Cognos 11.0.8 Heads up on installation

[TomCognos]

Just a heads up.

Just upgrade 11.0.6 to 11.0.8 on our sandpit server. No issues or tweaks required.

Pretty much stopped the Cognos services.
No change to IIS.
Installed 11.0.8
Rebooted the server.
Started the services.

All working no issues.

EDIT
If you have single sign on and have the sqljdbc_auth.dll in the BIN64 directory, you will need to copy that back in when you do the upgrade. Otherwise your JDBC wont work for auditing and what ever else you are using JDBC for.

[brandynabel]

Thanks for sharing!

We're getting ready to start testing for an 11.0.8 upgrade from 11.0.6 and this is really good to know!

[MFGF]

Just a heads up.

Just upgrade 11.0.6 to 11.0.8 on our sandpit server. No issues or tweaks required.

Pretty much stopped the Cognos services.
No change to IIS.
Installed 11.0.8
Rebooted the server.
Started the services.

All working no issues.

The last time I spoke to an IBM person, they recommended you don't stop the Cognos service before installing the new version - let the install process handle it.

Cheers!

MF.

[dougp]

11.0.8 was released?  For such a momentous occasion, I haven't seen an announcement and I don't see the release date on the calendar.

...and, unfortunately, Passport Advantage Online is not working so I can't get to the download.  Support says the problem has been reported and there is no projected resolution date.

[TomCognos]

Oh cool on the services. Force of habit. We have several products in the range that use Cognos (TM1, EV, Pulse etc) and need to shut them down in the correct order so I have a batch file that do it. 7 Services in total.

Couldn't find any docs on install prerequisites or instruction when i did the upgrade so just followed standard procedure here.

Anyways, if you choose to stop the services, then the upgrade works as well.

As for the links for 11.0.8.

http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24044153&myns=swgimgmt&mynp=OCSSTSF6&mynp=OCSSYQWX&mynp=OCSSVJ22&mynp=OCSS3RA7&mynp=OCSSENRQ&mynp=OCSSHM9K&mynp=OCSSQJVQ&mynp=OCSS9RXT&mync=E&cm_sp=swgimgmt-_-OCSSTSF6-OCSSYQWX-OCSSVJ22-OCSS3RA7-OCSSENRQ-OCSSHM9K-OCSSQJVQ-OCSS9RXT-_-E

Not much help though if passport advantage is down. But at least there is some reading there.

[Lynn]

11.0.8 was released?  For such a momentous occasion, I haven't seen an announcement and I don't see the release date on the calendar.

...and, unfortunately, Passport Advantage Online is not working so I can't get to the download.  Support says the problem has been reported and there is no projected resolution date.

The analytics blog is a good source of information in general and when new releases are available:
https://www.ibm.com/communities/analytics/cognos-analytics-tag/cognos-analytics/

There are lots of folks-in-the-know on this forum who share:
http://www.cognoise.com/index.php/topic,33805.msg111505.html#msg111505

[Jeff H.]

Hi all,

I always have problems with upgrading my Gateway server. It seems during the installer that it detects a previous version and fully installs all the components on my Gateway even though I've specifically chosen only the Gateway components.

How are you getting your Gateway's to upgrade easily? I have to un-install Cognos for the installer to put only the gateway components on - which sucks because I have to reconfigure IIS. I must be doing something wrong in my GUI selection.

Thanks,
Jeff

[dougp]

Passport Advantage Online is not working

From IBM PA Online Support:

Regarding to the Continue button is not working in PA online...

Please be advised we have raised a RCT critical Production Defect 1364878...

They provided a workaround, but the workaround doesn't work.

[MFGF]

From IBM PA Online Support:

They provided a workaround, but the workaround doesn't work.

Is there a workaround for the workaround? :)

[dougp]

Passport Advantage Online appears to be working now.

[Reinhard]

I have quite the display problems with my update from Cognos Release 7 to Cognos 11.0.8.

