Cognos 10 Student Guide

IBM Cognos BI 10
IBM Cognos 10 Business Intelligence BLACK CLOUD
IntroductiontoIBMCognosBusinessIntelligence
Organizations are pressured constantly to understand and react quickly to information. With a
capable and efficient business intelligence solution, all levels of an organization can receive
informationhow,when,andwheretheyneedittomakefasterandbetteraligneddecisions.
Manyorganizationsoftensatisfythiscomplexityandthesediversedemandswithanumberofpoint
solutions.WithIBMCognosBusinessIntelligence(BI)solutions,youcansatisfyneedsthroughoutthe
usercommunityandensurethateveryonecanworkandcollaboratefromaconsistentsetofdata.In
addition,ITissimplifiedwithfewercomponentstodeploy,manage,andmaintain.
IBMBusinessAnalytics
IBMBusinessAnalyticsincludesthefollowingproducts:
IBMCognosBI
IBMFinancialPerformanceandStrategyManagement
o IBMCognosTM1
o IBMCognosPlanning
o IBMCognosController
o IBMCognosBusinessViewpoint
IBMAnalyticsApplications
IBMAdvancedAnalytics(SPSS)
IBMCognosExpress
IntroductiontoIBMCognosBI
IBM CognosBI provides a unified workspace for business intelligence and analytics that the entire
organizationcanusetoanswerkeybusinessquestionsandoutperformthecompetition.WithIBM
CognosBI,userscan:
Easilyview,assembleandpersonalizeinformation
Explore all types of information from all angles to assess the current business
situation
Analyze facts and anticipate tactical and strategic implications by simply shifting
fromviewingtomoreadvanced,predictiveorwhatifanalysis
Collaborate to establish decision networks to share insights and drive toward a
collectiveintelligence
Providetransparencyandaccountabilitytodrivealignmentandconsensus
Communicateandcoordinatetaskstoengagetherightpeopleattherighttime
Access information and take action anywhere, taking advantage of mobile devices
andrealtimeanalytics
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Integrateandlinkanalyticsineverydayworktobusinessworkflowandprocess
Organizations need to make the most of a workforce that is increasingly driven to
multitask,networkandcollaborate.IBMCognosBIdeliversanalyticseveryonecan
usetoanswerkeybusinessquestions.

Easilyview,assemble,andpersonalizeinformation
Often,businessusersdonotknowhowtogettotheinformationthattheyneed,andavailabletools
might not provide the freedom to combine and explore information in the way they want. IBM
Cognos BI features allow business users to easily view, assemble, and personalize information to
followatrainofthoughtandtogenerateauniqueperspective.

Usingasingleplacetoquicklyseeaviewoftheirbusiness,userscanpersonalizecontent,buildon
theinsightsofothers,andincorporatedatafromavarietyofsources.Thesecapabilitiesensurethat
more people are engaged in providing unique insights and delivering faster business decisions.
Giving business users greater selfservice control reduces demands on IT and business intelligence
systems.

Explorealltypesofinformation
If a separate tool is required, it is difficult to incorporate statistical results with core business
reporting.IBMCognosBIallowsbusinessuserstoconsumefactbasedstatisticalevidencetosupport
key decisions directly in the IBM Cognos BI environment. The ability to explore all types of
informationfromallanglestoassessthecurrentbusinesssituationprovidesadeeperunderstanding
ofthepatternsthatexistindata.Thesefunctionsallowbusinessuserstodeliverreportsthatinclude
statisticalinsightandvalidationandtodistributethesereportstothelargerbusinesscommunity.

Analyzefactsandanticipatetacticalandstrategicimplications
Business users need tools that let them accurately evaluate and identify the impact that different
scenarioswillhaveonthebusinessandonthebottomline.
IBM Cognos BI allows the business user to analyze facts and anticipate strategic implications by
simply shifting from viewing data to performing more advanced predictive or whatif analysis.
Understanding the scenarios that affect business enables the business user to make informed
recommendationstothebusinessandprovidesanincreasedcompetitiveadvantage.
IBMCognosBIuserinterfaces
IBM Cognos BI includes webbased and Windowsbased user interfaces that provide a business
intelligenceexperiencethatisfocusedupontheneedsofdifferentusers.
IBMCognosBusinessInsight
With IBM Cognos Business Insight, you can create sophisticated interactive dashboards using IBM
Cognoscontent,aswellasexternaldatasourcessuchasTM1WebsheetsandCubeViews,according
toyourspecificinformationneeds.
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Youcanviewandopenfavoritedashboardsandreports,manipulatethecontentinthedashboards,
and email your dashboards. You can also use comments and activities for collaborative decision
makingandusesocialsoftwaresuchasIBMLotusConnectionsforcollaborativedecisionmaking.
IBMCognosReportStudio
IBM Cognos Report Studio is a robust report design and authoring tool. Using IBM Cognos Report
Studio,reportauthorscancreate,edit,anddistributeawiderangeofprofessionalreports.Theycan
alsodefinecorporatestandardreporttemplatesforuseinIBM CognosQueryStudioand editand
modifyreportscreatedinIBMCognosQueryStudioorIBMCognosAnalysisStudio.
IBMCognosQueryStudio
UsingIBMCognosQueryStudio,userswithlittleornotrainingcanquicklydesign,create,andsave
reportstomeetreportingneedsthatarenotcoveredbythestandard,professionalreportscreated
inIBMCognosReportStudio.
IBMCognosAnalysisStudio
WithIBMCognosAnalysisStudio,userscanexploreandanalyzedatafromdifferentdimensionsof
theirbusiness.Userscanalsocomparedatatospottrendsoranomaliesinperformance.IBMCognos
Analysis Studio provides access to dimensional, online analytical processing (OLAP), and
dimensionallymodeledrelationaldatasources.AnalysescreatedinIBMCognosAnalysisStudiocan
beopenedinIBMCognosReportStudioandusedtobuildprofessionalreports.
IBMCognosEventStudio
In IBM Cognos Event Studio, you set up agents to monitor your data and perform tasks when
business events or exceptional conditions occur in your data. When an event occurs, people are
alerted to take action. Agents can publish details to the portal, deliver alerts by email, run and
distributereportsbasedonevents,andmonitorthestatusofevents.
Forexample,asupportcallfromakeycustomerorthecancellationofalargeordermighttriggeran
event,sendinganemailtotheappropriatepeople.
IBMCognosMetricStudio
InIBMCognosMetricStudio,youcancreateanddeliveracustomizedscorecardingenvironmentfor
monitoring and analyzing metrics throughout your organization. Users can monitor, analyze, and
reportontimecriticalinformationbyusingscorecardsbasedoncrossfunctionalmetrics.
IBMCognosAdministration
IBMCognosAdministrationisacentralmanagementinterfacethatcontainstheadministrativetasks
for IBM Cognos BI. It provides easy access to the overall management of the IBM Cognos
environmentandisaccessiblethroughIBMCognosConnection.
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MetricDesigner
Metric Designer is the Cognos 10 modeling tool used to create extracts for use in Cognos 10
scorecardingapplications.Extractsareusedtomapandtransferinformationfromexistingmetadata
sourcessuchasFrameworkManagerandImpromptuQueryDefinition(.iqd)files.
IBMCognosFrameworkManager
IBM Cognos Framework Manager is the IBM Cognos BI modeling tool for creating and managing
businessrelatedmetadataforuseinIBMCognosBIanalysisandreporting.Metadataispublishedfor
usebyreportingtoolsasapackage,providingasingle,integratedbusinessviewofanynumberof
heterogeneousdatasources.
OLAP cubes are designed to contain sufficient metadata for business intelligence reporting and
analysis. Because cube metadata can change as a cube is developed, IBM Cognos Framework
Manager models the minimum amount of information needed to connect to a cube. Cube
dimensions,hierarchies,andlevelsareloadedatruntime.
Transformer
Transformerisadatamodelingtooltocreateamodel,abusinesspresentationoftheinformationin
one or more data sources. Using these models PowerCubes can be created to support OLAP
reportingandanalysis.
MapManager
Administrators and modelers use a Windows utility named Map Manager to import maps and
update labels for maps in Report Studio. For map features such as country and city names,
administrators and modelers can define alternative names to provide multilingual versions of text
thatappearsonthemap.
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OverviewoftheIBMCognosBIarchitecture
EnterpriseclassSOAplatformarchitecture
IBM Cognos BI delivers a broad range of business intelligence capabilities on an open, enterprise
class platform. All capabilitiesincluding viewing, creating and administering dashboards, reports,
analysis,scorecards,andeventsareaccessedthroughwebinterfaces.
TheIBMCognosPlatformdeliversthecapabilitiestomanagebusinessintelligenceapplicationswith
centralized, webbased administration that provides a complete view of system activity as well as
system metrics and thresholds so that organizations can resolve potential issues before there is a
businessimpact.
The IBM Cognos Platform is built on a webbased serviceorientedarchitecture (SOA) that is

