Issues connecting Cognos 8.4 to MS SQL 2008 R2

[Charles]

I've tried everything I can think of to get these two to work together. I've created ODBC connections and tested them to insure SQL Server is installed successfully but Cognos refuses to establish a connection when initially trying to set up a Data Source Connection.

When attempting Microsoft SQL Server (ODBC) I receive:

QE-DEF-0285 The Logon failed
QE-DEF-0323 The DSN(ODBC)/ServiceName is invalied....

even though the DNS name is exactly as it is in the ODBC.ini


When attempting Microsoft SQL Server (SQL 2008 Native Client) I get errors coming back that the username or password fail no matter what username/password combo I attempt.. domain admins, system admins, etc.. all logins fail. Please help!! I can't ask for support because this is a trial to make sure everything will work before making the big investment and so far it's not working out well!

[jayanthhyd]

follow these steps to configure and start all services successfully... if u have orcle or sql server uninstall it and restart system and follow these steps.... and dont forget to say thank u to me...


Step 1

Install Cognos components. This will take a lot and I recommend to restart the computer between every three components or so, in order to clear the cache, or whatever it is that it makes it run slower.
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Step 2

Download OracleXEUniv.exe from Oracle site and install it. Create a new user "cognos" with any password (I chose "cognos" as well) and grant all privileges to it. (NOTE - Character Set of the Database should be UNICODE)
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Step 3

Locate ojdbc14.jar in oraclexe\app\oracle\product\10.2.0\server\jdbc\lib and copy it to cognos\c8\webapps\p2pd\WEB-INF\lib

If classes12.jar exists in this folder, delete it or rename it.
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Step 4

   1. Download Apache 2.2 webserver free from Apache Webserver Project page and install it.
   2. Locate the file 'httpd.conf' in the <Apache webserver installation folder>\Conf and add the following text at the bottom:

# cognos

Include conf/extra/cognos8.conf

Create the file conf/extras/cognos8.conf with the following contents:

#

# Cognos 8

#

ScriptAlias /cognos8/cgi-bin "C:/Program Files/Cognos/c8/cgi-bin"

<Directory "C:/Program Files/Cognos/c8/cgi-bin">

    AllowOverride None

    Options None

    Order Allow,Deny

    Allow from All

</Directory>

Alias /cognos8 "C:/Program Files/Cognos/c8/webcontent"

<Directory "C:/Program Files/Cognos/c8/webcontent">

   Options None

   AllowOverride None

   Order Allow,Deny

   Allow from All

</Directory>

<Directory "C:/Program Files/Cognos/c8/documentation">

    Options None

    AllowOverride None

    Order Allow,Deny

    Allow from All

</Directory>

Replace c: with d: or whatever drive letter you installed the Cognos software to.

Restart the Apache service.
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Step 5

   1. Start Cognos Configuration.
   2. Delete whatever it is under Content Manager and create a new item called "Content Store", of type Oracle.
   3. Edit the user and password by clicking the pen that appears when selecting the field. User "cognos", password "cognos".
   4. Service name is "XE".
   5. Right click on Content Store and Test.
   6. If all's right click the green play button to start the service.
   7. You can close Cognos Configuration now, as the service will continue to run in the background.

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Step 6

Test that Cognos Connection is working by calling the link http://127.0.0.1/cognos8 or http://localhost/cognos8.

I strongly advise to right click on the Apache icon in the tray bar and select "Open Services". From this window, set all the Cognos, Oracle and Apache services to start manually instead of automatically. Otherwise all these services will attempt to start automatically on Windows startup and this takes a lot of time.

To start the services manually you have to (in this order):

   1. Click "Start Database" from Oracle start menu
   2. Start Cognos Configuration and click the play button
   3. Start the Apache service from the tray icon

If you want to start the services manually rather than allowing then to start automatically at system restart then create a Windows batch command file to start Cognos as follows:

start_cognos.bat

net start "Oracle"

net start "Cognos 8"

net start "Apache2"

If you don't want to keep all these services running when you have finished your work then create a Windows batch command file to stop the services when you have finished:

stop_cognos.bat

net stop "Apach2"

net stop "Cognos 8"

net stop "Oracle"

You may want to clear up some of the Cognos server logs as part of your startup/shutdown processing, just add the line to your startup or shutdown scripts.

erase /f /q "C:\Program Files\Cognos\c8\logs\*.*"

Don't forget that Apache also has its own log files that can grow quite large and you may want to clear these out quite frequently.

