Product:
Cognos Controller 11.1.2

Microsoft Windows

Issue:

How install the Cognos Controller client program?

Since Cognos Controiller 11.0.0, active support is only on 64 bit version of Excel. Above list is for version IBM Controller 11.1.3

Solution:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.1.2?topic=client-installing-stand-alone-controller 

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

Currently, supported versions of IBM Controller (and IBM Cognos Controller) (incl. interim fixes):

Product:

Cognos Analytics version 12.1.2.15
Cognos Controller version  11.1.1003
Microsoft Windows 2022 server

Issue:

After upgrade to later version of Cognos Analytics, that is used for CAM login and Controller standard reports, the reports inside Cognos Controller does not work.

Solution:

The newer version of CA 12.0.4 and later have a different setup of MIME parameters. This is setup in IIS by the new CA_IIS_Config.bat script.

You can add it manually to IIS.

Go to IIS Manager and select the web site “ibmcognos”

Click on the MIME types icon

Add this

.mjs : application/javascript

Click OK

And restart the IIS server.

Restart Cognos Controller and run a standard report again.

If the PDF report works in Chrome, but not in a Edge browser, then you may need to add this:

Revert the report viewer to a more compatible display style, by making a change to the system’s Advanced Settings: 

1. Log in to IBM Cognos Administration
2. Go to the Configuration tab > Dispatchers and Services. 
3. Select your dispatcher and locate the ReportService (and BatchReportService).
4. Click Set properties > Settings tab.
5. In the Environment category, go to Advanced settings and click Edit.
6. Add the following parameters:
   • Parameter: VIEWER_PDFJS | Value: FALSE
   • Parameter: RSVP.PDF.USE_ADOBE_DRILL | Value: TRUE 
7. Click OK and restart the Cognos services to apply the new parameters globally.

More Information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/all-cognos-pdf-reports-render-blank

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/opening-pdf-output-cognos-analytics-shows-blank-page 

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.1.2?topic=options-import-controller-standard-reports-package

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-configure-ibm-cognos-controller-use-cognos-controller-embedded-report-library-ibm-cognos-controller-reports-standard-report-engine-ccrreports

Product:

IBM Controller 11.1.1003

Issue:

When start Cognos Controller client after a upgrade – you get a error:

System.TypeinitialzationException… create a exception..
System.NullReferenceException…have not been found…
CCR.CCRApplicationsettings.cctor….

Solution:

Check that you start IBM Controller client and not IBM Cognos Controller client, the older version.

The new software should be installed to C:\Program Files\IBM\IBM Controller Local Client\

More information:

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

Product:

Cognos Controller 11.1.1003.12
Microsoft Windows 2022 server

Issue:

How change from non-production to production in the header of the cognos controller client program?

Solution:

In later versions of Cognos Controller this is controlled from a file on the controller server.

Login to the cognos controller server as administrator.

Go to folder D:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\ControllerProxyServer

Open file web.config in notepad

Change from 0 to 1 at:

<add key="OptimizeDefineAccountQuery" value="true" />
<!-- Indicate Production or Non-Production, Levels: 0=Non-Production, 1=Production" -->
<add key="InstallerType" value="1" />
<add key="OptimizeJournalCopyQuery" value="false" />

Save the file.

Try again in Cognos Controller client.

You control if the users should see the database and user in the toolbar inside cognos controller from user settings:

Go to Maintain – User – Personal Defaults.

Select Layout tab.

Mark Display Data source and User ID.

Click OK.

More Information:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.1.0?topic=defaults-define-personal-layout-2-tab#E1K11_3_PersonalDefaults-theLayout2Tab

Product:

Cognos Controller 11.1
Microsoft Windows 2022 server

Issue:

When you login to Controller Web you see only planning analytics.

Solution:

Go to folder d:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\fcmweb\wlp\usr\servers\fcm.glass

Open server.env in notepad++

Normally you only need to change the c: to d: if you have installed the cognos controller program to the d: drive with default paths.

If this point to wrong folder, the controller web does not work after login.

You need to restart windows service IBM Controller UI (FCMGLASS) for the change to take affect.