designed for scalability, availability, and openness. This ntiered architecture is made up of three
servertiers:
Thewebtier
Theapplicationtier
Thedatatier
Thetiersarebasedonbusinessfunctionandcanbeseparatedbynetworkfirewalls.
ReliabilityandscalabilitywerekeyconsiderationswhendesigningtheIBMCognosPlatform.Services
in the application tier operate on a peertopeer basis, which means that no service is more
importantandthattherearelooseservicelinkages.Anyserviceofthesametype,onanymachinein
an IBM Cognos Platform configuration, can satisfy an incoming request, which results in complete
faulttolerance.Thedispatching(orrouting)ofrequestsisdoneinanoptimalway,withautomatic
loadbalancingbuiltintothesystem.
The IBM Cognos Platform provides optimized access to all data sources, including relational data
sourcesandonlineanalyticalprocessing(OLAP),witha`singlequeryservice.Inaddition,thisquery
serviceunderstandsandtakesadvantageofthedatasourcestrengthbyusingacombinationofopen
standards such as SQL99, native SQL, and native MDX to optimize data retrieval for all these
differentdataproviders.TheIBMCognosBIuserinterfacesareaccessedthroughthewebtier.
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IBM Coggnos 10 Business Intelligeence BLACK CLOUD
Cognos10isconfigu
ured using Cognos
C eCognos Coonfiguration to start
Conffiguration.YYou also use
and stop
p Cognos10
0services.
CognosP
IBMC Platformserverro
oles
To ensu ure optimal performance
p e, IBM Cognnos Platform services are normally ggrouped toggether to
fulfill ceertain roles within a disstributed deeployment fo
or business intelligencee application
ns. These
serverro olesalsodeffinethetierwwithinthearrchitecturethatanIBMC CognosBIse rveruses.
Tier1..Webtierr:TheIBM
MCognosG
Gateway
Thewebbtierprovideesusersessio onconnectivvitytoIBMCCognosBIapplications.
TheIBM
MCognoscom mponentsthatfulfillthis rolearerefe
erredtoasth
heIBMCognnosGateway.
TheIBM
MCognosGattewaycompo onentmanaggesallwebccommunicationfortheIBBMCognosP Platform.
The worrkload on thhe IBM Cognos Gatewayy server requ uires minimaal processingg resources. For high
availabillityorscalab
bilityrequire
ements,you candeploy multiplered dundantgateewaysalonggwithan
externallHTTPloadb balancingrouter.
Tier2..Applicatiiontier:ServerCom
mponents
TheapplicationtierfortheIBMCognosPlatfformismade emainserve rcomponents:
eupofthree
IBMCoggnosDispatccher
IBMCoggnosReportServer
IBMCoggnosConten ntManager
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ApplicationtierserversarecomposedofacollectionoflooselycoupledJavaandC++services.
IBMCognosDispatcher
IBM Cognos Dispatcher performs the load balancing of requests at the application tier. The IBM
Cognos Dispatcher component is a lightweight Java servlet that manages (and provides
communicationbetween)applicationservices.
At startup, each IBM Cognos Dispatcher registers locally available services with the IBM Cognos
Content Manager. During the normal operation of IBM Cognos BI services, requests are load
balanced across all available services using a configurable, weighted roundrobin algorithm to
distributerequests.
You can tune the performance of IBM Cognos Platform by defining how IBM Cognos Dispatcher
handles requests and manages services. Threads within IBM Cognos Platform are managed by the
typeoftrafficthattheyhandle,whichisreferredtoas high and low affinity.Affinityrelatestothe
report service process that handled the original user request when multiple interactions need to
occurtosatisfytherequest.Highaffinityconnectionsareusedtoprocessabsoluteandhighaffinity
requestsfromthereportservices.Lowaffinityconnectionsareusedtoprocesslowaffinityrequests.
A high affinity request is a transaction that can gain a performance benefit from a previously
processedrequestbyaccessingcache.Itcanbeprocessedonanyservice,butresourceconsumption
isminimizediftherequestisroutedbacktothereportserviceprocessthatwasusedtoexecutethe
originalprocess.Alowaffinityrequestoperatesjustasefficientlyonanyservice.
IBM Cognos configuration: A normal configuration for IBM Cognos Dispatcher is two IBM Cognos
ReportServerprocessesperallocatedprocessorandeightto10threadsperprocessorinoneofthe
followingconfigurations:
o Threelowaffinitythreadsplusonehighaffinitythread
o Fourlowaffinitythreadsplusonehighaffinitythread
You can manage the number of threads per IBM Cognos BI reporting service process through the
IBM Cognos Platform administration console by setting the number of high and lowaffinity
connections.
IBMCognosReportServer
The main service that is responsible for applicationtier processing is the report or query service
(oftenreferredtoastheBIBusprocesses).IBMCognosDispatcherstartsIBMCognosReportServer
processes dynamically as needed to handle the request load. An administrator can specify the
maximum number of processes that these services can start, as well as the minimum number of
processes that should be running at nonpeak times. Configure the number of processes for IBM
CognosReportServerbasedontheavailableprocessorcapacity.
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Ingeneral,IBMCognosBIreportingserviceperformanceiscloselytiedtoprocessorclockspeedand
throughput capabilities. The number of processors in a server and their clock rates are the two
primary factors to consider when planning for additional IBM Cognos Report Server hardware
capacity.
For example, you generally configure a server with four available processors to use more report
serviceprocessesthanaserverwithonlytwoavailableprocessors.
Similarly, given two servers with an equal number of processors, configure the server with a
significantlyfasterprocessorclockratetohavemorereportandreportserviceprocesses.
WhenconfiguringtheIBMCognosPlatformserverenvironment,youmustsetaJavaheapsize.The
IBMCognosBIreportingandqueryserviceismadeupoftwounderlyingcomponents:
TheJavaservletbasedIBMCognosDispatcherservices
ReportservicesthatarelaunchedusingtheJavaNativeInterface(JNI)
Set the Java virtual machine (JVM) heapsize allocation for IBM Cognos Platform so that Java
memory is only as large as is necessary to accommodate the processing requirements of the Java
basedservices.ThissettingensuresthatasmuchmemoryaspossibleisavailabletotheIBMCognos
ReportService,whichisnotJava.YoucandeterminetheoptimalJavaheapsizeusingJavagarbage
collectionstatistics.
IBMCognosContentManager
IBMCognosContentManageristheIBMCognosPlatformservicethatmanagesthestorageofthe
followingcustomerapplicationdata:
Securitysettingsandconfigurations
Serverconfigurationsettings
Packages
Dashboards
Metrics
Reportspecifications
Reportoutput
You use IBM Cognos Content Manager to publish models, retrieve or store report specifications,
handle scheduling information and manage the IBM Cognos security name space. IBM Cognos
Content Managermaintainsinformationinarelationaldatabasethat isreferredtoasthecontent
storedatabase.
AminimumofoneIBMCognosContentManagerServiceisrequiredforeachIBMCognosPlatform
implementation.ContentManagerperformancecanbenefitfromtheavailabilityofhighspeedRAM
resourcesandtypicallyrequiresoneprocessorforeveryfourprocessorsthatareallocatedforIBM
CognosReportServerprocessing.
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IBMCognosBIservices
Agentservice
Theagentserviceisresponsibleforrunningagents.Thisservicerunstheconditionsandcreatesand
storesthegeneratedeventlist.Theservicedetermineswhichtaskstoexecuteandforwardsthose
taskstothemonitorserviceforexecution.
Inadditiontorunningagents,theagentservicealsorunstwoothertypesofspecializedtasks:
StoredproceduresusingIBMCognosReportServer
Webservicetasks
Annotationservice
The annotationservice enablestheadditionofcommentarytoreportsusingIBMCognosBusiness
Insight.Thesecommentspersistthroughoutdifferentversionsofthereport.
Batchreportservice
The batch report service manages background requests to run reports and provides output on
behalfofthemonitorservice.
Contentmanagerservice
The content manager service interacts with the content store. It performs object manipulation
functions such as add, query, delete, update, move, and copy. It also handles the content store
managementfunctions,suchasimportandexport.
Contentmanagercacheservice
The cache service enhances the overall system performance and IBM Cognos Content Manager
scalabilitybycachingfrequentqueryresultsineachdispatcher.
Datamovementservice
The data movement service manages the execution of data movement tasks in Cognos BI. Data
movement tasks, such as Builds and Job Streams, are created in the IBM Cognos Data Manager
DesignerandarepublishedtoIBMCognosBI.
Deliveryservice
As the name implies, the delivery service delivers content. Email, news items, and report output
thatarewrittentothefilesystemareexamplesofcontentthatishandledbythedeliveryservice.
Part of this service is a persistent email queue that is in place to guarantee that the items are
forwardedtotheconfiguredSMTPserver.
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Eventmanagementservice
The event management service is the service that handles scheduling. Part of the scheduling
aspectisthecontrolovercancelling,suspending,andreleasing scheduledtasks.Fortasksthatare
already entered the queue, requests to cancel, release, or suspend are forwarded from the event
managementservicetothemonitorservice.
The information found as part of the Upcoming Activities task in the IBM Cognos administration
consoleisalsoprovidedbytheeventmanagementservice.
Graphicsservice
The graphicsservice producesgraphicsonbehalfofthereportservice.Graphicscanbegenerated
inthefollowingformats:
Raster
Vector
MicrosoftExcelXML
PortableDocumentFormat(PDF)
Humantaskservice
Thehumantaskserviceenablesthecreationandmanagementofhumantasks.
Ahumantasksuchasreportapprovalcanbeassignedtoindividualsorgroupsonanadhocbasisor
byanyoftheotherservices.
Indexdataservice
The index data service provides basic fulltext functions for storage and retrieval of terms and
indexedsummarydocuments.
Indexsearchservice
The indexsearchservices providessearchanddrillthroughfunctions,includinglistsofaliasesand
examples.
SDK requests: All SDK requests coming into IBM Cognos BI start with the event management
services.
Indexupdateservice
Theindexupdateserviceprovideswrite,update,delete,andadministrationfunctions.
Jobservice
Beforejobscanbeexecuted,theymustfirstbe prepared,meaningthatthestepsofajobmustbe
analyzedforissuessuchascirculardependenciesinnestedjobsandresolutionforrunoptionsthat
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arepartofthejobs.The jobservice completesthesetasksandthensendsthejobtothemonitor

