Cognos 8 in Shared environment

[kommireddy]

Hi All,

For setting up an enterprise level shared environment for Cognos 8, what are best options?

I am aware that to host multiple projects we need to have separate instance of Cognos installation with all separate set of Content store/port numbers etc. Other option would be having a single instance of Cognos (one content store) and hosting mutiple projects (assuming sufficient resources availability) based on authorization for different access groups on different project folders. Did anybody implemented second approach in real time? if so what would be challenges?  Thanks.

Best regards,
Kommireddy.

[goose]

You can have multiple "projects" separated logically or physically it all depends on your requirements. Remember Cognos gives the functionality to separate projects logically on the same instance (one content store) where you can separate them via role based security as well as where the report processing etc gets done via routing.

personally I would have one instance, you still can have multiple application servers, then its just a matter of proper administration. I would only consider multiple instances (more that one content store) if usage was so high that access to the content store was a bottleneck.

Consult the documentation for a more complete description of configuring a distributed cognos installation.

[kommireddy]

Hi Miller,

Thanks for the information. If we host multiple projects on a single cognos instance, how could we enable customised portal design (banner, graphics etc for cognos connection) for different project teams based on their requirement without using SDK.

we do have distributed environment with two CM, three Dispatchers and two Gatways. Do you know of any specific disadvantage in having multiple instances of cognos for multiple projects?

thanks,

Kommireddy.

[goose]

I will have to check but depending on how much styling you want to do you may able to have multiple look-n-feels for different
user groups by modifying the various themes that ship with Cognos our by creating your own and then assigning them to user profiles.

The down side of having two environments is that depending on where the components are installed it may mean forking out for unnecesary licenses for the content store db as well extra hardware. On the other hand though if you have multiple environments the various user groups usage wont impact on each other and that can be a good thing.

At the end of the day I don't think theres a right or a wrong way. What ever you feel will work best for you is the option you should go with.