More Information:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.1.0?topic=only-configuring-controller-web

Product:
Cognos Controller web 11.1
Microsoft Windows 2022 server

Issue:
What IBM service should be running on the server?

Solution:

When uninstalling the old version of Cognos Controller, reboot the server and ensure that the IBM Cognos Controller Web service is unregistered.  That is FCMWEB.

Go to the Command prompt (CMD). Manually unregister windows service with command:

sc delete FCMWEB

replacing FCMWEB with the exact name of the service you want to delete, if there are others.

After the reboot of the windows server, install the new version of Cognos Controller.

The anti-virus software can make the installation very slow – please consider to exclude the install folder from the anti-virus protection.

Now you should have a IBM Controller Web service.

Above is the windows service you should have if you install all Cognos Controller selections.

More Information:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.1.0?topic=SS9S6B_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ctrl_inst.doc/t_installfixpacks.htm 

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.1.0?topic=only-configuring-controller-web 

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/download-ibm-controller-1110-fp2-fix-central 

1. Change to the directory where you have downloaded the install version.
2. Decompress the .tar.gz file.
3. To see the version of a component before you install it, unpack the tar file to disk, or read the table of contents of the tar file.
4. Stop Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager (the Default Website).
5. Stop all IBM Controller services.
6. If your IBM Controller environment is customized, back up the entire IBM Controller location.
7. Go to the location where you downloaded and extracted the files.
8. Go to the win64h directory and double-click the issetup.exe file.
9. Follow the directions in the installation wizard, installing in the same location as your existing IBM  Controller server components if already present.
10. Start the following services:
    • IBM Controller Batch Service
    • IBM Controller Web Service
    • IBM Controller Web UI Service
    • IBM Controller UI Service
    • IBM Controller Web Spreadsheets Service
    • IBM Controller Reports Service (if applicable)
    • IBM Controller FAP Service (if applicable)
    • IBM Controller Web Batch Service (if applicable)
    • IBM Controller API Service (if applicable)
11. If you have a distributed environment, repeat these steps for all remaining IBM Controller servers.
12. Start the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager (the Default Website).

https://www.ninjaone.com/blog/delete-windows-service-from-command-line/

https://www.action1.com/blog/how-to-delete-windows-service-in-command-line-or-registry/

Product:

Cognos Controller 11.1.1003.12
Cognos Analytics Build: 12.0.4.46
Object Model version: 202406

Microsoft Windows 2022 server

Problem:

The PDF report is totally black.

Solution:

This is a feature of the new reports in CA 2.0.4.

In IIS Manager select the virtual directory (ibmcognos if using the default) and double-click Mime Types.

Add the following mime types to your IIS configuration if they are not already present.

• .svg : image/svg+xml
• .woff : application/x-font-woff
• .json : application/json
• .woff2 : font/woff2
• .template : text/html
• .txt : text/plain
• .properties : text/plain
• .wasm : application/wasm
• .mjs : application/javascript

Try to run a CA report to PDF format.

Cognos Controller 11.1 only supports CA 12.0.3 and not CA 12.0.4

Above changes may not work in Cognos Controller 11.1, you can either install CA 12.0.3

from file ca_instl_win_3.7.29.exe and ca_srv_win64_12.0.3.zip,

or use Controller embedded reporting, with this setting on the Controller server:

Open C:\Program Files\IBM\cognos\ccr_64\ControllerProxyServe\Web.config file

Add this line to the file:
<add key=”ccrReports” value=”http://servername.domain.com:9082/fcm.reports/report” />

Browse to the folder C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\fcmweb\wlp\etc\
Edit the file server.env:
Add the following line:
JAVA_HOME=C:/Program Files/IBM/cognos/ccr_64/fcmweb/jre

Save the file and restart the server.

More information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7176858 

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.1.0?topic=options-configuring-controller-embedded-report-library

Product:
Cognos Controller CONTRL_UPDATE_version=CCR-AW64-ML-RTM-11.1.1003.31-0

Microsoft Windows 2022 server

Issue:

On a new installation, when run the FAP IP, you get a error.
If you check in the log folder for the TM1 application, you find this error:

Error: MetaData procedure line (0): Error executing SQL query: “select parent, child, parentname, childname from nrtr_extdim_temp_1”

Solution:

Check that the FAP ODBC connection is connected to the correct Controller FAP database.