serviceforexecution.
Logservice
Thelogservicecreateslogentriesthatarereceivedfromthedispatcherandotherservices.Thelog
serviceiscalledregardlessofwhichloggingoutputisspecified(forexampledatabase,file,remote
logserver,andsoforth).
Metadataservice
The metadata service provides support for data lineage information that is displayed in Cognos
Viewer, IBM Cognos Report Studio, IBM Cognos Query Studio, and IBM Cognos Analysis Studio.
Lineageinformationincludesinformationsuchasdatasourceandcalculationexpressions.
Metricstudioservice
ThemetricstudioserviceprovidestheIBMCognosMetricStudiouserinterfaceforthepurposesof
monitoringandenteringperformanceinformation.
Migrationservice
The migrationservice managesthemigrationfromIBMCognosSeries7toIBMCognosBIversion
10.1.
Monitorservice
The monitorservice handlesalloftherequestssettoruninthebackground,includingscheduled
tasks,reportsthataresettorunandthenemailtheresults,andjobs.Becausethemonitorservice
canreceivemorerequeststhancanbeexecuted,italsoqueuesrequestsandwaitsforresourcesto
becomeavailablefortherequiredservice.
Whenaserviceindicatesthatthereissufficientbandwidth,themonitorservicethenforwardsthe
task to the appropriate service for execution. Because the monitor service handles all of the
background tasks, writing history information about the individual task executions is the
responsibilityofthemonitorservice.
The exceptions to this process are the history details for deployment and IBM Cognos Search
indexing tasks, which are written directly to the content store using the IBM Cognos Content
Manager component. The information found as part of the Current Activities task in the
administrationconsoleisalsoprovidedbythemonitorservice.
Presentationservice
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The presentation service provides the display, navigation, and administration capabilities in IBM
CognosConnection.ItalsoreceivesgenericXMLresponsesfromotherservicesandtransformsthem
intooutputformat,suchasHTMLorPDF.
Anotherfunctionofthepresentationserviceistosendthesavedcontentwhenarequesttoview
savedoutputismade.IfarequesttoexecutethereportismadefrominsideofCognosViewer,the
requestishandledbythereportservice.
Queryservice
The queryservice managesDynamicQueryModerequestsandreturnstheresulttotherequesting
batchorreportservice.
Reportdataservice
The report data service manages the transfer of report data between IBM Cognos BI and
applications that consume report data, such as IBM Cognos Analysis for Excel, IBM Cognos Office
Connection,andIBMCognosMobile.
Reportservice
Thereportservicemanagesinteractivereportrequeststorunreportsandprovidestheoutputfora
userinIBMCognosBusinessInsightorinoneoftheIBMCognosstudios.
Systemservice
The system service is used by the dispatcher to obtain application configuration parameters and
provides methods for interfacing with locale strings that are supported by the application for
supportofmultiplelanguages.
Openaccesstoalldatasources
Most organizations have data sitting in different systems and data sources, which makes gaining
accesstoalldatadifficult.Inaddition,methodstoensurethatusersgetcompleteaccesstodatacan
beexpensive.TheIBMCognosPlatformprovidestheabilitytodeliverallinformationfromwherever
itresidesandisolates
ContentManager
Content Manager is the Cognos 10 service that manages the storage of customer application
data, including security, configuration data, models, metrics, report specifications, and report
output. Content Manager is needed to publish models, retrieve or store report specifications,
managescheduling information,and manage the Cognos namespace.
ContentManagerstores informationin a content store database,which istypically locatedin

