8.4 Go! Dashboard Install & Config

[david.stachon]

Anyone got this tool up and running?

...the install/configuration is brutal! (various edits in xml file, and manual deployment to tomcat, etc)

I'm able to get the service up and running, and it appears to be working (I'm able to navigate Cognos Connection to grab content)

As soon as I select a report in the tree, under that report I get the error message:

PRS-PRH-0250 The target server returned an HTTP error code

(this is on the same machine as Cognos 8.4 BI ...yes, I did switch the port to 8081)

Any thoughts?

[DustPanMan]

David,

I got it to where I could see the folders, but I still have not installed my Samples.  Once I get them installed (probably tomorrow), I'll let you know how it turns out.  Why 8081 instead of 8080?

Best,

Dustin

[kolonell]

The port needed changing 'cause the other tomcat is running on 8080 already. As far as the error goes i suspect you have integrated auth set on the virtual directories. Try turning it off.

[david.stachon]

...I got it up and running....pretty cool!

One thing I realized right away is that it will be quite important to give each of your report objects (i.e. list, cross-tabs, graphs) a user friendly name.

(my problem was in the dashboard.properties file. I had not set my gateway, and dispatcher to the correct URLs (i.e. they weren't the default))

cheers,
david.

[kyle556]

I have to agree with the install/config being a little too manual. Doesn't feel refined yet.

I'm having two problems with it so far:

1. The service won't start. I get error code 0 every time I try. The event log has the very useful error:
The IBM Cognos 8 Go! Dashboard service terminated with service-specific error 0 (0x0). It will start if I manually run startup.bat from the command line though.

2. I'm at the last step in the install, where I test the installation by going to a specific URL. Every time I try I get a firewall error:
DPR-ERR-2079 Firewall Security Rejection. Your request was rejected by the security firewall. I have gone through the firewall steps on page 9 over and over again, but it isn't helping.

[kolonell]

Hi Kyle556

>1. The service won't start. I get error code 0 every time I try. The event log has the very useful error:
>The IBM Cognos 8 Go! Dashboard service terminated with service-specific error 0 (0x0). It will start if I manually run startup.bat from >the command line though.

I have had that error once before. I fixed it by uninstalling the service (service.bat uninstall) and reregistering it after making sure that
java_home was set (and visible in the "service.bat install" output).   

>2. I'm at the last step in the install, where I test the installation by going to a specific URL. Every time I try I get a firewall error:
>DPR-ERR-2079 Firewall Security Rejection. Your request was rejected by the security firewall. I have gone through the firewall steps on >page 9 over and over again, but it isn't helping.

What is the URL you test ? what have put as "valid host/domain" in the CAF settings ?

[arsinghani]

Hi David,

I am getting the exact same problem. I have both the app servers running on the same machine on 2 ports 8080 for C8 and 8081 for Go!

Spent 2 days fighting the config, got it up and running but am still unable to:

1. See any objects in the folder structure, i.e. I can see all my folders under public folder but I when I expand them there is nothing there. Also when I click the toolbox I am getting this error "PRS-PRH-0250 The target server returned an HTTP", no objects getting displayed there either.

2. See Go! Dashboard in the capabilities in Cognos Admin. Initially I had set the WEB.GATEWAY_URI in the PresentationService and I thought that was the problem. But since then I have changed that to my dispatcher's advance setting and restarted the cognos server but its still the same. Cannot access Go! from Cognos.

My dashboard.properties file looks something like this:
c8_dispatch=http://hschasdstc0017:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch
c8_gateway=http://hschasdstc0017:80/cognos8/cgi-bin/cognosisapi.dll
c8_webcontent=http://hschasdstc0017:80/cognos8

I have checked all the URLs in IE and all of them work.

I also checked the ATOM Feed for one of the reports in the Folder list using Firefox and got the following error message:
<rds:error>
  <rds:message>
      RDS-ERR-1022 The request received by Report Data Service is not valid.
  </rds:message>
</rds:error>


Any help would be really appreciated..

[kolonell]

Hi Aash

Have installed the "Go! Dashboard Resources" and "Thumbnail Service" on top of the existing BI install as well ? I had that
error when accessing the Toolbox and resolved it by installing the 2 components above onto the BI part.

