Product:
Cognos BI 10.1.1
Windows 2008 R2

Symptom:
Error message when you import a report into Microsoft Excel.

Problem:
M:OperationFailed :PRS-REQ-0760 The operation “/” “” “xts.run is invalid

Solution:
Ensure that allowPathInfo=”true” as set in the IIS web.config file for cognos.cgi or cognosisapi.dll in you \cgi-bin\ folder on the Cognos BI gateway server.

The allowPathInfo=”true” parameter will allow the IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office to work.

Note:
If you get the error COC-ERR-2005 then you have missed the ” ” around true in allowPathInfo=”true”.

Product:
Cognos BI 10.1.1 office
Windows 2008 R2 server
Microsoft Excel 2007

Symptom:
Error message when you import a report with prompts to excel.

Part of Error message:
Client found response content type of (text/ type / HTML) but expected
(text/xml).
…
DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C/DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN”
…
500 – Internal server error.
…
There is a problem with the resource you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed.
…

Solution:
On you Cognos BI gateway server
Start Internet Information Service Manager
Expand the Default Web Site so you see cgi-bin folder
Click on application cgi-bin
Double-click on icon Error Pages.
Click on the right side on “Edit Feature Settings”
Mark “Detailed errors”
Click OK

Test again – you do not need to restart the IIS to active the change.

The error in GO OFFICE happen when “Detailed errors for local requests and custom error pages for remote requests” is marked in the IIS dialog.

Product:
Cognos BI 10.1.1
Windows 2008 R2 Server
Microsoft SQL database

Symptom:
Error message when test data source in Cognos connection for DQM.

Error Message:
Microsoft SQL Server (JDBC) / Dynamic Query Mode
XQE-GEN-0005 Found an internal error: XQE-JDB-0004 A problem occurred finding the driver class “com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver”.

Solution:
You need to download and put the SQL Server JDBC type 4 (sqljdbc4.jar) drivers in the D:\Program Files (x86)\ibm\cognos\c10_64\v5dataserver\lib directory and restart the BI server.

You can download the SQL Server JDBC driver from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=21599

Unpack the files in a empty folder.
Copy the sqljdbc4.jar file to all Cognos BI servers
Place the file in the \ibm\cognos\c10_64\v5dataserver\lib folder.
Restart the BI servers.

Then you can configure the JDBC data source in Cognos Connection.

Product:
Cognos BI version 8.4.1

Symptom:
Can not start the Cognos BI service from Cognos Configuration.

Error Message:
09:52:45, ‘AuditDatabaseConnection’, ‘Execute’, ‘Success’.
09:52:45, ‘ContentManager’, ‘getActiveContentManager’, ‘Failure’.
DPR-CMI-4006 Unable to determine the active Content Manager. Will retry periodically.
[ ERROR ] CFG-ERR-0106 IBM Cognos Configuration did not receive a response from the IBM Cognos 8 service in the time allotted.
Check that IBM Cognos 8 service is available and properly configured.

Cause:
A possible cause can be that the port is set to wrong value in Cognos Configuration
Can be when you install two Cognos BI instances on the same server.

Solution:
On Cognos Application server, start Cognos Configuration
Check that port number is correct at:

• the shutdown port number under ‘Cognos 8 Service’
• the 4 port numbers under the “Environment” link (all URI’s except the gateway)
• the portal port number under the ‘Cognos Portal Services’
• the ‘local log server port number’ under the “Environment” and “Logging”.

Change the port numbers to be uniq and not the same as other Cognos installation on same server.

Standard port for Cognos dispatcher is 9300
Standard port for Cognos logging is 9362
Standard port for Cognos shutdown is 9399
Standard port for Cognos Portal is 9300

Standard port for Microsoft SQL is 1433

Product:
Cognos BI 10.1.1 (64 bit)
Oracle 11g
Windows Server 2008 R2

Symptom:
Test of data source give error for Oracle JDBC dynamic query mode.
The oracle compatible query mode works fine.