Tier 3ofthe architecture.
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Your installation may include more than one Content Manager, each on a different computer.
OneContentManagerComputerisactive and one or more ContentManagerComputersare on
standby. The standby Content Manager computers are for failover protection. If the active
Content Manager computer is not available because of a software or hardware failure, a
standbyContentManagercomputerbecomes active and requests are directed to it.
When the active ContentManagerfails,unsaved sessiondata islost. When anotherContent
Managerbecomes active; users may bepromptedto logon.
Although we describe Content Manager as part of the applications tier, for maximum security
youcan choose to configure Cognos10with ContentManagerinthe data tier.
The informationstored byContentManagerincludes
Reports
Reports contain specifications, properties,security settings, and outputs.This includesanalyses
created inAnalysis Studio, queries inQuery Studio, and reports created inReport Studio.
Reportpackages
Packages containmetadata,reports,and folders.
Metricpackages
Metric packages contain metadata,scorecards,and folders.
Agents
Agents include the conditions, schedules, and tasks used to monitor events and deliver
notifications.This includes the listofrecently detected instances ofan event.
Serverconfiguration
Server configuration contains directory information, the Cognos namespace, and information
about contacts,distributionlists,data sources, and printers.
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Personaluserinformation
Personal user information consists ofMy Folders and My Pages.
Languageinformation
Language information includes names, descriptions, and tool tips in different languages to
support Cognos10multilingualcapabilities.
Content Manager performs general functions, such as add, query, update, delete, move, and
copy.Italso performscontentstore managementfunctions,such asexport and import.
Access Manager
Content Manager contains Access Manager, the primary security component of Cognos 10.
Access Manager leverages your existing security providers for use with Cognos 10. It provides
Cognos10with a consistent set of security capabilitiesand APIs, including user authentication,
authorization,and encryption.Italso provides support for the Cognos namespace.
Some security capabilities, such as user authentication, are external to Cognos 10 but are
exposedtoCognos10 by AccessManager.Othercapabilities,such as authorization,are internal
to Cognos10,and are implementedbyAccessManager.
For many securityrelated functions, Access Manager requires certificates, and interacts with a
certificate authority.Bydefault, Cognos10usesitsown certificate authorityserviceto establish
the root of trust in the Cognos 10 security infrastructure. If you use a thirdparty certificate
authority, you can configure Cognos 10 to use it instead of the default Cognos 10 certificate
authority.
Tier3.Data:ContentProviders
The Cognos10data tier containsthe

Content store
Data sources
Metric store
ContentStore
The contentstore isa relationaldatabasethat contains data that Cognos10 needs to operate,
such as report specifications, published models, and the packages that contain them;
connectioninformationfor data sources; informationabout the externalnamespace,and the
Cognosnamespaceitself;and informationabout scheduling and bursting reports.
Design modelsand logfilesare not stored inthe contentstore.
The Cognos10servicethat usesthe content store isnamed ContentManager.
ContentManagerusesa JDBC(Java Database Connectivity) APIto accessthe contentstore and
metric stores. Cognos 10 comes with the JDBC drivers for MS SQL Server access from both
Windows and UNIX. Oracle, IBM, and Sybase JDBC drivers, which are required for their
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respective databases,are available from their vendors.
Cognos does not publish the content store schema, but updates the schema periodically,
isolatingchanges from the user throughstable user interfaces and APIs.
Much of the information in the content store, such as report results and XML report
specifications,isstored asbinary large object (BLOB)fields.
PDF results are compressed from creation, to storage, to serving, to the browser. The PDF
format does not allow the main body of a report to be compressed, but the page contents,
fonts, andimages are compressed.Adobe AcrobatReader uncompressesPDFfilesat viewtime.
Report results in other formats, such as HTML, XML, and CSV (comma separated values), are
stored in compressedform and are uncompressedbyContentManagerbefore they are sent to
auser.
DataSources
Data sources are relational databases, dimensional cubes, files, or other physical data stores
that can be accessed through Cognos 10. Application Tier Components use data source
connections toaccessdata sources.
MetricStore
A metric store is a relational database that contains content for metric packages. A metric
storealso containsMetric Studio settings, such asuser preferences.
More than one metric store may be created. For example, one metric store may contain
content for a sales application and another metric store may contain content for a finance
application.
CognosConnection
CognosConnectionisaWebportalprovidedwithCognos10,providingasingleaccesspointtothe
corporatedataavailableforitsproducts.Itprovidesasinglepointofentryforquerying,analyzing,
andorganizingdata,andforcreatingreports,scorecards,andevents.UserscanrunalltheirWeb
basedCognos10applicationsthroughCognosConnection.Otherbusinessintelligenceapplications,
andURLstootherapplications,canbeintegratedwithCognosConnection.
Like the other Web browser interfaces in Cognos 10, Cognos Connection uses the default
configurationsofyourbrowser.ItdoesnotrequiretheuseofJava,ActiveX,orplugins,anddoesnot
installthem.
Portalpages
Users can use portal pages to see content on a customizable page that uses portlets to show
differenttypesofcontentatthesametime.
PublicFolders
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Public Folders store shared Cognos 10 content, such as packages, reports, agents, shortcuts, and
jobs.
MyFolders
MyFoldersstorepersonalCognos10content,suchasreports,shortcuts,andjobs.
Preferences
PreferencescanbeusedtocustomizetheCognosConnectioninterface.
Directory
DirectoryisusedtospecifyCognos10datasourcesandtheirconnections;definegroupsandroles
for security purposes; and specify distribution lists, contacts, and printers. In a distributed
environment,youcandelegatedirectorytasks.
DrillthroughDefinitions
DrillthroughDefinitionsareusedtonavigatethroughrelateddatawhenqueryingoranalyzingdata.
PortalAdministration
PortalAdministrationisusedtomanageyourportletsandportallayout.
Capabilities
Capabilities are used to control access to administrative interfaces, the Cognos 10 studios, and
advancedfunctionality,suchaseditSQL.
ScheduleManagement
ScheduleManagementisusedtomanageandmonitorcurrentandscheduledreportsandjobs.
ServerAdministration
Server Administration is used to administer the Cognos 10 environment, including monitoring
dispatchers and services, configuring and finetuning performancerelated parameters, and
customizingauditingandlogging.
ContentAdministration
ContentAdministrationisusedtodeployCognos10applicationsfromonecontentstore
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Login
IBM Cognos 10 supports authenticated and anonymous user access. To use IBM Cognos 10 as an
authenticateduser,youmustsuccessfullylogon.Duringthelogonprocess,youmustprovideyour
credentials, such as user ID and password, as required by your organization. Anonymous users do
notlogon.
LogintoCognosconnectionwebsite
Steps:
1. OpentheInternetExplorerwebbrowser.
2. To access the Cognos Connection web site, type the desired URL in the browsers
Address field and then press ENTER:
Forexample:http://<servername>/ibmcognos
3. On Log on screen, type <UserId> in the User ID box, and <password> in the Password
box,andthenclickOK.

