CogKnowHow

Product:
TM1 9.4 on MS Server 2003 with IIS6

Symptom:
ERROR Applix.TM1.Web.Page.TM1WebPageUtils –

Problem:
A problem occurs when TM1Web session is terminated after (x) minutes and user must login repeatedly.
TM1Web session is terminated after 20 minutes with message “Session timed out. Please login again”.
TM1Web keeps timing out despite increasing TM1 Web Session Timeout.

Cause:
Timeout parameter in web.config and IIS worker process are defined with Default Parameter.
(Web Session Timeout=20 min, IdleConnectionTimeOutSeconds=120 sec, IdleTimeout=20 min).

Timeouts can be configured at three different “levels” (TM1Web & TM1 Server & MS IIS):
1. TM1Web timeout settings – web.config, tm1web web app
2. TM1 Server timeout settings – tm1s.cfg
3. MS IIS settings for timeout of worker processes – IIS w3wp.exe + DefaultAppPool + machine.cfg

The setting in the tm1s.cfg file applies at the server level, while the web.config applies to accessing the virtual directory for TM1Web.
The IdleConnectionTimeOutSeconds will disconnect a user’s TM1 session, while the timeout parameter in the web.config only applies to a user’s connection to the TM1Web website.

Unexpected timeouts may occur when Default Parameter is changed or “Precedence of settings” is causing unexpected behaviour. The setting in the web.config file takes precedence over idle timeout in IIS and machine.config. When timeout is missing in web.config then setting from machine.config takes precedence.

Solution:
To prevent a TM1Web session from timing out configure your Timeout Parameter according to business requirements and “precedence of timeout settings” (best practice is not to change the default parameters).
Check web.config and tm1s.cfg file timeout parameter information. Check if you have a setting in your tm1s.cfg as it could be impacting your timeout if you do (note that no entry = never timeout). IdleConnectionTimeOut Seconds specifies a timeout limit for idle client connections, in seconds.For example, if you include the line IdleConnectionTimeOutSeconds=900 in tm1s.cfg, the server disconnects idle client connections after 900 seconds.

Timeout Parameter in TM1 & Microsoft IIS & TM1Web
0. Increase timeout IdleConnectionTimeOutSeconds (tm1s.cfg) from 900 sec to 7200 sec (= 120 min)
1. Increase timeout of IIS worker process from sec (=20 min) to 7200 sec (= 120 min)
cscript %SystemDrive%\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3SVC/AppPools/ApplicationPoolName n
2. Increase timeout DefaultAppPool from default 20 min to 120 min
3. Increase timeout TM1 Web Session (web.config) from default 20 min to 120 min
4. httpRuntime executionTimeout=”7200″ (web.config)
6. restart IIS after changing timeout settings

Another category of Session Timeouts, the ones where immediately after logon (or a short time later) the Session Timeout hits the user, is due to the default setting in IIS Version 6 webserver of MS Windows Server 2003:
Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools ->IIS Manager -> Application Pool -> Default Application Pool (DefaultAppPool) -> right mouse click to open context menu, selectProperties -> tab Performance -> Web Garden: Maximum number of worker processes -> Change from default value of 4 to 1.

On newer version of TM1 this settings are elsewhere, because TM1 do not use IIS.

Product:
Cognos TM1 9.5.1 web and contributor

Symptom:
You can not login to the TM1web when you are using the Cognos 8 security

Cause:
To allow users to successfully log in to TM1 Web when a TM1 server uses IBM Cognos 8 authentication, a variables_TM1.xml file must be present in the c8_location\templates\ps\portal directory. The variables_TM1.xml file must be configured to include the URL of the web server used to deliver TM1 Web

The variables_TM1.xml file is included as part of the TM1 Viewer Portlets installation

Solution:
Unpack the C8_TM1_Portlets_win32_x.x.x.x.tar  file to it´s own folder.

Run the setup.exe from that folder to install the portlets on the Cognos BI servers.

Open file variables_tm1.xml in folder c:\Program Files\cognos\c8\templates\ps\portal

Add the URL to the TM1 server in the file, like below:

<urls>

<url>http://tm1servername/tm1web/TM1WebLoginHandler.aspx</url>

<url>http://tm1servername/tm1web/TM1WebMain.aspx</url>

<url>http://servername.domain.se/tm1web/TM1WebLoginHandler.aspx</url>

<url>http:// servername.domain.se/tm1web/TM1WebMain.aspx</url>

</urls>

Save the file and restart the Cognos BI services.

Please note that you must also in the TM1 cube file tm1s.cfg change these parameters;

IntegratedSecurityMode=5

.

