10.2.1 install oddities - missing files

[bdbits]

We are having some really weird issues.

We had 10.2 up as a prototype for a couple of months. I did some testing and did not experience any significant problems. We downloaded the latest 10.2.1 to install on our dev box this last weekend. Install went fine for our server admin. But when we started testing, trying certain functionality kept throwing HAL errors for missing webcontent files (usually .js). The error messages generally referenced a url returning an http 404 (not found), so at first we tried just restoring these missing files from our prototype server as we ran across them. After it was obvious there were a lot of missing files, a comparison between the dev box and the prototype found several hundred file differences, primarily within several folders under pat. So we tried a separate clean 10.2.1 install but it too is missing these files.

We can probably make things work from our initial install, but it leaves me a bit uneasy as to the integrity of the install and wondering if we will encounter other missing things down the road. And wondering why this is happening. One possibility we thought of was that maybe some process generates these files and something is preventing that from occurring, but we could not come up with what might generate them.

We are going to open a ticket with IBM but just wondered if there is any real-world experience similar to our own with 10.2.1

[MFGF]

Hi,

It's worth looking in <install location>\IBM\cognos\c10_64\instlog at the log files generated as the media was unpacked and copied in. Do you see any transfer errors? Specifically, look for the tl-BISRVR-10.2-5000.275-<date>_<time>.txt file and take a careful look through. Hopefully you will come across some transfer errors in there, probably because of an incomplete cab file from the download.

I have installed 10.2.1 and I have none of the issues you describe.

Good luck!!

MF.

[hardstep]

Clear your web browser cache, I had similar issues and a completed clear down of the cache worked for me.

[bdbits]

MFGF> Good idea, but nothing negative in the logs, unfortunately. We are trying a fresh rebuild of Cognos on another server with a new content database, and doing an export import of the content store from the dev box. If that works, we'll do that to the dev box and if successful continue with that approach to test and prod. I'll post back with the results.

hardstep> yeah, we did clear browser caches almost right away which resolved some other problems, but not these 404s. Good call, though, I often forget about needing to do that after an update.

[sir_jeroen]

What also might help:
Hit F12 in Internet Explorer (this opens the developer tools). Now delete the cache from there....
I was in a situation where CTRL-SHIFT-DEL didn't clear the cache enough....
Not much... but maybe.

[bdbits]

It looks like a clean install of Cognos with a new content database then importing from an export of the entire old content store fixed up everything. This was tested on a separate server, so the admin will apply this same process to our dev server this evening. Very strange, though. We also found that the files that are "missing" on the dev box and causing errors do not even exist on the 10.1.1 installs on test and prod. It appears these files were deposited on the dev box sometime in the past, and for whatever reason Cognos still wanted to use them. The admin thinks it was something in the content database. That doesn't make sense to me, but who knows?

I appreciate that client-side browser caches often play a part in oddball errors like this, but in this case it was definitely something server-side. Precisely what we will never know.

[MFGF]

Glad you got a working solution! :)

MF.

[sir_jeroen]

The strange thing in this case is: No objects like e.g. .js files are stored in de Contenstore, so a new database can't have solved it.
But how did you do the upgrade: Install over an existing installation or did you first uninstall 10.2.0 removed all remaining files and then do the install?

[bdbits]

My thoughts exactly ReportNet Addict. It was basically a standard by-the-book install, so uninstall 10.1.1 and install 10.2.1. Odd I know, but since the dev box is working fine this morning, I do not think we will be pursuing it any further unless we get similar oddities when we roll test this weekend. At least we have a contingency plan if the normal install has issues. :)

[SomeClown]

Could be the uninstall was not 100% clean and left behind some objects or references (like registry entries if you are Windows) that caused the install scripts to fail or skip sections.   There have been similar uninstall problems with other products in past versions.