4. Youshouldseeawindowsimilartothefollowing:
5. ClickonMyhome.

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ViewContentsofPublicFoldersandMyFolders
Steps:
1. In the Cognos connection page, Click on the Public Folders tab/link to view the
reports/contentsofPublicFolders.
2. In the Cognos connection page, Click on the My Folders tab/link to view the
reports/contentsofMyFolders.

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CustomizingCognosConnection
YoucaneasilycustomizeCognosConnectiontoyourpreferencestohelpyouquicklylocateyourcompanys
data.Allchangesthatyoumaketakeeffectimmediately.Thesettingsarestoredandcanbeusedforfuture
sessionsuntiltheyarechangedagain.
SetaHomePage
UponlaunchingCognos10,theWelcomepagedisplaysbydefault.AcheckboxwiththetextShowthispagein
thefuturelocatedatthebottomleftoftheWelcomepageallowsyoutodeterminewhetherthispageshould
bepresentedbyCognos10eachtimetheapplicationislaunched.
ToenterCognos10fromthispage,clickMyHomeorCognosContent.
CognosConnectiondisplaysthePublicFolderstab.YoucansetanylocationinCognosConnectionas
yourdefaulthomepage.
1.Navigatetothescreenyouwanttouseasyourdefaulthomepage.
2.ClickHomeOptions,asshownnext,andthenclicktheSetViewAsHomelink.Thecurrentlocation
isnowsetasyourdefaulthomepage.
SetPreferences
Cognos10offersseveraloptionsyoucanusetochangetheviewofentriesinCognosConnection.
Youcansetyourpreferenceforthenumberofentriestodisplaybeforescrollingandtheuseofgrid
lines or alternating backgrounds. You can change the look and feel of the layout and display in
CognosConnectionbyapplyingastyle(Corporate,Classic,Modern,Contemporary,andsoon).
Increasing or decreasing the screen refresh rate, changing the default report format (for example,
fromHTMLtoPDF),settingproductandcontentlanguagesformultilingualusers,andspecifyinga
timezoneforusersindifferentlocationscanalsobeeasilyset.
Onthebluebar,clickMyAreaandthenclicktheMyPreferenceslink.TheGeneraltabdisplays,as
showninthefollowing:
20

RunReports
Thereportscanbesetuptogeneratewhenselected,therebyretrievingthelatestinformationfrom
thesourcedatabase,ortodisplayapregeneratedversionofthereport.
Theicontotheleftofthereporttitleindicatesthereportsdisplaysettings.
Hereshowtoexecuteareport:
Clickonareportlink(asseeninthefollowingillustration).
If a blue arrow is displayed to the right of the report format icon, the report is executed and
retrievesthecurrentdatafromthedatasource.Thisactionmaytakeseveralminutestoexecute.Ifa
blue arrow is not displayed to the right of the report format icon, this indicates a saved report. A
savedreportdisplaystheoutputfromthelastexecutionofthereport.
The Modified date and time, shown in the following illustration, is the most recent date and time
thattheentrywasmodified.Itisnotthedateandtimethattheentrywascreated.
CreateaNewFolder
Youcancreatenewfolderstoorganizeentries,suchasreportsandlinks,inCognosConnection.
Foldersenableyoutofindandviewinformationquicklyandaretypicallynamedwithdetailedand
meaningfuldescriptions.Forexample,aSalesForecastingfolderwouldcontainentriesforincreased
revenuetousewhenforecasting.
SetProperties
Youcanchangetheappearance,behavior,andpropertiesofentriesinCognosConnection.
Languageandpermissionscanbemodifiedforanentryandthenameanddescriptionsofanentry
can be changed (for example, from Sales to Sales Forecasting). An individual can be assigned
responsibilityforanentrybysettingacontact,andentriesthatarenolongerusedcanbedisabled.
Acontactisanindividualwhoisresponsibleforthecontentofanentryandistypicallyaliaisonto
theowneroftheentry.Contactsdonothaveaccesspermissionstochangetheentry.Ifyouhave
feedbackregardingthecontentofanentry,youspeakwiththecontact.
Thecontacttheninformstheownerofthefeedback.Theownerhasaccesspermissionstochange
theentryandtomodifythecontent,permissions,andsecurityfortheentry.
21

SaveReportViews
A Report View, shown next, is a reference to another report that has its own properties, such as
promptvalues,schedules,andresults.Youusereportviewstoshareareportspecificationinsteadof
makingcopiesofit.Youcanspecifyaname,description,screentip,andlocationforthenewreport
view.
ScheduleReports
YoucanscheduletheentriesinCognosConnectiontorunataspecifictimeorarecurringdateand
time(forexample,byday,week,month,year,ortrigger).Youcanusethedefaultvalues,orspecify
yourownoptionsbyusingtheScheduleaction.
Forexample,youmayhavealargereportthattakesseveralhourstorun.Byschedulingthereport
ormodifyingthescheduleofthereport,youcanrunthereportduringnonworkinghourstoutilize
fasterperformancetimes.Youcanalsoremovetheschedule.
Thesettingsonscheduleincludethefollowing:
DisabletheScheduleDisablestheentrywithoutlosingtheschedulinginformation.
Priority The default value is 3. If more than one entry contains the same priority
setting,theentryplacedinthequeuefirstrunsfirst.Asaconsumer,youwillnotbe
able to edit this setting. Users responsible for managing the Cognos queue will be
abletomodifythepriority.
Frequencysetsthefrequencyoftheschedule(forexample,torunbyweekonevery
MondayandThursday).
Start/EndSetsthedatesandtimesforthescheduletostartandfinish.TheCalendar
wizardcanbeusedtoselectthedate.