ServerCAMURI=http://biservername:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch

ClientCAMURI=http://biservergatewayname/cognos8/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi

ClientPingCAMPassport=900

CAMPortalVariableFile=portal\variables_TM1.xml

Product:
Cognos TM1 9.5.2
Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 server

Symptom:
User have to login to TM1 again after they have been away from the computer

Cause:
Unexpected timeouts may occur when the Default Parameter is changed or when the precedence of settings results in unexpected behavior. The setting in the web.config file takes precedence over idle timeout in IIS and machine.config. When timeout is missing in web.config then the setting from machine.config takes precedence.

For best results, do not change the default settings. To prevent a TM1Web session from timing out, if you do change the default setting, take into account your business requirements and the precedence of timeout settings.

To diagnose a timeout problem, be sure a setting has been made in the tm1s.cfg. No timeout setting means you never time out.

IdleConnectionTimeOut Seconds specifies a timeout limit for idle client connections in seconds. For example, if you include the line IdleConnectionTimeOutSeconds=900 in tm1s.cfg, the server disconnects idle client connections after 900 seconds.

Solution:
Increase the different time out values in the Cognos solution to two hours;

1)
Go to the folder for you TM1 application
Open tm1s.cfg in notepad
Increase timeout IdleConnectionTimeOutSeconds (tm1s.cfg) from 900 sec to 7200 sec (= 120 min).
Save the tm1s.cfg file.
Restart the TM1 application service from inside TM1 Architect.

(if the TM1 cube is to be used with Controller FAP recommendion to increase the value to IdleConnectionTimeOutSeconds=36000)

2)
Start Internet Information Service (IIS) manager and click on default web site.
On the right side click on Limits to open “Edit Web Site Limits” dialog.
Enter 7200 as value for “Connection timeout ( in seconds )”
Click OK

3)
Click on Application Pools
Click on the application pool used by cognos (cgi-bin) and the DefaultAppPool
On the right side click on Advance Settings
Change Idle-time out (in minutes) from 20 to 120.
Click OK

4)
Edit Web.config in the c:\inetpub\wwwroot\TM1Web folder.
Locate the following code:

<!–  SESSION STATE SETTINGS

By default ASP.NET uses cookies to identify which requests
belong to a particular session.
If cookies are not available, a session can be tracked
by adding a session identifier to the URL.
To disable cookies, set sessionState cookieless=”true”.

–>

<sessionState
mode=”InProc”
stateConnectionString=”tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424″
sqlConnectionString=”data source=127.0.0.1;Trusted_Connection=yes
cookieless=”false”
timeout=”120″
/>

Change the timeout value (in minutes) from 20 to 120.
Save Web.config.

5)
Open web.config and find executionTimeout

<system.web>

<!– asp.net request execution timeout, compilation debug must be set to false –>

<httpRuntime executionTimeout=”110″ />

change the value to “7200” instead of “110” seconds.
Save Web.config

6)
Increase timeout of IIS worker process from sec (=20 min) to 7200 sec (= 120 min) with:

cscript %SystemDrive%\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3SVC/AppPools/ApplicationPoolName n

7)
Inside Internet information service (IIS) manager
Click on the ibmcognos folder (or tm1web folder)
Double-click on CGI to configure CGI time-out settings
Change behavior time-out (hh.mm.ss) from 00:15:00 to 02:00:00
Click on Apply

Restart IIS after changing timeout settings.

Product:
Cognos TM1 version 9.5.1

Symptom:
Inside TM1 Architect program when you right click on the TM1 cube ( e.g. planning sample) and select “security”, you only get up the option “change password”. The others are grayed out.

In a new installation of Cognos TM1 the user Admin in the application planning sample should have all access including Clients/Groups so you can add more users to the application.

Cause:
During the installation of TM1 server on the Microsoft Windows 2008 server you deselected TM1 perspectives under Custom installation. This because you did not have Microsoft Excel install on the Microsoft Windows server.

Solution:
Reinstall TM1 and ensure that all choices are selected.

Recommended is to always install the “TM1 contributor” selection with default settings, then you get all the program and functions on the server.

The TM1WEB part will work even do you do not have installed Microsoft Excel on the Windows server you use for the TM1 server.

Product:
Cognos TM1 version 9.5.1

Problem:
Prevent none entrusted people to access the TM1 data on the Windows Server.

Cause:
If you rename the file }ClientProperties.cub in the TM1 folder, then all passwords in the TM1 cube is replaced with “blank” and you can easy access the TM1 cube from a program like Architect.

Solution:
Recommendation is to also secure the windows folders where you have TM1 instances created to only allow the Windows service account access.

Note down what Windows service account are running the TM1 services in Windows.
Stop the TM1 service.
In Windows Explorer go to the folder for you TM1 instance e.g. \tm1servers\tm1planning
Right click on TM1Planning and select Properties
In the tab Security click on Advance button.
In “Advance Security Settings for …” uncheck the mark for “Allow inheritable permissions from the parent to propagate to this object and all child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here.”
On the Security dialog that pops up select the “remove” button
Now all access rights for that folder are removed.
Click on the “add” button
Enter the name of the service account and click on check names
(You may need to change locations to be the entire windows domain)
Mark allow for Full Control.

