\FAP

Let there tool scan the file for the keyword ERROR, and if that is found send a e-mail alert to the TM1 people. Next step would be to check the TM1server.log file for more clues. Then they can stop the FAP service and restart it. Also recommended to do a FAP Initial publish at this time.

If the stop have been long, they may need to also do this;

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-perform-fap-reset-sequence-re-synchronise-controller-data-publishing-tm1

There are 3 main components for FAP:

  1. Microsoft SQL Server for the Controller machine
  2. FAP TM1 Server on the TM1 machine
  3. FAP Service Software on the TM1 machine

If any of these machines needs to be rebooted or taken offline for any reason – the order in which the FAP related services is important.  If either TM1 server or database server is shutdown or rebooted – the FAP service on the TM1 server must be restarted.  The order is important – the FAP Service for the Controller server must be started last.

If the ram memory on the TM1 server is to low – you can see this in the error.log file

| ERROR [common.persistence.retry.RetryInterceptor] [pool-2-thread-1], Trial 1 failed for method refreshMdxHierarchy
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException….
Caused by:
com.ibm.cognos.fap.common.exception.LoggedException: Could not create stub TI process: refreshMdxHierarchyProcess….

If the network make FAP service loose contact with the SQL server – you can see this in the error.log file

| ERROR [fap.service.schedule.Scheduler] [schedulerThread], Something severe has happened…..

More information:
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/frequently-asked-questions-about-ibm-cognos-controller-extended-fap

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/working-cognos-controller-financial-information-financial-analytical-publisher-fap

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-configure-financial-analytics-publish-fap-allow-publishing-controller-data-planning-analytics

Product:
Cognos Controller Web 10.4.2
Microsoft Windows 2019 server

Problem:
User browse to Controller web and get a message

Server is not reachable or still initializing, please refresh the page in a few seconds

Possible Solution:

Depending on the URL you enter in your Internet Explorer you will succeed or not.

This give above error

http://servername:9080/#!/Login

If you enter the FQDN like this it will work

http://servername.domain.com:9080/#!/Login

The error can also be that you are to fast, the controller web will need some time to start up.

More information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS9S6B_10.4.2/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ctrl_web_ug.doc/c_web_workflow.html

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/link-planning-analytics-not-configured-when-configure-controller-web-connect-tm1-pa-web-caused-apar-ph19087

Product:

Cognos Controller Web 10.4.2

Microsoft Windows 2019 Server

Problem:
When user browse to Controller Web on URL http://servername.domain.com:9080/ they see a blank page.

Solution:
Inside Internet Options for IE change the value for Compatibility View Settings.

Uncheck both, so this is not used.

Close and then test again.
Controller Web may need in Internet Explorer to Deselect the “Display intranet sites in Compatibility View”.

In some cases the controller web windows server need to be removed from the Internet Options security local intranet zone;

Go in there and remove the servers listed under sites.

More information:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/fix-site-display-issues-with-compatibility-view-in-internet-explorer-11-9a0a3a6e-89be-518f-ff56-c491b528b302

https://hawaiianair.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2613/~/internet-explorer-compatibility-view-%28ie9%2C-10%2C-%26-11%29