[kyle556]

Hi kolonell,

Thanks for the tip on setting java_home before installing the service. The install guide is misleading when it says the java_home variable only needs to be set in either a distributed install or when not installed in the cognos8 folder. My server isn't distributed, and it is installed to the cognos8 directory, so I assumed this step wasn't needed. After setting java_home, the service starts without problems.

For my firewall problem, the URL I'm trying is: http://y2:8090/cognos/dashboard/html . In my CAF settings, I have "y2" under valid domains. When that didn't work, I also tried "y2:8090" but I get the same result. I placed a support call to Cognos and they sent me a "Troubleshooting GO! Dashboard Companion Guide" PDF which I'm still digesting.

Thanks for your help!

[kolonell]

hmm .... hostname:portnumber (y2:8090) is the correct entry in the valid domains section. I would say check that you haven't specified any other host name in the dashboard.properties file or make sure you have recycled the service ;-) 

Thx for the tip .. I 'll log a SR as well then to get my hands on that guide !! Let's hope it's better than the install guide ...

[kyle556]

I've reviewed the dashboard.properties file and it looks ok, as far as I can tell. I've also recycled the service several times :)
I tried turning off the firewall and restarting the service and dashboard opens up ok... but that's not a fix either. I'll just wait to see what support has to say.

The companion guide is useful, and goes into more detail about the inner workings of dashboard, but sometimes it contradicts the install guide. Hopefully the next version of dashboard has a smoother install.

[kolonell]

Yes, there is a lot of opportunity in improving the install seeing it's almost non existing now in some way.

Got the document myself now as well from "Tech talk insider" but can't see what you mean that it contradicts the install Guide?  I would
say it ought to be the install guide in the first place ;-) 

[kyle556]

For example, The install on page 15 says "Type build.bat and press Enter".
In the companion on page 15 is says, "The build.bat file must be modified to point to the IBM Cognos 8 location in order for the bat file to work".
So, should I just run it, or must I modify it first?
Also, the install guide says java_home only needs to be set under certain circumstances where the companion says to set it if not set already. As I found out, the companion is more correct in that instance.
All things considered, it's still better than the install guide!  :D

[kolonell]

Ah ok, I see what you mean. :-)

[cognos84]

I istalled the cognos Go dashboard but when I drag and drop the Cgonos Navigator from the toolbox I am not getting the icons. I am getting all the content from the Cognos connection like publec folder and my folder but not getting the icon , any idea?

[funkigreendog]

Struggling to get this going, and as others have suggested, manual and install leave a bit to be desired.

We have a multi server Cognos 8 install (sepearte web server), and I'm struggling to understand if Dashboard is imply installed on the Application server or wether it needs a gateway component also installed.

I don't understand what WEB.GATEWAY_URI should be set to as the ../dashboard/html/ directory in the example does not exist anywhere.

[Jessy]

Hi kolonell,

Thanks for the tip on setting java_home before installing the service. The install guide is misleading when it says the java_home variable only needs to be set in either a distributed install or when not installed in the cognos8 folder. My server isn't distributed, and it is installed to the cognos8 directory, so I assumed this step wasn't needed. After setting java_home, the service starts without problems.

For my firewall problem, the URL I'm trying is: http://y2:8090/cognos/dashboard/html . In my CAF settings, I have "y2" under valid domains. When that didn't work, I also tried "y2:8090" but I get the same result. I placed a support call to Cognos and they sent me a "Troubleshooting GO! Dashboard Companion Guide" PDF which I'm still digesting.

Thanks for your help!

Hi,kyle556, Can I have a copy of your Companion Guide?
Thanks a bunch and best regards!

[Jessy]

I've started the IBMCognos8GoDashboard service. And now I'm trying to run the build file, but I failed every time. The error message is : The system cannot find the path specified.
Is there anyone who came across the same problem?
I wonder if it has something to do with the dashboard.properties file.
But how to update the dashboard.properties file? The installation guide doesn't make it clear.
Is there anyone who have resolved this problem can give me some hints?
Thanks!

[kolonell]

Hi Jessy

You'll need to update the build.bat file. I don't have it handy at the moment but from the top of my head
you'll need to set the path to the java installation folder. Maybe post the contents of your file if you modified it
already. But generally the Error you get means that something is incorrect as the java.exe can't be found.     

