How to track Analyst user activity?

[mr j]

Hi!

Tried to look for this, but none of the topics found so far didn't quite hit the target, or I just didn't get it if they did...

There's a couple of Planning applications used via Planning Manager. Users access these via RDC to the server. Two separate environments, one is version 8.3 and the other 8.4 (don't ask why..).
What is the best way to track user activity on these applications?
Which users, how many times per a time period etc. basic data. This is to find out actual requirement for licences.

In Cognos 8 portal Cognos Administration - Configuration - Dispatchers and Services there's e.g. "Audit logging level for planning data service", but does this apply in any way to Analyst/Manager? Also I don't think Analyst logins are found in Content Store or Planning Store?

One option is to check the Windows logs as, like said, all users access the server anyway, but would be nice to know whether Cognos provides some options.

Thanks in advance for any comments!

[ericlfg]

Hi Mr J,

Planning, at the basic level, has very limited audit capabilities from with Analyst / Manager.  You can setup auditing within Analyst, but typically that's used to track specific changes to values within analyst.  If the manager reports are interacting and changing values in analyst, you may be able to get some basic usage metrics by setting this up.

Can I assume that each user that uses the RDC is using their own signon to access the server?

Unfortunately most of the auditing mechanisms I know are in the architectural layer -- that is an auditing database or dispatcher auditing settings.  All of these mechanisms would just yield very high level information about planning users.  To answer your question, setting auditing on the planning data service would not yield the information you're looking for.  That specific service helps BI render reports off live planning data.

Example:
If you setup an auditing database in cognos configuration, it would track which users logged into the portal, who ran reports, etc.

In this example, if I were to log into analyst it would get recorded into the auditing database as a cognos connection portal logon -- which would look like every other logon from a user actually going into cognos connection.

Hope this helps..

[mr j]

Hello,
again thank you for a fast and helpful reply!

What you say sounds like there might be options after all. I think for now the main point of interest is simply who and how many times per given period of time (not known yet what is needed). Ie. to me sounds like very high level.

The other server has a solution utilising only Manager reports. If the Analyst audit tracked changes in values and there's user id and timestamp this could be an option? In case the users don't make a change but only view the data and this is not recorded in the audit db I believe this is an 'error' that can be accepted.

The other server less used actually has Contributor applications and this needs to be tracked also.

Assumption is correct, RDC with own signons.

Users don't actually access BI content at all on these servers, so - as you say - if the record in a audit db set up in Cognos config looked like a cognos portal logon it would be fine. It is known it must be for Planning.

So, ummm... which is the easiest way to go. Any docs available anywhere on the Analyst audit and Cognos config audit setup?

[ericlfg]

The analyst user guide has a section regarding audit trails that you can reference:

Page 200 - note it is a 10.1 document, but the setup is identical in previous versions.
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/documentation/docs/en/10.1.0/cp_a.pdf

As for the audit database, you'd want to create a new database resource by right clicking on Logging in cognos connection and selecting Destination > Database

I'm not personally aware of any planning documents that speak towards using the audit database, but a google search for IBM DeveloperWorks along with Auditing will likely yield some BI proven practice documents that could be applicable. (DeveloperWorks is the IBM proven practices website)

[mr j]

Docs are sometimes hard to find, but Analyst UG... figures    :)

Tested with the audit database and it would give sufficient data in this case as only Planning is used on these servers.

Thank you very much for the input!