Upgrade 11.1.2 to 11.1.7 FP6 - Unable to create reports in RS "TypeError:..."

[MichaelB]

Good morning Cognos community. I am in the middle of upgrading our environment to 11.1.7 FP6 and have encountered CSS errors like crazy since the upgrade. These errors are similar to what we saw when Chrome 85 came out, except I am on Chrome 113.

Many similar errors pop up as soon as the blank report attempts to open:
"TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'cssRules') at_enn_60g (<url>/ibmcognos/bi/pat/halcchl_block.js:1:62069)"

Acknowledging the errors takes you to an empty report where nothing can be selected/accessed. No way to navigate back to welcome screen as "Reporting" at the top of the screen is greyed out.
Opening an existing report gets a lot of errors as well, but they can be acknowledged and then changes made to the report and saved or save as.

TIA for the help! Secondary question - is there an actual FM upgrade from 11.1.2 to 11.1.7 FP6? Attempting to upgrade FM - the option is greyed out in my install exe.

[dougp]

There may not be an upgrade option.  The installer improved over time and installing 11.1.7FP6 over 11.1.7FP5 for me was flawless.  But earlier installs were more painful the further back you look.

If I remember correctly, when I wanted to upgrade from 11.0.13 to 11.1.x, my testing routinely showed that 11.1 wasn't really viable until 11.1.7.  Even then I needed to have an interim fix built (based on 11.1.7FP1) to correct some critical problem that persisted until FP2 or FP3.  I'm surprised you are using 11.1.2 in a production environment.

One option -- assuming you have the disk space -- is to install fresh alongside your 11.1.2 install (so, in a different folder) and manually configure the environment.  Assuming you documented all of your custom settings, the process isn't difficult, just tedious.  Give yourself a longer downtime window for the process.

And if you're going to that much effort, you may want to go directly to 11.2.4 (LTS).  Support for 11.1.7 ends in less than a year.

[MichaelB]

I appreciate the time you've taken to respond but I don't feel like you've really addressed my issues. As far as the second question, I believe you are saying that there may not be an upgrade option? Is that a yes or a no or a guess?

[dougp]

You're right.  I read too fast and didn't realize you were mixing multiple products into the same question.  My comments were about CA Server.

It looks like you have something wrong in your install.  Maybe some configuration setting or customization that is causing problems.  The problem may have been caused by upgrading from 11.1.2 to 11.1.7.  Try a fresh install of 11.1.7.

Or the problem is on the client end.  You'll also want to be sure that the browser cache is cleared and, with Cognos open, you refresh (F5) the browser tab to get a new session.  It may be that the browser is holding on to old css files or old html that references css files that no longer exist.

Regarding FM:  FM doesn't upgrade well.  If you are using SSL, installing FM over an existing FM will cause problems that will require a fresh install to correct.  Other than SSL, configuring FM involves updating 2 values.  After spending 2 hours upgrading and configuring CA Server, spending 3-5 minutes manually installing and configuring FM seems incidental.

[MichaelB]

Thanks for the follow up. Clearing the cache didn't seem to work but I do appreciate the direction. Also, I will keep in mind your thoughts on FM.

[MichaelB]

Now that my brain has sufficiently remembered my last upgrade, I can concur with your statement about upgrade issues in the 11.1.x series.

It was a cold winter night when we launched that upgrade. It was then that I made my biggest mistake and cost myself and a friend/co-worker our weekends. We were upgrading from 11.0.7 or something like that to 11.1.1. This was my first upgrade as leader of my team, and we've never had access to SME's. Or really, knowledge of a correct upgrade cycle. So we moved Test from 11.0.7 to 11.1.1. Too many issues, held until .2 released. When 11.1.2 came out, the major issues we were having were resolvable, and other bugs were minor inconveniences for most.

That cold winter Friday night, after business hours we upgraded Prod from 11.0.7 to 11.1.2. And spent the weekend trying to get it to work. After well over 36 hours of work from Friday to Sunday afternoon, we had to roll back the environment.

If only I had gone from 11.0.7 to 11.1 and THEN to 11.1.2, which, incidentally, is what we did about a month later, and the upgrade was completed in a couple hours...

'Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.' - Mark Twain

I might be 0 for 2 on the good judgement part!

[cognostechie]

Hi

Cold climate is not recommended for upgrades so that was definitely a reason for failure.

To begin with, how did you actually 'upgrade' ? Did you install 11.1.7 FP6 over 11.1.2? If so, you could get a number of issues. I always install the new version in a separate location, configure it and then migrate the contents. First of all, that reduces the chances of issues and secondly, the old version keeps working until the new version is all tested and ready to go.

FM upgrade is simple - Open the projects in new version, save it and re-publish the packages to the new version. I have never had any issues regardless of the versions. The only complicacy was if some projects were using CQM and had to be converted to DQM which has a process to follow and may require some troubleshooting depending on how the CQM model was originally built. 

[MichaelB]

Thanks for your feedback. Yes, I have taken into consideration installing on a separate server and migrating; however, that wasn't what was initially done and may not be an option at this stage. I was looking for info on the CSS errors. If you have some info on that, please share.

And it seems that you misunderstood my FM issue. That is the least of my issues at the moment and I'll come back to it at some point in a new thread if needed.

[cognostechie]

Maybe IBM will have the info you need on the errors so call them.

For me, it takes less time to install it separately and then migrate than to take the short cut of installing it over the top of existing one and then spending weeks to troubleshoot it. Of course, I do have an active personality so I base my decision on which method would take less time even if it takes more efforts but I do understand that some people would prefer it the other way.

[MichaelB]

Thanks for your input. If you have some info on the CSS issues, please reply. If not, please move on.

[cognostechie]

Sure I will move on and good luck for getting replies ! You are the King around here and can dictate people  ;D