Cognos Infrastructure Administrator for Top 3 Global Bank

[juetron]

Currently working as a Cognos Infrastructure Administrator in the Business Intelligence team for one of the top 3 global banks. The role can be best described by the following bullet points :

* Manage a dedicated support and java development team.
* Ensure the Cognos 8 environment is available to a near 24/7 profile.
* Actively monitor the Cognos 8 environment to identify potential problem areas and/or opportunities for tuning to improve either performance or long term stability.
* Definition of new and dissemination of existing processes and procedures for managing security, change release mechanisms, backup protocols, architecture of reporting applications, server recycle arrangements, user support etc.
* Providing estimates for future capacity growth inline with business requirements.
* Ensure the system is appropriately patched at OS, DB and application layers.
* Liase with various support teams (DBAs, UNIX, Support) regarding software upgrades and all related system support activities.
* Documentation and proposals for infrastructure and java developments.
* Liase with various global project teams to integrate locally developed BI solutions into primary global delivery mechanism.
* Manage ongoing relationship with Cognos Support and Cognos Sales.

We originally started off on a single server running Cognos ReportNet 1.1. The success of the team in the group, has seen the need for targetted and timely Business Intelligence grow almost exponentially. Over the past 3 years this has necessitated a number of server expansion initiatives and software upgrades. Our current Cognos 8 environment is distributed over 8 UNIX servers and is designed to provide resilience, scalability, load balancing and maximum performance. It currently hosts 90+ unique reporting applications with a total user base of over 15,000 users. The user base is distributed over 37 different countries with the majority based in the UK.  An overview of the server environment is thus :

2 Web Servers - Primary task is the hosting of a bespoke java based SDK application. This is a streamlined version of Cognos Connection designed to allow users to get to the information they need quickly and without distraction. In addition to this we also use a second java based SDK application to burst over 60,000 individually tailored reports. Components installed - AIX 5.3, WebSphere 5.1, IHS, a number of bespoke SDK Java applications, 1 x Cognos Dispatcher, 1 x Cognos Report Server, iPlanet LDAP Server, DB2 client, Oracle client.

4 Report Servers - Each server is configured with 2 Cognos Report Server components. This is to make the best use of memory and CPU utilisation. Components installed - AIX 5.3, WebSphere 5.1, 2 x Cognos Report Server, DB2 client, Oracle client.

Primary Content Manager Server - Hosts the primary collection of Content Managers. One Content Manager component is always active, the other in active-standby mode.  Cognos monitors availability internally. Components installed - AIX 5.3, WebSphere 5.1, 2 x Cognos Content Manager components, DB2 UDB for Content Store.

Resilient Content Manager Server - Provides failover capability in the event of hardware failure on Primary Content Manager server. Components installed - AIX 5.3, WebSphere 5.1, 2 x Cognos Content Manager components, DB2 UDB for Content Store.

Userbase : 18,000 SDK Users + 7000 Cognos Connection.
Peak number of concurrent users : 1100 - 1300 via SDK java application + users working in Cognos Connection.
Average number of unique reports generated per week : 2.6 million per month

There are separate server environments for Contingency, Development and Test. Contingency and Development are also distributed environments.

8)

[MFGF]

Hi,

Welcome!  It's great to see you here in the Cognoise forum.  You will find lots of good tips and advice from in here from many other contributors, and lots of useless drivel from me  :)

Good to have you aboard.

MF.