NB - if you are using Cgonso 8.4 then you should change the name to "IBM Cognos 8"
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Step 7

   1. You should now import the samples.
   2. Create five users in OracleXE called gosales, gosalesdw, gosaleshr, gosalesmr and gosalesrt. The password should be the same as the user id. Make sure to grant them all the privileges.
   3. Go to cognos\c8\webcontent\samples\datasources\oracle and extract the .gz files.
   4. Under this folder run the following commands:

(Atcommand prompt not at sqlplus command window)

  imp gosales/gosales@xe file = GOSALES.dmp full=y log=log.txt
  imp gosaleshr/gosaleshr@xe file = GOSALESHR.dmp full=y log=log.txt
  imp gosalesdw/gosalesdw@xe file = GOSALESDW.dmp full=y log=log.txt
  imp gosalesmr/gosalesmr@xe file = GOSALESMR.dmp full=y log=log.txt
  imp gosalesrt/gosalesrt@xe file = GOSALESRT.dmp full=y log=log.txt

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Step 8

   1. In Cognos Connection select Cognos Administration and then Configuration.
   2. Click the "New Data Source" button.
   3. Type "gosales" for name and click Next.
   4. Select "Oracle" for type and click Next.
   5. Type "xe" for connection string (small caps needed). Select User ID and Password checkboxes. Enter "gosales" for user ID and the same for password.
   6. Test the connection. In case of failure restart the Oracle database.
   7. If all goes well click Finish.
   8. Repeat the steps for gosalesdw, and the rest.

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Step 9

   1. Open Framework Manager.
   2. Open project C:\Program Files\cognos\c8\webcontent\samples\Models\ great_outdoors_sales\ great_outdoors_sales.cpf
   3. If you get an error during opening try replacing localhost:80 with 127.0.0.1:80 in Cognos Configuration gateway URI.
   4. Expand Data Sources and for each data source check that the "Content Manager Datasource" and "Schema" have the same value (gosales, gosalesdw,...).
   5. Also modify the Interface (under Type) to "OR" instead of "OL".
   6. Test each Data Source. In case of failure restart the Oracle database. Save your changes to the project file.
   7. Expand Packages and publish each package (right click -> publish packages..).
   8. Ignore the errors.
   9. Save and exit.
  10. Do the same for project C:\Program Files\cognos\c8\webcontent\samples\Models\ great_outdoors_warehouse\great_outdoors_warehouse.cpf

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Step 10

   1. Copy Cognos_Samples.zip from c8\webcontent\samples\content to c8\deployment.
   2. Open Cognos Connection and select Cognos Administration -> Configuration -> Content Administration.
   3. Click New Import icon.
   4. Cognos_Samples should appear in the list. Select Next, then Next again.
   5. On the 'Select the Public Folders Content' page, select the checkbox to the left of the Cognos_Samples package.
   6. Select Next, Next again, then Import Now.

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Step 11

You should be able to see the sample database folders under local folders in Cognos Connection.

[FM]

well i don't know if this specifiacally is the issue, but cognos 8.4 doesn't support MS SQL 2008. only cognos 8.4.1 does. (through native client).

what you can do, is use OLE DB. try that, it should work.

ps. i have no idea why jayanthhyd posted what he did... i don't see the relevancy of it...

[gouravatalkar]

This problem may occur when SQL Server 2008 is not configured to accept remote connections, which are not allowed by default.

Solution:

Enable remote connections for SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition.

Steps:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2008, point to Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.



2. On the SQL Server 2008 Surface Area Configuration page, click Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.



3. On the Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections page, expand Database Engine, click Remote Connections, click Local and remote connections, click the appropriate protocol to enable for your environment, and then click Apply.

Note: Click OK when you receive the following message:



Changes to Connection Settings will not take effect until you restart the Database Engine service.



4. On the Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections page, expand Database Engine, click Service, click Stop, wait until the MSSQLSERVER service stops, and then click Start to restart the MSSQLSERVER service.
Good Luck...............i am sure it will work...