To remove the schedule, click the Remove the Schedule link and then click OK The schedule is
removedforthereport.
Tomodifytheschedule,clicktheModifytheSchedulelink.TheSchedulescreendisplays,asshown
earlier.Repeatthestepsusedtoscheduleareport,asdiscussedearlier.
CreateaNewJob
Ajobisagroupofexecutableentries,suchasreports,thatareexecutedasabatch.Theysharethe
sameschedulesettings.Whenthejobexecutes,alloftheentriesinthejobexecute.
Thisoptionsavesyouvaluabletimewhenyouwanttomodifythescheduleofseveralreports.
For example, suppose you created 10 report views that are set to execute every day at 10 A.M.
Becausetheytakealotoftimetoexecute,youwanttochangetheexecutetimeto7P.M.,when
fewer users are on the system. To do this, you can modify the schedule for each Report View
separately.However,ifyoucreateajobandaddthereportstoit,youcanmodifythescheduleonce.
Determine how steps should be sequenced in the job by making selections under Submission of
Steps:AllAtOnceorInSequence.WhenAllAtOnceisselected,ifastepfails,theotherstepsstill
executeandthejobhasafailedstatus.WhenInSequenceisselected,astepisexecutedonlyafter
thepreviousstepexecutessuccessfully.
22

Todisablethescheduletemporarily,selecttheDisabletheSchedulecheckbox.Theschedulewillbe
disabledwithoutlosingtheschedulinginformation.
ThePriorityissetto3bydefault,specifyingtheorderthattheentrywillexecute.Priorityvaluesare
from1to5.Thelowerthenumber,thehigherthepriorityis.Ifmorethanoneentrycontainsthe
sameprioritysetting,theentrythatarrivesinthequeuefirstexecutesfirst.Prioritycanonlybeset
byuserswithpermissionstomanagethequeue.
ViewOutputVersions
Cognos10supportsseveraloutputversions:HTML,PDF,Excel2007,Excel2002,Excel2000Single
Sheet, delimited text (commaseparated values, or CSV), and XML. In Cognos Connection, you can
tellthatadifferentoutputversioniscreatedforareportintwoways:
Viewthereportformaticontoseeifasavedreportformat(suchasPDF,Excel,XML,andsoon)
otherthanthedefaultHTMLformatexists.
View the Actions column to see if a View Report Output Versions icon appears, which indicates
thatsavedversionsofthisreportexist.
Cognos10alsoallowsyoutodownloadareportforfuturereference,andadministratorscandelete
older versions of reports or versions that contain erroneous data using the Manage Versions link
withintheViewReportOutputVersionsoption.
ManageVersions
WhenusingtheViewReportOutputVersionsoption,authorizeduserscandeleteolderversionsof
contentitemsorversionsofcontentitemsthatcontainerroneousdata.Forexample,supposeyou
runseveralreportsandnoticethattheycontainincorrectdata.Youcansimplydeletethesereports
topreventanyconfusionthatmightoccurifindividualswithinyourorganizationviewedthisdata.
ReportDownload
Youcandownloadacopyofthereportandopenitwithinitsrespectiveprogram.Youmaywantto
use the download option to send the information in a report to an individual outside the
organizationwhodoesnothaveaccesstoCognosConnection.
RunwithOptions
Runningwithoptionsallowsyoutospecifyhowyouwanttorunandreceiveareport.Forexample,
youcanreceiveareportinPDFformatinsteadofHTMLformat,andsavethereportafterrunningit
asusershavedifferentneedsforreports.AsalespersonmaywanttooutputthereporttoanExcel
formattouseduringacustomervisit,whereasasalesmanagermaywanttosavethereportafter
runningitforquickandeasyretrieval.
The Advanced Options are accessed through Run with Options and allow you to specify how the
reportisdelivered(forexample,saving,emailing,orprintingthereport),theoutputformat,andthe
timethereportisrun,tomentionafew.
ViewRunHistory
Youcanviewtherequest,start,andcompletiondateandtimestoshowtheamountoftimeittook
forareporttorun,aswellasthestatusoftheitem.
23

Youcanfiltertheentriesbystatus(canceled,executing,failed,pending,succeeded,andsuspended)
tolimitthenumberofentriesdisplayedandaccesstheViewRunHistoryDetailsandViewOutput
screensfromtheViewRunHistoryscreen.
ViewRunHistoryDetails
TheViewRunHistoryDetailsactionallowsyoutoviewthedetailsforaparticularrunofanentry(for
example, query options, general, error, and warning messages, report outputs, and so on). The e
maildeliverystatusisalsolistedifanemailisassociatedwiththeentry.
TheViewRunHistoryDetailsoptionisagreatstartingpointtoseewhyacontentitemfailedbefore
youcontacttheadministrator.
SetProperties
TheSetPropertiesoptionallowsuserstoeditthereportnamethatdisplaysinCognosConnection;
thelanguage;screentip;anddescription.
CognosConnectionprovidesadditionaloptionssuchastheabilitytoinformyouwhenanewreport
versionisgenerated,disableaccesstoreports,andviewthedefaultURLofthereport.Youcanalso
changethereportoutputformats.
MyWatchItems
MyWatchItemsallowsyoutoaddalertsthatinformyouwhenanewoutputversionofareportis
available.Youcanalsoaddauserdefinedrulebasedonavaluewithinthereportthatalertsyouif
that value meets the criteria defined. Rules can be added only to reports that are in the HTML
outputformat.Toaddawatchitem,thereportforwhichyouareaddingthealertmusthavewatch
itemsenabledbytheadministratororreportowner.
EnableAlertsforWatchItems
24

In the Set Properties screen, the administrator or report owner must set the Enable Alerts About
New Versions option and Enable Enhanced User Features In Saved Output Versions option in the
AdvancedOptionsareaforthereporttoallowuserstosetwatchitemsforthereport.
SetanAlertforMyWatchItems
ThroughMyWatchItems,youcanviewandmanagealertsfornewversionsofareport.Oncethis
option is set, every time a new version of the selected report is generated you receive an email
notificationmessage.
SetaRuleforMyWatchItems
Rulesdeterminewhenauserisnotifiedaboutanewversionofthereport.Whentheconditionis
met,analertissent.ArulecanbesetonlyonanitemthatisinHTMLoutputformat.
ViewtheURL
Whenareportiscreatedandsaved,Cognos10assignstheitemaURLbasedonwhereinCognos
Connectionthereportissaved.TheURListhewebaddresswherethereportcanbefound.TheURL
isusefulforCognos10userswhowanttosavethatURLasafavoritesothattheycanaccessareport
without having to navigate through the Cognos Connection content. You can view URL in the Set
Propertiesscreen.
ChangeOutputFormats
Cognos10providesseveraloutputformatsforreportstoaccommodateuserswithdifferentviewing
requirements.Forexample,theCEOmaywanttoviewareportinPDFformatandthesalesmanager
maywanttoviewthereportsinExcelformat.
Users can change the default output format for a report, the default behavior of the link (for
example,insteadofrunningthereportinCognosViewer,itopensinReportStudio),andsetprompt
values.Alluserscanseethechangeswhenusingtheseoptions.
UseReportViewerOptions
Reports that run from Cognos Connection open in the Cognos Viewer. Cognos Viewer provides a
reportvieweroptionstoolbarintheupperrightpartofthescreen:
Depending on your role, you can email or save the report, save it as a report view, or open it in
ReportStudio.Youcanrunthereport,usethedrillthroughoptions,andviewthereportindifferent
formats(forexample,ifitopenedinHTMLformat,youcanviewitinExcel2007format).Youcan
alsoaddthereporttoMyFoldersortoabrowserbookmarkfromthereportvieweroptionstoolbar.
SaveAsReportView
Ifyoufrequentlyuseaparticularentry,youcansavethatentryasaReportViewinMyFolders.This
makes accessing the entry quicker. The Report View shares the same report specification as the
source report. If the location of the source report changes, the Report View link is not broken.
Promptvaluesthatareimportanttoyoucanbesetsoyoudonothavetoanswerthepromptseach
timeyourunthereport.Thisfeaturecomesinhandywhenscheduling.
25

