Product:
Cognos Analytics 11.0.8
Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 Server
Issue:
New installation of Cognos Analytics 11, but when you surf to the http://servername/ibmcognos you get a error like “Error Message: 403.6 – Forbidden” or “This page can’t be displayed”.
You have tried to reinstall Cognos Analytics gateway server parts, that did not help.
If you surf direct to the dispatcher at http://IBM_Cognos_Analytics_server_host_name:9300/bi/v1/disp it works fine.
Please note that CA11 needs to use http://servername/ibmcognos/bi/ and not http://servername/IBMCOGNOS/bi with capital letters, that may not work.
If you get a blank page – click inside it and wait some more.
Solution:
The IIS setup have somehow become corrupt. Redo the IIS setup.
Inside IIS manager – mark cgi-bin and select delete.
Mark SSO under IBMCOGNOS and select delete.
Mark IBMCOGNOS (and COGNOS8 if it exist) and select delete.
Exit IIS manager and stop iis.
Erase web.config files from folders like c:\program files\ibm\cognos\analytics\webcontent\web.config file and c:\program files\ibm\cognos\analytics\webcontent\bi\.
If you run more than one IBM® Cognos® Analytics instances of the same product, on one computer, you must create a separate application pool for each instance and then associate the aliases for that gateway instance to each application pool.
Go into control panel – administrative tools – server manager. Select the local server.
In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, click Role-based or feature-based installation, and click Next.
Select Web Server (IIS), ensure that Common HTTP Features is selected including WebDAV Publishing, Performance Static Content Compression, Under Security select Request Filtering and Windows Authentication, and click Next until you get to the Role Services section of the wizard.
Expand Application Development.
Select CGI and ISAPI Extensions, ISAPI filters and click Next.
Select IIS Management Console, IIS Management Scripts and Tools, Management Service.
Features as NET framework 4.6 and ASP.NET 4.6 should be selected.
Click Install.
Download the IIS add ons needed for Cognos Reverse proxy. Install them in below order;
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/erezs_iis_blog/2013/11/27/installing-arr-manually-without-webpi/
1. Stop IIS first by typing net stop was /y and net stop wmsvc /y on an elevated command-line window
2. Download and install the Web Farm Framework module. It is currently available in version 1.1
3. Download and install the External cache module. It is currently available in version 1.0
4. Download and install the URL Rewrite module. It is currently available in version 2.0
5. Download and install ARR itself. It is currently available in version 3.0
6. Start the IIS services back by enter IISRESET (or, simply reboot your server).
Download the Cognos script to configure IIS. (CA_IIS_Config_v1.09(11.02.17).zip)
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg22000097
1. Download the CA_IIS_config.zip file to your Cognos Analytics Gateway Server.
2. Extract the CA_IIS_config.bat file to a folder.
3. Open CA_IIS_config.bat in a text editor like Notepad++. https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.5.3.html
4. The variables, that are to be modified, are located at the top of the file. Edit the BAT file in Notepad++ before you run it.
Run the BAT file as a local administrator.
Then you need to Adjust request size limits. Go into IIS Manager.
Select the bi directory under the ibmcognos application created earlier.
Double-click Request Filtering.
Click Edit Feature Settings… from the right-hand panel.
Set Maximum URL length (bytes) to 8192.
Set Maximum query string (bytes) to 8192.
Click OK. (The Cognos Script have already change the values for /bi/ folder)
Configure IIS to allow to pass through the custom 441 errors that are used for recoverable exceptions from CAM. Otherwise, IIS can block these errors, and the customer sees the “Invalid Logon Response” error when trying to log on.
Click the ibmcognos virtual directory.
In the Home view, Management section, double-click Configuration Editor.
In the Section drop-down list, expand system.webServer, and select httpErrors.
Set the existingResponse property to PassThrough. It may already be set correct by the Cognos script.
Apply the configuration change.
If you configured the SSO application in previous steps, enable Windows Authentication.
Select the SSO application folder in IIS manager. For Microsoft Edge browser, select the ibmcognos application folder.
Double-click Authentication. Disable Anonymous Authentication, and enable Windows Authentication.
If you do not want to use Kerberos, at the namespace, add Advance properties singleSignOnOption: IdentityMapping
Cognos Analytics should now be available at: http://iis-host/ibmcognos.
WebDav setup
Note: webdav is not working in 11.0.8 – update to a later version of CA 11.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1PI90123
Under Connections, expand your web server, Sites, and select your website. For example, select Default Web Site.
Double-click WebDAV Authoring.
Click Enable WebDAV.
Click WebDAV Settings.
If you have anonymous access enabled, select True for Allow Anonymous Property Queries, and click Apply.
Select the directory or virtual directory /ibmcognos/bi/samples/images/ to which you want to allow WebDAV access.
Double-click WebDAV Authoring.
Click Add Authoring Rule, and add the appropriate rules for your environment. Like Allow access to: All Content, User: All users, Access: Read.
For example, if you installed the samples and you want to use the default path, under the ibmcognos virtual directory, expand bi/samples, and select images, and add an authoring rule for the image files in that folder.
In Windows Explorer right-click the directory or virtual directory you added authoring rules to, in above it can be /cognos/analytics/webcontent/bi/samples/images, and click Properties.
Click Security tab, and add the appropriate permissions. For example, add permissions for the anonymous user access.
You may need to setup webdav for other images folders on the IIS gateway server if they are used in the reports.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg22002398&aid=1
Best is to keep all pictures in the same folder /ibmcognos/bi/samples/images/ on all the Cognos BI servers.
Change the Gateway URI in IBM Cognos Configuration to match the new IIS configuration, i.e. http(s)://web-host:80/ibmcognos/bi/v1/disp
Access the Gateway through http(s)://web-host:80/ibmcognos/bi/
Create a redirect file and place in the C:\inetpub\wwwroot as default.htm
<html>
<head>
<title>Cognos Connection</title>
<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0 ;url=http://cognosserver.domain.com/ibmcognos”>
</head>
</html>
More information:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSEP7J_11.0.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.inst_cr_winux.doc/t_gateway_iis.html
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.0.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.inst_cr_winux.doc/t_enablewebdavoniis.html
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSEP7J_11.0.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.inst_cr_winux.doc/c_inst_crit_config.html