random connectivity issues to Cognos Connection, Analyst, and CAC

[jeffowentn]

We are running Cognos 8.4.1 SP4 BI and SP2 EP on Windows/SQL.  Everything has been running fine, until this morning.  Users, including myself, can randomly access the environment.  However, there are few error messages, if any.  If I can't get to the login screen (use basic authentication to control what account I use for access), I just keep trying.

One thing I found was mention of an issue with the Access Manager Ticket Service:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21404039


Technote (troubleshooting)


Problem(Abstract)
When trying to access the Cognos 8 Environment, the Splash screen shows, but it times out to a Page Cannot be Found error in the browser. When you log in through the dispatcher it works, but it takes a long time to authenticate, 5-10 minutes. Once authenticated via dispatcher, the portal works without any issues or delays. Anonymous access works without any issues or delays as well.

Cause
Invalid Ticket server entry in Series 7 Access Manager

Environment
Cognos 8 using a Series 7 namespace

Resolving the problem





1) In Access Manager, right click your directory server and select 'Properties'.

2) Click on the 'Ticket Service' tab.

3) For "Runtime Administrator distinguished name (DN):" enter 'cn=Directory Manager'.

4) For "Runtime Administrator password:" and enter your password (default is 'admin1234').

5) Test each Ticket Service entry and make sure it is responding.

6) If they are not responding, ensure that the 'Cognos Access Manager Server' service on the listed server.




When I go to test, from within Access Manager, I get a failure.  That seems to suggest we should have no connectivity, but this is not the case.

I do not see the Cognos Access Manager Server (cer4) service on the appropriate server.  I cannot imagine this all the sudden disappeared, but we have been using this PROD environment for 2+ years. 

1.  Is it possible this could work without the service available for all this time, when we manage our security through Access Manager?
2.  Can we simply go back in and add this component to the existing environment on the appropriate server, or do we have to rebuild the intended server from the start?

Jeff

[ericlfg]

Hey Jeff,

While I can't speak towards the root cause of the intermittent issues, I can explain why the cognos access manager server (cer4) is not present.  From version 8.2 forward we now include all the access manager components in the CM service.  When you specify the authentication resource on your CM(s), it won't leverage an external ACC MAN service but rather connect into the LDAP.  So with this said, you may not have a machine with a acc man service running, and this is fine.

As for your issue, what's the behavior when you don't get into the environment?  An error message or a hang?  I assume you've recycled the environment and the issue is still occurring?

[jeffowentn]

Eric,

Ok.  We have the AccMgr service running in DEV, but not in PROD.  ???

We did not recycle the environment as it first appeared to be isolated to certain users, but then we noticed others randomly having issues.  Given that we were not in the month-end close process or in the middle of the budget cycle (for most of our users), this was less critical.  For the most part, once you were in, you could do what you wanted and not get booted out.

Everything recycled again, this morning, and at first pass, it appears to be going well.  The only errors I could find were related to authentication, but nothing I could search on and find any meaningful information...???

Jeff

[ericlfg]

Hey Jeff,

It's possible to have the service running, but EP shouldn't leverage it.  If you want to test this, shut down the service and try to get into the product, my expectation is that it shouldn't affect the environment.

Hopefully the recycle should have cleared out whatever may have been causing problems..  hard to say.

[jeffowentn]

By the way, the recycle did resolve our issues.  Still not sure what happened...???

Thanks for your quick responses...

Jeff