UseDrillupandDrilldown
Thedrillupanddrilldowniconsinthereportvieweroptionsareavailablewhenthecolumnand/or
rowheadingsinareportarelinks.Drillupanddrilldownallowyoutomovethroughacolumnor
rowinthereport.
For example, if you click Product Line in the report, you could then drilldown to Product Type,
whichwoulddisplaydataabouttheProductLine.DrillingdownonProductTypewouldtakeyouto
Product and display detailed data regarding the selected product type. Drillingup from Product
displays data for the Product Type. If you drillup on Product Type, the Product Line displays and
takesyoubacktowhereyoustarted.
Youcanalsodrilldownordrillupbyrightclickingonaroworcolumnheadingandchoosingwhich
youwouldliketodofromthemenu.Clickingonaroworcolumnheadingwillalsoallowyoutodrill
down.
UsetheGoToLink
Whenareporthasdrillthroughaccess,thereportislinkedtoanotherreportbyacommonfield.For
example, if drillthrough access is set up, you can drill through from a summary report to a more
detailedreporttohelpyouanswerbusinessquestionsusingGoToinCognosViewer.
NewPages
Creating a new page allows you to move a variety of content to a centralized location so you can
personalizethepage,showingonlycontentthatrelatestoyourareaofbusinessorforwhichyouare
responsible. For example, you could create a dashboard within a page displaying reports that you
accessonaregularbasis.
CreateaNewPage
You can group different types of content together on a new page in Cognos Connection. For
example, suppose your company organized the sales folders according to year instead of product
andyouwanttoviewallthereportsforaspecificproduct.Youcancreateanewpagewithallofthe
productreportsinonelocation.YoucanalsosearchforreportsusingtheCognosNavigatorportlet.
CreateaPortalTab
YoucanaccessapagequicklybyaddingitasatabtotheCognosConnectionportal.
AddContenttoaPortlet
You have created a new page that contains portlets; however, the portlets do not contain any
content, such as names for title bars, reports or links to the reports, or pages. Now you add the
contenttotheportlets.
AdvancedPortalPageFeatures
Cognos offers several advanced features that can be added to a portal page. Portlettoportlet
communicationandpassingreportvariablesallowsyoutocoordinatecontentbetweenallportlets
onasingleportalpageortab.
PortlettoPortletCommunication
Portlettoportlet communication can be set up to allow portlets to interact. The actions from a
source portlet display in the target portlet. For example, when you run a report from the source
26

portlet, instead of opening the report in a new window, the target portlet can display the report
within the portlet page. This is enabled by creating a channel name in the target portlet and
referencingthatchannelnameinthesourceportlet.
PortlettoPortletCommunicationUsingaPrompt
A prompt page can be used within a portlet to filter reports in other portlets on the same page.
When you select a prompt item in one portlet, the screen refreshes and displays the filtered
informationintheotherportlet(s)onthepage.
IBMCognosAdministration
CognosAdministrationisacentralmanagementinterfacethatcontainstheadministrativetasksfor
CognosBI.ItprovideseasyaccesstotheoverallmanagementoftheIBMCognosenvironmentandis
accessiblethroughCognosConnection.CognosAdministrationisorganizedintothreesections:

Status
Use the links in this section to monitor activities, server status, and system metrics, and change
somesystemsettings.
Security
Use the links in this section to define users, groups, and roles for security purposes, configure
capabilities for the interfaces and studios, and set properties for the user interface profiles
(professionalandexpress)thatareusedinReportStudio.
Configuration
Usethelinksinthissectiontosetupdatasourceconnections,deployIBMCognosBIcontentfrom
onecontentstoretoanother,createdistributionandcontactlists,addprinters,setstyles,manage
portletsandportallayout,startorstopdispatchersandservices,andchangesystemsettings.
Youcanalsoperformthefollowingadministrativetasks:
automatingtasks
settingupyourenvironmentandconfiguringyourdatabaseformultilingualreporting
installingfonts
settingupprinters
configuringwebbrowsers
allowinguseraccesstoSeries7reportsfromIBMCognosConnection
restrictingaccesstoIBMCognossoftware
Asidefromthetypicaladministrativetasks,youcanalsocustomizetheappearanceandfunctionality
ofdifferentIBMCognoscomponents.
27

IBMCognosConfiguration
UseIBMCognosConfiguration
tosettheinitialconfigurationofIBMCognoscomponentsafteryouinstallthem
to configure IBM Cognos components if you want to change a property value or you add
componentstoyourenvironment
tostartorstoptheserviceforanIBMCognoscomponentonthelocalcomputer
YoucanrunIBMCognosConfigurationineitherinteractiveorsilentmode.Ininteractivemode,you
useagraphicaluserinterfacetoconfiguretheIBMCognoscomponent.Insilentmode,thetoolruns
inthebackgroundandrequiresnointeractionfromyouaspartofanunattendedinstallation.
If you change the value of a property, you must save the configuration and then restart the IBM
Cognosservicetoapplythenewsettingstoyourcomputer.
Fordistributedinstallations,ensurethatyouconfiguredallcomputerswhereyouinstalledContent
ManagerbeforeyouchangedefaultconfigurationsettingsonotherIBMCognoscomputers.
Forexample,youcan
changethedefaultuserandpasswordforCognosContentDatabase
changeaURI
configure cryptographic
settings
configure IBM Cognos
components to use IBM
CognosApplicationFirewall
configure temporary file
properties
configure the gateway to
useanamespace
EnableandDisableServices
configurefonts
configure font support for
SimplifiedChinese
28

changethedefaultfontforreports
savereportoutputtoafilesystem
changethenotificationdatabase
AfteryouchangethedefaultbehaviorofIBMCognoscomponentstobettersuityourIBMCognos
environment, you can configure Portal Services, configure an authentication provider, or test the
installationTesttheInstallationandConfiguration.

29

CognosComponentsAbriefoverview
IBMCognosBusinessInsight
IBM Cognos Business Insight is a Webbased tool that allows you to use IBM Cognos content and
externaldatasourcestobuildsophisticatedinteractivedashboardsthatprovideinsightandfacilitate
collaborativedecisionmaking.
You can view and open favorite

dashboards and reports,
manipulate the content in the
dashboards, and email your
dashboards. You can also use
comments and activities for
collaborative decision making and
use social software such as IBM
Lotus Connections for
collaborativedecisionmaking.
Create dashboards with Business

Insight to give business users in
yourorganizationanintegratedBusinessIntelligenceexperiencethatincludescollaborativedecision
making.Adashboardallowsuserstoquicklycompleteawidevarietyoftaskssuchasviewingand
interactingwithreportsandcollaboratingandsharinginformation.
When you create an interactive dashboard, you are assembling IBM Cognos content. You can also
addcontentfromHTMLandtextsources.
IBMBusinessInsightis
Interactive,selfserviceworkspace
Assembleandsharedashboards
AssemblecontentforapersonalorshareddashboardwithoutITintervention
Arrangeelementsinanintuitive,WYSIWYGinterface
Interactwithinformationforgreaterunderstanding
Personalizethelookandfeelwitheasyformattingoptions
Createcalculations
Selectalternatevisualizations
Conductfurtheranalysisincontext
Examinedatalineage
Shareandcollaborateonkeyinformation
Addcommentstoclarifyandquestion
Searchforexistingcontentandbeginauthoringincontext
30