Check that the ODBC connection is 64 bit.

1. Logon to the TM1 server as an administrator
2. Launch the following file: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe  (to open the 32 bit version)
3. Click on tab “System DSN“
4. As a precaution, open the ODBC connection “FAP” and note down all the settings
5. Afterwards, highlight the ODBC connection “FAP” and click “Remove“
6. Click “Yes” to confirm”
7. Click OK
8. From the Start Menu, click “All Programs – Administrative Tools – Data Sources (ODBC) (64 bit)“
9. Click on tab “System DSN“
10. Create an ODBC connection called “FAP” which connects to your FAP database (which should be separate from your “Controller database”.)

Also check that the tm1api.dll from bin64 folder are in the path on the windows server where you run the FAP service, and TM1 instance.

1. On the Controller FAP application server, go to control panel, system
2. Click on Advanced system settings at the bottom of the dialog
3. Click Environment Variables
4. Under System Variables, select Path, and click Edit
5. Append this with an extra entry at the end, for the path to the TM1\bin directory, for example: ;D:\Program Files\IBM\tm1_64\bin64
6. Click OK to all dialog boxes that follow
7. If you have changed your PATH, then you to restart the FAP service.

The TM1 client includes the .dll files that are required for the Financial Analytics Publisher server and the client to communicate with the TM1 server. Therefore it is necessary to install the TM1 client on the server where the Financial Analytics Publisher (FAP) service is installed.
In addition, the PATH variable must include the folder where these DLL files are located.
Controller 10.2 onwards is a 64-bit server, so requires 64-bit TM1 DLL files
Controller 10.1.1 and earlier is a 32-bit server, so requires 32-bit TM1 DLL files

Above can also give the error : Could not login to TM1. Could not load tm1api.dll due to: The specified module could not be found’ when starting FAP Initial Publish.

Please also check that the password entered in IBM Controller Financial Analytics Publisher client, for the datamart – edit – client (domain\username) have the correct password. Test by login to the TM1 instance from TM1 architect, with that user and password.

You find more information in the FAP log file at D:\Program Files\IBM\cognos\ccr_64\Server\FAP folder.

More information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/198183

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/435443

Product:
Cognos Controller  (client version 11.1.1003.12)
Microsoft Windows 2022 server

Issue:

When testing a new database, the cognos controller configuration can not connect to the database.

Error like this:

Server was unable to process request. Login timeout expired. A network-related or instance-specific error has occurred while establishing a connection to SQL server.

Could not open a connection to SQL server [53].

Solution:

When enter a database server name that use a different port than the default 1433, you need to enter it with comma in Controller Configuration.

dbservername,5000

if you enter with period – the name will be dbservername.5000 and that server will not DNS find for you.

You can double-click on the UDL file to test, often found in folder D:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\ccr_64\Data

Note, in Cognos Configuration ( for CA11 ) the SQL port number is preceded with a colon, like this: dbservername:5000.

More information:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.0.0?topic=computer-set-database-connection-properties-controller-data-source

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.0.1?topic=computer-verifying-connectivity-controller-database

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-planning/10.2.1?topic=sdcpcs-setting-database-connection-properties-microsoft-sql-server-oracle-informix-sybase-content-store 

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/spectrum-control/5.4.12?topic=analytics-creating-content-store-starting-cognos-windows 

Database Connection – Step By Step

https://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/documentation/docs/en/10.2.1/qrc_ctrl_inst.pdf 

https://jotelulu.com/en-gb/support/tutorials/managing-sql-ports-on-your-windows-server/ 

Product:
IBM Cognos Controller CONTRL_UPDATE_version=CCR-AW64-ML-RTM-11.1.1002.5-0

Microsoft Windows 2019 server

Issue:

How upgrade the Controller client?

Suggested solution:

This are the steps we do on a laptop to upgrade the IBM cognos controller client program.

In excel the add-in is installed as this:

Some values can be found in the registry at Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel

Uninstall the previous version first, from windows control panel. That is in folder C:\Program Files\IBM\IBM Cognos Controller Local Client.