Error message:
DPR-ERR-2002;Unable to execute the request because there was no process available within the configured time limit. The server may be busy.
or
Handler trace back: [the_dispatcher] com.cognos.pogo.handlers.performance.PerformanceIndicationHandler [the_dispatcher] com.cognos.pogo.handlers.logic.ChainHandler [service_lookup] com.cognos.pogo.handlers.engine.ServiceLookupHandler [load_balancer] com.cognos.pogo.handlers.logic.ChainHandler [lb_forwarder] com.cognos.p2plb.clerver.LoadBalanceHandler….
com.cognos.xqe.cubeingservices.CubingServicesHandler

Cause:
The wrong JAR file is in use.

Solution:
On the Cognos BI server install the Oracle 11g client.
Ensure that you have the tnsnames.ora file in the \oracle\instantclient11g\network\admin folder.

To configure Oracle connectivity for use within IBM Cognos 10
installed on Microsoft Windows 2008 server using a 1.6 version of Java, follow
these instructions:

From the Oracle install directory c:\oracle\instantclient11g\ copy the ojdbc6.jar file.
Paste the ojdbc6.jar file to \program files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\v5dataserver\lib folder in the IBM Cognos 10 server.

The ..\cognos\c10_64\webapps\p2pd\WEB-INF\lib directory is used when the Content Store database is in a Oracle server – then you need to have the ojdbc6.jar file here to.
The ..\v5dataserver\lib directory is only used by the Cognos Dynamic Query Mode.

Do NOT paste the ojdbc6.jar file into the cognos\c10_64\webapps\p2pd\WEB-INF\lib folder.
Copy the ocijdbc11.dll from the Oracle client directory \oracle\instantclient11g\ to the
\program files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\bin64 folder.

In order for the Oracle driver to be picked up by IBM Cognos
10, the IBM Cognos 10 service will need to be stopped and started.

If you place the 32 bit ojdbc6.jar file into the cognos\c10_64\webapps\p2pd\WEB-INF\lib folder, instead of the .. cognos\v5dataserver\lib folder , the DQM will work. But it is not a correct setup.

You must have the path to the Oracle client ,c:\oracle\instantclient11g\bin, in PATH.
You need to create a SYSTEM VARIABLE called TNS_ADMIN that should point to the ora files folder; c:\oracle\instantclient11g\network\admin

You change in Cognos Configuration if you want to use 64 bit DQM.
1) Open IBM Cognos Configuration
2) Under the Environment section set the “Report Server Execution
Mode” to 64 bit.
3) Save the configuration
4) Restart the services.
(you need to have 64 bit oracle client installed)

More Information:
If you get a XQE-GEN-2002 error then you have placed a 64 bit oracle dll in folder \program files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\bin64.

Copy the right 32 bit ocijdbc11.dll from oracle folder in to the c10_64\bin64 folder.

Understanding How IBM Cognos 10 Connects to Oracle :
For this data source, the IBM Cognos 10 Compatible Query Mode requires
the installation of the Oracle client software. The IBM Cognos 10
Dynamic Query Mode on the other hand only requires access to the
Oracle type 4 JDBC driver. The name of the Oracle JDBC driver to use
depends on the version of Java being used within the IBM Cognos 10
install.

Note:
ojdbc6.jar file is 2102 KB in size for 32 bit version
ocijdbc11.dll file is 135 KB in size for 32 bit version

Product:
Cognos BI 8.4.1
Windows 2008 R2 Server

Symptom:
User get a error when they try to surf to Cognos connection using an old shortcut on the desktop.
It have worked the other day.

Error message:
404 – File or directory not found

Cause:
The IIS on Windows 2008 server is stopped to allow CGI.

This is simply done by inside Internet information services manager,
go to the server and click on “ISAPI and CGI Restrictions”
on the right side click on “Edit Feature Settings”
in the dialog Edit ISAPI and CGI Restrictions Settings
uncheck “Allow unspecified CGI modules”
and leave “Allow unspecified ISAPI modules” checked
click OK

This will stop all CGI access to the IIS server, if you not have explicit added exceptions in handler mappings.

Solution:
Ensure the user surf to http://servername/cognos8
instead of http://servername/cognos8/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi

Recommendation is to use cognosisapi.dll instead of cognos.cgi on Microsoft Windows server because they use less windows resources.