- The Cognos Logo in the top left corner is shown twice.
- The navigation bar on the left side has a broad grey border like being severla centimeters to wide.
- The Life Cycle Manager does not start throwing a java error.

Any ideas?

System is Win 7 (I know, not supported) with IE 11.0.48 and Firefox 54. Compatibility Mode changes nothing.

Regards,
Reinhard

[NYD3030]

I ran the R8 installation in our single server environment and now Cognos Services fail to start with the message 'DPR-CMI-4006 Unable to determine the active Content Manager.' This seems like one of those issues that could be cause by about 50 different things and I'm struggling to figure out which it is. I've tried some basic stuff like regenerating crypto keys and re-applying the update. I tried swapping to a clean content store and it was successfully able to generate the tables but still can't determine which CM is active. There's only one by the way...

Any ideas?

[mvferrari]

As a heads up warning...some Cognos reps may say that you don't have to stop Cognos services to apply the update, but their best technical reps will tell you something very different.  Always do the following:

1.  Backup all modified folders/files in the IBM Cognos install location.  (They may need to be manually reapplied later.)
2.  Stop the Cognos service before starting the upgrade.
3.  Stop the Cognos 11 application pool prior to starting the upgrade.

If you do not do these three things, there is a very real possibility that all of the required file updates will not copy completely or correctly.  The double instance of the Cognos logo on the page is one of the symptoms of that occurring (specifically #2).  Lack of doing the above can also affect the display of widgets in the 'new' + button.  Not stopping the application pool during the upgrade can cause issues with SSO and JDBC connections, requiring significant modifications in the IIS website.  I'm speaking from a painful experience on this and we have asked IBM to modify the documentation to include the above warnings after having a 6-week long case open with them.  These are simple instructions that can save a lot of time when upgrading to any version beyond 11.0.6.  Happy upgrading!

[NYD3030]

Update on my situation:

We still haven't resolved the issue and are now experiencing it on a fresh install of Cognos on Server 2016/SQL Server 2016 at a separate client. I'll let you know when we solve it.

Also I second mvferrari's post. IBM says these are over-the-top installations that you don't have to worry about... they are very wrong. Applying the version upgrade will delete and replace your webcontent folder, for example. This isn't clear in IBMs documentation at all. I think they've got the 'It's a super easy install just like modern software should be!' cart a bit before the horse.

[MFGF]

Applying the version upgrade will delete and replace your webcontent folder, for example. This isn't clear in IBMs documentation at all. I think they've got the 'It's a super easy install just like modern software should be!' cart a bit before the horse.

Hi,

If there are specific files or sub-folders in Webcontent or elsewhere you want to preserve, there is a preserve list you can create that will stop the installer from overwriting them:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSEP7J_11.0.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.inst_cr_winux.doc/c_ca_upgrade_latest.html

Cheers!

MF.

[TomCognos]

The last time I spoke to an IBM person, they recommended you don't stop the Cognos service before installing the new version - let the install process handle it.

Cheers!

MF.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21994915&myns=swgimgmt&mynp=OCSSTSF6&mync=E&cm_sp=swgimgmt-_-OCSSTSF6-_-E


I think they may have changed their minds on the stopping of services. Under upgrading, step1. "Stop the Cognos Analytics Service and close down Cognos Configuration".

[ilikebundy]

Going from Cognos 11.0.7 to 11.0.8

Response file is now different in 11.0.8 if installing on Server 2016

[TomCognos]

If memory servers me correct (no promises there) I came up against this error due to the old version of the sqljdbc42.jar in the \Program Files\ibm\cognos\analytics\drivers folder.

Also if you are using SSO dont for get the sqljdbc_auth.dll in the D:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\analytics\bin64 folder.

So stop the services. Copy the new versions in (you will have to google the download for the JDBC Microsoft JDBC Driver 6.0 for SQL Server drivers)

Copy them in. Start the services and try and connect.