Lifecycle Manager/Statistics/Virtual Manager/Real Time Monitor - What are they?

[Northern_Monkey]

I have been using Cognos now for many years and have become fairly proficient at the tools pre-configured for me to use on site.
Now I have been asked to evaluate the 10.2 toolset, I have found there is functionality I am a little unfamiliar with.
Any feedback on the following topics would be gratefully appreciated...

Lifecycle Manager – Does anyone use this? Is it useful? Do you use it to compare DEV -> UAT/PROD releases?

Virtual View Manager – What is this? All I can find online is a lot of sales fluff. If anyone could give me some explanation in understandable terms as to its use etc, I'd be grateful.

Real Time Monitoring – Again, what is it and how is it used?

Statistics – Anyone installed this add on? How broad is the range of functions? Is it free?

PowerPlay Server and Client – Is this the old series 7 tool? Is it offered as legacy tool? Transformer is still used in 10.2 so is the PowerPlay server a way to dice cubes? If so, how is it different from Analysis Studio?

Cognos Index Search - Anyone using this? Feedback? Is it just an index stored on a DB?

Cognos Roles – Am I right in thinking the roles out of the box do not actually map to the roles purchased with the new licences?

[MFGF]

I have been using Cognos now for many years and have become fairly proficient at the tools pre-configured for me to use on site.
Now I have been asked to evaluate the 10.2 toolset, I have found there is functionality I am a little unfamiliar with.
Any feedback on the following topics would be gratefully appreciated...

Lifecycle Manager  – Does anyone use this? Is it useful? Do you use it to compare DEV -> UAT/PROD releases?

Virtual View Manager – What is this? All I can find online is a lot of sales fluff. If anyone could give me some explanation in understandable terms as to its use etc, I'd be grateful.

Real Time Monitoring – Again, what is it and how is it used?

Statistics – Anyone installed this add on? How broad is the range of functions? Is it free?

PowerPlay Server and Client – Is this the old series 7 tool? Is it offered as legacy tool? Transformer is still used in 10.2 so is the PowerPlay server a way to dice cubes? If so, how is it different from Analysis Studio?

Cognos Index Search - Anyone using this? Feedback? Is it just an index stored on a DB?

Cognos Roles – Am I right in thinking the roles out of the box do not actually map to the roles purchased with the new licences?

Hi,

Lifecycle Manager is a tool for allowing your to bulk-verify and test reports. It is intended for use between renditions/versions, to allow you to make sure your reports run and produce the same outputs. I used it recently to compare some Cognos 10.2 reports run under CQM vs DQM.

Virtual View Manager is an EII tool. It is actually a rebranded version of Compisite Information Server (Cognos used to bundle it as Composite until they acquired the rights to the source code). You can use it to connect to "other" data sources such as web services, CRM systems and XML feeds, model the data from these to resemble tables and columns, then connect to VVM via ODBC from within Cognos 10 to consume it. It is nearing the end of its shelf life in terms of development - it is 32 bit only, and IBM seems to be replacing its functionality with direct access to data sources using DQM.

Real Time Monitoring is software Cognos acquired from Celequest - originally called LAVA. It generally connects to message queues and displays the data updates as they occur in real time. It uses a separate modelling environment to FM, but can be consumed in Cognos Workspace and Cognos Connection if desired.

Statistics is an add-on to Report Studio, introducing some of the main statistical functions normally found in SPSS. It appears as a new "Statistics" template when creating new reports, and allows a wizard-driven approach to building statistical reports. It is not free, and is not part of the "standard" Cognos 10 install. Take a look at chapter 9 of the RS User Guide here:
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/documentation/docs/en/10.2.0/ug_cr_rptstd.pdf

PowerPlay server and client are lifted from Cognos 7, yes. They have been updated to allow Cognos 8/10 security, but otherwise are largely unchanged. I don't think they are available unless you are an existing customer upgrading from 7.

Cognos Index Search is a pretty nifty search engine for all your Cognos content - it was originally Cognos 8 GO! search. It allows you to index report names/descriptions, metadata labels, and even the report data itself. It has a facility where if you search for a specific combination of data and can't find existing reports containing what you need, it can build a new report/analysis for that data on-the-fly. I really like it!

Cognos roles do not necessarily reflect the license definitions, but mostly do. Use them if they suit, or else build your own - it's not too difficult :)

Cheers!

MF.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Northern_Monkey]

Brilliant response, many thanks...

[MFGF]

You're welcome :D