After you have uninstall Cognos Controller, you get this message when you start Excel.exe.  The above folder is gone and the files in it.

When you go into the excel options add-ins you find this message, it looks like the add-in is installed – but it is not.

Should this be removed before installation of the new Cognos Controller client? If the installation works as it should, it will handle it as is.

Run the installation of the cognos controller client from CCRLocalClient64.msi file.

Click Next

Enter the FQDN name to the cognos controller server here and press Next.

Click Next (notice the new folder to the program)

Click Install

Click Finish

The new IBM controller client is installed.

Start the IBM controller program from the start menu.

Select your database and enter your name and password if needed.

When logged in try to only start Excel from inside Cognos Controller client program, by press the excel icon.

And excel start without any controller tool bar – then the com add-in have been disabled.

You need to go to the options – add-ins – com add-ins and mark the above controller link for microsoft excel and press ok.

Restart Excel and Cognos Controller program.

Go into cognos controller and press excel icon – it should start up the Excel with this controller options.

If you look inside Excel options – add-ins it should look like this.

There should only be two controller link for microsoft excel, and they should point to the correct folder.

If Excel hang when you start Excel from the Cognos Controller program, then try to reinstall the Office program on your laptop, and reboot the computer.

Then when it works, the plug in can look like this in Excel – options:

In many cases when above does not work, it can be error in REG VALUE

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options]

“OPEN”=”/R \”C:\\Program Files\\IBM\\IBM Controller Local Client\\adxloader64.Controller.ExcelLink.dll\””

Check the registry from a working installation, and compare to the not working installation of Excel.

If you have issues with the Cognos Controller link to excel, do a reinstall of your Microsoft Office program first.

If the installation is done correct, the files should have the same date. There is 282 files in the Controller client folder for version 11.1

If you get the error “Cannot run the macro ‘cc.CompareDb’. The macro may not…” when try to open Data Entry form, it is caused by multiple Controller clients being installed. Check that you do not have installed both the old and new ccr.exe on the citrix server. Uninstall all Cognos Controller clients from the computer, and ensure it is clean, before you install the correct version of IBM controller software.

You can in rare circumstance need to search the registry (after you uninstalled cognos controller client) for references to the old version at “IBM Cognos Controller Local Client”. Clean the registry before you install the correct version.

If you get a error like this: (then the database connection is not working and the sql username and password is not correct)

System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Server was unable to process request. —> System.ArgumentException: Login failed for user ‘cognos’.
at Microsoft.VisualBasic.ErrObject.Raise(Int32 Number, Object Source, Object Description, Object HelpFile, Object HelpContext)
at ControllerServerCommon.RaiseErrSrv.RaiseError(String sUser, Int32 lErrNo, String sErrSource, String sErrDesc, String sErrHelpFile, Int32 lErrHelpContext)
at FrServerB.ServerInfo.GetDBRelease(String sGuid, String sUser)
at Cognos.Controller.Proxy.CCRWS.ServerInfo_GetDBRelease(String sGuid, String sUser)
— End of inner exception stack trace —

If you get a error like this when you try to run a report: (You have to go into Excel – options – add-ins and COM add-ins, and mark the controller link for Microsoft Excel, to make it active).

If you try to remove the excel add-in you should get a message like this – only admins can remove the add-in.

If both the excel add- ins are inactive, then nothing happens in the excel. You need to go into both Excel add-ins and COM add-ins and active the controller link for Microsoft Excel.

If you get a error in the Excel add-in dialog like this; (then you have deactivated the add-ins in wrong order)

Exception from HRESULT: 0x800AC472
at Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Application.set_EnableEvents(Boolean RHS)
at Cognos.Controller.ControllerForms12.clsDataEntry.DoLogoff()
at Cognos.Controller.XL.ControllerXL.xllController.ExitXll(Boolean LoggingOff)
at Cognos.Controller.XL.ControllerXL.xllController.DoLogout()

More Information:

• Your client computer needs this:
• Microsoft Excel for Microsoft 365.
• Microsoft Edge Runtime.
• Microsoft .Net 4.5 or later.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/controller/11.1.0?topic=installers-installing-stand-alone-controller-client

https://greenshot.org/

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/571703