I recommend to also adding the local administrator group and system to the folder as a backup access point, but this increase the risk of access.

Click OK several times to get out of the Security dialog.

Now you can start the TM1 service and check if you can login from Architect.
The password for the TM1 Planning Sample application is apple for the admin user.

Product:
Cognos TM1 version 9.5.1

Symptom:
The TM1 cube is empty after a reboot of the Microsoft Windows Server.

Background:
IT department is outsourced, and every weekend the servers are rebooted to apply Microsoft Patches and other updates. The reboot is done automatically by scripts.

Cause:
If the TM1 cube is large, the TM1 service does not have time enough to save data to disk when a reboot of the Microsoft Windows Server is executed.

Solution:
Create a batch file with this content;

net stop “Planning Sample”
net stop TM1ExcelService
net stop tm1admsd

Schedule that batch file to run 1 hour before any schedule reboot of the Windows Server.
This should give the TM1 service time to save any data.

In the Script replace the “Planning Sample” with the name of your TM1 services.
Because all TM1 services are set to Automatic startup type they will then start with the start of the Windows server.

Product:
Cognos Tm1 version 9.5.1
Microsoft Windows 2008

Symptom:
During install with IBM Cognos TM1 Installation Wizard you get this message
Internal Error 27555, c:\inetpub\wwwroot\TM1Web\
The parameter is incorrect.
, 87

Problem:
Cognos TM1 does not support to be installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 standard. You must use Microsoft Windows 2008 R2.

Cognos TM1 version 9.5.1 support this
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27018895

Cognos BI 8.4.1 support this
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27017522#os

When you are going to integrate TM1 and Cognos BI you must install parts of TM1 on the BI server – therefore the Microsoft Windows OS must be supported by TM1 also.

Solution:
Install a new server with Microsoft Windows 2008 R2.

Product:
Cognos BI 10.1
Tm1 9.5.2

Symptom:
Error when doing a test of data source connection to a TM1 cube from Cognos Connection.

Error message:
TM1-ERR-0052 An attempt to login to the TM1 server tm1servername failed. The TM1 error code is 84. The TM1 error message is “SystemServerConnectionFailed”.

Cause:
Cognos BI does not have access to the TM1 server over the network.

Possible Solution:
Ensure that the needed ports are open in the Microsoft Windows 2008 firewall on both servers to allow connection to TM1. You set the port number to use in the tm1s.cfg file.

TM1 Admin Host port number:
5495 is the port number on which the Admin Server on this machine listens for client requests.
TM1 SSL Admin server port number:
5498
All TM1® components communicate with the TM1 Admin Server using SSL.
TM1 Client Message port number:
12345 (Your TM1 server will have a diffident port number)
This is a sample default. The system chooses the next available port number.
This port number establishes a secondary port for progress messages to use when a lengthy operation is waiting to be cancelled.

More information
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21459257

Product:
TM1 Version 9.5.1 portlet
Cognos BI version 8.4.1

Symptom:
There are a empty drop down list in TM1 Cube Viewer Selection when you try to add a TM1 view to a Cognos Connection Dashboard.

You have installed Cognos BI 8.4.1 Server and Gateway on one server, and Cognos TM1 9.5.1 server and TM1web on another server.

Workaround:
You need to tell the TM1 cube viewer where the TM1 are.
In the TM1Web options of the TM1 portlet definition page, you should mark Enter TM1Web URL and enter the TM1Web Server URL:

http://TM1ServerName/Tm1web

Then you will get the selection of TM1 Cube Viewer Selection.
You must have created VIEWs in the TM1 Cube with TM1 Architect first.

Cause:
The file variables_TM1.xml is not used to render web pages; it is for checking security.

Solution:
You must install TM1Web on both Cognos BI gateway and TM1 server.
When you Install TM1 on the Cognos BI server you can deselect TM1 Server and
Admin server.
You must update the variables_TM1.xml to contain all instances of TM1web e.g. both the BI server and the TM1 server.
You find the variables_TM1.xml file in folder C:\Program Files\cognos\c8\templates\ps\portal

Example of the variables_TM1.xml file:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>

<!–

IBM Confidential

OCO Source Materials

BI and PM: tm1fragments

(C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2008, 2009

The source code for this program is not published or otherwise

divested of its trade secrets, irrespective of what has been

deposited with the U.S. Copyright Office.

–>

<CRNenv>

<urls>

<url>http://BiServerName/TM1Web/TM1WebLoginHandler.aspx</url>

<url>http:// BiServerName /TM1Web/TM1WebMain.aspx</url>

<url>http://TM1serverName/TM1Web/TM1WebLoginHandler.aspx</url>

<url>http://TM1serverName/TM1Web/TM1WebMain.aspx</url>

</urls>

<cookies>

<param name=”cam_passport”/>

</cookies>

</CRNenv>