Installing and configuring Planning and BI on separete serveres in cluster.

[marekvich]

I have problem with configuration of Cognos Planning and Cognos BI in following environment:
- separete BI and planning server
- Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 operating system for both BI and Planning application server
- client machines have Windows XP Professional version 2002 SP2
- version Cognos 8.3.12.27
- webserver: IHS (IBM HTTP Server 6.1)
- it's a new install of BI and Planning

I configured both BI and planning server as you can see in the attached file.                                                                   

The problem is:
When I try to open contributor application (after GTP process run succesfully), I always have HTTP 404 error - The page cannot be found (the URL of CP package is built incorrectly).

My questions are:
1. How can I correct problem with openning contributor application?
2. Does anyone know how to configure planning and BI servers in distributve environment (like BI and planning server cluster)?

Thanks very much in advance!

[cognos775]

there could be very reasons for this....are you using the same CM/CS for both planning and BI? Is gateway same for both?

[marekvich]

Hi,
we have two machines, one serving as Gateway and BI, the other serving as Planning server.
Gateway and CS are the same for both machines (it is our BI application server). You can see this configuration in attached file.
CM is active on BI aplication server (gateway).

The problem is, that when clicking on the package with CTB application, the request is made to the GATEWAY server to directory /cognos8/contributor/, which is not present on gateway - this directory exists on the planning server. So the question really is : how to configure Gateway so that the request is serviced by planning server, not the gateway itself? See the screenshot for configuration of both machines. Planning dispatcher is registered on the Gateway server.
What else should be done?

Thanks a lot!

[SomeClown]

You have to install the Planning Gateway components on the BI (Gateway) server

[marekvich]

Thanks a lot for your advice! I haven't installed any Planning components on the BI (gateway) machine yet. Can I have couple of additional questions? I'm not clear with this issue at all. If I install planning gateway components to my gateway (BI) server then:
1. How should be the planning instance configured on gateway (BI) machine? (e.g. what planning services should run on gateway (BI) server)
2. What instance should serve as primary gateway on gateway server? Is it BI or Planning?
3. How should be the cognos virtual directories configured in that environment?
e.g. following directories in Apache file httpd.conf:
cognos/83/bi/cgi-bin/
cognos/83/bi/webcontent/
cognos/83/planning/cgi-bin/
cognos/83/planning/webcontent/
To which one of servers should they direct to? (Planning or BI?)
To which one of servers should the file mod2_cognos.dll direct to? (Planning or BI?)

Funny is that we tried to solve problems with environment where BI and Planning were installed on one machine together (it was couple of months ago), cognos support issued their official line that "instance of BI and instance of Planning on the same server is not supported" :)

[SomeClown]

1 - No instance - just do custom install and select gateway components only - doesn't install service
2 - one gateway is all you need - the BI server - that's why you put the planning gateway components over there
3 - don't know - never installed planning to apache but what you suggest is probably wrong - to integrate, components go in same directories - cognos/c8/cgi-bin,  cognos/c8/webcontent, etc.  They are meant to be installed to same (shared) location

It's not supported because the performance profiles of the applications are different enough that normal processing can cause conflicts between planning and bi.

[marekvich]

Thanks a lot, you really helped me!