ReportNet Architecture[Closed]

[Srik]

Hello ,

Can some help in understanding Report net Architecture , What is the purpose of

webserver,ReportNet Gateway, Report Server,Content Manager.

Thanks,
Kanth.

[MFGF]

ReportNet is a web-based architecture, allowing people to create, run and view reports using just a web browser.  In simple terms, this is how the architecture works:

Let's say a user is logged into Cognos Connection and clicks on the link to run a report.

The link for the report is an HTTP request containing the name of the web server (hostname) and the application for it to run with relevant parameters (ReportNet)

The Web Server is a third-party piece of software which receives the HTTP request from the web browser and routes it to the relevant page or application (Cognos or non-Cognos).  In this case it passes the request to the ReportNet gateway (cognos.cgi).

The ReportNet gateway is the component of ReportNet to which the Web Server passes the request - it has to be installed on the same physical machine as the web server software.  The gateway then passes the request on to the next tier of the ReportNet architecture, which may be on the same or a different machine.

The request is in fact passed to a ReportNet dispatcher, which load-balances incoming requests between the various available report or request server processes within the architecture.  In this case the request is passed to a request server, which fires up the Report Viewer.

The request server does not have the capability to run reports, though, so it next hands the request off to a report server (via the dispatcher), which takes care of running the report.  Before the report server can run the report, it has to determine the report specification - so far all it has is the report name.  The specification of the report is saved in the ReportNet content store database, which the report server cannot read from directly.

The report server then sends a request to the content manager (which is there to communicate with the content store database) to retrieve the report specification from the content store.  This is the next tier of the architecture, and again may be on the same or a different machine.  The content manager retrieves the specification of the report from the content store database, and passes it back to the report server.

The report server now runs the report, and generates the relevant SQL query or queries, and passes them to the reporting database(s).  These databases then return the results of the queries back to the report server, and the results are then rendered and formatted as per the report specification.  These results are then passed back up through the architecture (via the web server), and appear in the user's web browser as a rendered report page in the Report Viewer.

Therefore you have a 3-tier architecture:
Tier 1 is the Web Server/ReportNet gateway
Tier 2 is the ReportNet dispatcher/request server/report server
Tier 3 is the data - ReportNet content manager, content store database, and reporting database(s)

Hope that helps to clarify things.

Best regards,

MF.

[Srik]

Thank you for detailed explanation.