[funkigreendog]

Hi Jessy,

Below is an extract from the companion guide. As someone mentioned earlier it's available from the cognos site from the tech talk insider area. The below instructions are valid if the dashboard software is installed on the Cognos 8 server.

Modifying the dashboard.properties file
The dashboard.properties file is used IBM Cognos 8 GO! Dashboard as a
configuration file. This file will contain such information as context_root,
war/ear file name and the IBM Cognos 8 dispatcher URI.
1. Go to the ..\cognos_8_install\war\dashboard location
2. Open up the dashboard.properties file.
The following 2 parameters define the context path that the application
and Cognos 8 will reference. Any changes to these parameters will also
require an update to the WEB.GATEWAY_URI. The WEB.GATEWAY_URI
will be discussed later on in this document.
a) context_root=/cognos
b) dist_path=./dashboard
This defines the name of the war file that is created later in this section.
a) ear_name=dashboard.ear
b) war_name=dashboard.war
3. Change the following parameters to match your IBM Cognos 8
configuration.
a) c8_dispatch=http://localhost:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch
b) c8_gateway=http://localhost:80/cognos8/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi
c) c8_webcontent=http://localhost:80/cognos8
If needed, reference the table below to obtain the IBM Cognos

Configuration equivalent attribute name.

IBM Cognos Configuration Dashboard.Properties
Gateway URI c8_gateway
External Dispatcher URI c8_dispatch
None c8_webcontent
Save the file if there have been any modifications

[Jessy]

Hi Jessy

You'll need to update the build.bat file. I don't have it handy at the moment but from the top of my head
you'll need to set the path to the java installation folder. Maybe post the contents of your file if you modified it
already. But generally the Error you get means that something is incorrect as the java.exe can't be found.     

I'm glad to see your reply.
Thanks a bunch to you and funkigreendog. Thank you so much.
You really remind me! I've never thought about modifying build.bat.
Following your advice, I checked the file: its content is

@echo off
..\..\bin\jre\1.5.0\bin\java -classpath "../../bin/ant.jar;../../bin/xml-apis.jar;../../bin/xercesImpl.jar" org.apache.tools.ant.Main %*

but there is no jre folder in the bin folder. So I copied it from the C disk and ran the build.bat, I was noticed "Exception in thread 'main' java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/tools/ant/Main"
Then I copied ant.jar from c disk to the installation folder.
Eventually it works!
I'm testing the steps followed.
Thanks again.

[kolonell]

Hi Jessy

Good to hear you got it to build eventually. What I prefer to do myself is to modify the location the build.bat is referencing  (instead of copying it like you did). But if the building succeeds I guess all is well ;-)   i would have just modified the "../../" sections in the file to reference the absolute path of a sun java install.

[Jessy]

Hi kolonell

   You are so brilliant! It's really a good idea to modify the location, easier than my solution.

   As you know, I have built and deployed the war file , also I have logged on to the dashboard website, but it's blank in the toolbox. When I clicked on the menus, some 'undefined' alert messagebox appeared. I wonder if you have met this problem before, how to deal with it .
   Many thanks!

[kolonell]

hmm .. sorry to say that but haven't encountered this one yet ;-)

Do you mind posting the contents of your dashboard.properties file ? I suspect something is wrong with the communication between Cognos 8 BI and the Dashboard servlets.

Where did you install Go! dashboard ? in the same folder as your existing Cognos 8 or a different one ? 

By the way .. Merry Christmas to all.

[Jessy]

Hi, kolonell

   First of all, Merry Christmas to you and everybody!

   At the installation time, I tried to install Go! Dashboard in the same folder as Cognos 8, i.e. C:\Program Files\Cognos\c8, but I was notified that I can't install dashboard there, so I changed the directory to D:\Program Files\Cognos\c8.

   The contents of my dashboard.properties are as follows:

context_root=/cognos
dist_path=./dashboard
ear_name=dashboard.ear
war_name=dashboard.war
c8_dispatch=http://localhost:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch
c8_gateway=http://localhost:80/cognos8/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi

I left most of them as default.
The website of dashboard is :http://localhost:8088/cognos/dashboard/html
c8_webcontent=http://localhost:80/cognos8

Pls help to find if there is anything wrong.
Thanks and best regards!