Product:
Cognos BI 10.1.1
Windows 2008 R2 server

Symptom:
After restart of the Cognos BI server you can not get into the Cognos connection or that the Business insight give error :

DPR-ERR-2014 Unable to load balance the request because no nodes in the cluster are available, or no nodes are configured for the service: buxService.

Background:
You have a two server setup,
One server with Cognos Content Manager and Cognos Gateway (named A)
One server with Cognos Application tier ( for BI reporting, named B )

The Cognos Configuration is pointing the primary dispatcher to the Cognos Content Manager server A, but this server does not have all the functionality installed to handle the dispatcher actions.

If you restart server B, then it will point to server A for actions, and server A have the dispatcher service – but not the associated functions needed to perform all actions.

Boot of Cognos servers:
In all Cognos system the server containing the Cognos Content Manager service must be started first. After that the other Cognos BI serves can be started.

Solution:
All servers and gateway must point to the Cognos BI App Servers dispatcher as the only and primary dispatcher for the gateway. This is on server B.

If you want to use the Content Manager server A as primary dispatcher, you must install the Cognos Application tier there.
Then you need to set Report service and Batch Report service to false in Cognos Configuration on Server A, to prevent the heavy reports to be processed on that server.

Product:
Cognos BI 8.1 Reportnet

Problem:
How do I erase old transformer mdc cube files from a folder?

Cause:
In many cases you create a new powerplay cube file every night with Cognos transformer. Then you get a lot of MDC files in a folder. But you want the old cube files to be erased.
In the creation process of the powercubes MDC file you add the date in the name as;
BudgetA20100218.mdc

Solution:
Create a batch file that contains below text,
Place the script file erasecube.cmd in the same folder as the mdc cube files.
Run the script as part of the cube build process.
The script will erase all MDC files that do not have today’s date in the name.

……………………………………………………….
Rem checks today date and format it to the variable currentdate
set currentdate=%date:~3,4%%date:~8,2%%date:~11,2%

rem List the cubes to be deleted
dir /B *.mdc | find /V “%currentdate%” > delete.list

rem Deleting the cubes
for /F %%j in (delete.list) do del /Q %%j

rem Deleting the list of used above
del /Q delete.list

…………………………
Ensure you test the script before you use it in production.

You must change the line “set currentdate=%date:~3,4%%date:~8,2%%date:~11,2%”
to get it to work with your regional settings on the computer.

MS-DOS function date:~3,4 where 3 is the position before first character to use, and 4 is the number of characters to use in the date string.

In a MS-DOS prompt on the Cognos server;
Check today’s format by type DATE /T in the prompt
You may see the date as 2010-03-26

Then you need to change the currentdate line to reflect this
set currentdate=%date:~3,4%%date:~8,2%%date:~11,2%
Above may give that variable currentdate is “0-0326”.
You change the line to be like below to get the right format.
set currentdate=%date:~0,4%%date:~5,2%%date:~8,2%

You can check by run above command in MS-DOS box
Then enter %currentdate% to see the value in the variable.
D:\temp>%currentdate%
‘20100326’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Product: Cognos BI 8.4.1

C8BISRVRRS_version=C8-AW32-ML-RTM-8.4.102.18-0
C8BISRVRRS_name=Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Server Application Tier

Symptom:

A error when you run a report on a transformer cube, that have worked before you upgrade Cognos BI to 8.4.1

Some reports work well and other give a error message.
If you validate the report in report Studio you get the error QE-DEF-0459 CCLException.

Error:

OP-ERR-0025

The following OLAPPlanner internal error occurred: OPASSERT(position < m_children.size()) in OPExpressionOperator::GetChild at OLAPPlannerExpression.cpp:4454

Cause:

Upgrade issue from 8.2 to 8.4 :
Negative sign in a expression such as “- ([data item1] – [data
item2])” in a crosstab report will cause an error message in 8.4
but it works in 8.2:
OP-ERR-0025 The following OLAPPlanner internal error occurred:
‘OPASSERT(position < m_children.size()) in
OPExpressionOperator::
GetChild at OLAPPlannerExpression.cpp:4445’.
The workaround is to use “0 – ([data item1] – [data item2])”

Solution:

Change the report to use “0 – ([data item1] – [data item2])” and save it again.