IBMCognosBusinessInsightAdvanced
IBM Cognos Business Insight Advanced provides a single, integrated environment for advanced
businessuserswhoneedtodomorethanconsumereportsanddashboardsthatareauthoredfor
them.
Thissolutiondoesnotrequireyoutousedifferentuserinterfacesdependingonwhetherthedatais
dimensionalorrelationalandwhetheryourprimarytaskisreportauthoringordataexploration.You
canuseittoauthornewreportsonrelationalordimensionaldata.
WithBusinessInsightAdvanced,youcancreateandformatawidevarietyofreports,includinglists,
cross tabs, charts, and financial statement style reports. In addition, you can use it for OLAP
explorationandcanmixexplorationandauthoringactivitiesseamlesslywithoutswitchinginterfaces
ormodes.
BusinessInsightAdvancedis
Webbased,draganddropcontentauthoringinterfacedesignedforbusinessusers
Relationalordimensionaldata
Multipledatalayoutsandvisualizations
Stylesandformatting
Format,layout,anddistribution
Incorporateexternaldata
Content can be run as standalone report or incorporated into Business Insight
workspace
Leveraged as starting point for further enhancement by professional authors as
needed

31

IBMCognosReportStudio

IBMCognosReportStudioisarobustreportdesignandauthoringtool.UsingIBMCognos
ReportStudio,reportauthorscancreate,edit,anddistributeawiderangeofprofessional
reports. You can author entire range of enterprise reports with relational or dimensional
datasources,andshowdatainlists,crosstabs,andvariouskindsofcharts.Youcanwritea
reportonceanddistributeittomanyusersinmultiplelanguagesandformats.

Mainfeaturesare
Webbasedprofessionalreportauthoringenvironment
Createnewreportsorenhancecontentcreatedbybusinessusers
Providesfinegraincontroloverlayoutformattingandpresentationfor
productionreadyformatting
Additionalcapabilitiesfortheprofessionalauthor
Extendreportswithinteractivemapsandprompts
Multiplelogicalpagesforvariedcontent
Interactivetablesofcontents
CreateofflineActiveReports
Incorporatestatisticalanalysis

Any report can be used as a template. You simply create and format a report and
then use it as your starting point for all other reports, leaving the original report
unchanged. A report intended to be used as a template usually does not contain
data so that the report can be used with multiple packages. You can start from
numerouspredefinedtemplates,orblankreportasshownbelow.
32

Youruserscaninteractwiththereportsyoudistributeifyouaddpromptsorenabledrill
throughaccesstoanotherreport,orboth.Byansweringpromptswhenareportisrun,your
userscustomizethecontentsofthereporttomeettheirinformationneeds.Oneauthored
reportcanthenmeettherequirementsofmanyusers.Byenablingdrillthroughaccessto
anotherreport,youruserscannavigatefromonereporttothenext.
33

IBMCognosQueryStudio
UsingIBMCognosQueryStudio,userswithlittleornotrainingcanquicklydesign,create,
andsaveadhocqueriesandreportstomeetreportingneedsthatarenotcoveredbythe
standard, professional reports created in IBM Cognos Report Studio. In Query Studio, you
can
viewdata
Connecttoadatasourcetoviewdatainatreehierarchy.Expandthequerysubjectstosee
queryitemdetails.
createreports
Usethedatasourcetocreatereports,whichyoucansaveandreuse.Youcanalsocreatea
newreportbyopeninganexistingreport,changingit,andsavingitusinganothername.
changetheappearanceofreports
Improvethelayoutofyourreport.Forexample,youcancreateachart,addatitle,specify
textandborderstyles,orreordercolumnsforeasycomparison.
workwithdatainareport
Usefilters,summaries,andcalculationstocompareandanalyzedata.Drillupanddrilldown
toviewrelatedinformation.

34

IBMCognosAnalysisStudio
WithAnalysisStudio,userscanexploreandanalyzedatafromdifferentdimensionsoftheir
business.Userscanalsocomparedatatospottrendsoranomaliesinperformance.Analysis
Studio provides access to dimensional, online analytical processing (OLAP), and
dimensionallymodeledrelationaldatasources.AnalysescreatedinAnalysisStudiocanbe
openedinIBMCognosReportStudioandusedtobuildprofessionalreports.
Use the interactive draganddrop environment in Analysis Studio to explore and analyze
datatofindanswerstobusinessquestions.
UsingAnalysisStudio,youcan
findandfocusonitemsthatareimportanttoyourbusiness
understandtrendsandanomalies
comparedata,suchasdetailstosummaries,oractualresultstobudgetedresults
assessperformancebyfocusingonthebestorworstresults
establishrelativeimportanceusingcalculationssuchasgrowthorrank
shareyourfindingswithothers
Like IBM Cognos Series 7 PowerPlay Web, Analysis Studio helps you answer business
questionsquicklyandeasily.AnalysisStudiosupportsthesamedrillupanddownbehavior
anddraganddropcontrolasPowerPlayWeb,whileaddressingdemandsformoreeffective
waystoanalyzelargeamountsofdata
35

IBMCognosEventStudio
InEventStudio,yousetupagentstomonitoryourdataandperformtaskswhenbusiness
events or exceptional conditions occur in your data. When an event occurs, people are
alertedtotakeaction.Agentscanpublishdetailstotheportal,deliveralertsbyemail,run
and distribute reports based on events, and monitor the status of events. For example, a
supportcallfromakeycustomerorthecancellationofalargeordermighttriggeranevent,
sendinganemailtotheappropriatepeople.
UseEventStudiotonotifydecisionmakersinyourorganizationofeventsastheyhappen,so
that they can make timely and effective decisions. You create agents that monitor your
organizationsdatatodetectoccurrencesofbusinessevents.Aneventisasituationthatcan
affectthesuccessofyourbusiness.Aneventisidentifiedwhenspecificitemsinyourdata
achievesignificantvalues.Specifytheeventcondition,orachangeindata,thatisimportant
to you. When an agent detects an event, it can perform tasks, such as sending an email,
addinginformationtotheportal,andrunningreports.
TheIBMCognosPlatformincludesanewservicetosupportenhancedeventmanagement
functionalitycalledtheHumanTaskService.Thisserviceisbaseduponanopenspecification
called WSHuman Tasks. IBM Cognos BI includes the following types of human tasks that
youcanseeinthetaskinbox:
Approvalrequests
Adhoctasks
Notificationrequests
Youcancreatetasksfromthefollowingcomponents:
IBMCognosEventStudio(notificationrequestsandapprovalrequests)
The My Inbox area of IBM Cognos Connection (notification requests and adhoc
tasks)
Awatchrulesetupforareport(notificationrequestsonly)
36

IBMCognosMetricStudio&Designer
UseMetricStudiotocreateacustomizedscorecardingenvironmenttomonitorandanalyze
metricsandprojectsthroughoutyourorganization.MetricStudiohelpsyoutranslateyour
organizations strategy into relevant, measurable goals that align each employee's actions
withastrategicplan.
A rich scorecarding environment shows you quickly where your organization is successful
and where it needs improvement. Metric Studio tracks performance against targets and
indicates the current status of the business so that decision makers at every level of the
organization can react and plan. Use the flexibility of Metric Studio to model metrics and
their relationships based on any standard or proprietary scorecarding and management
methodologythatyoualreadyuse.
MetricDesigneristheIBMCognos8modelingtoolusedtocreateextractsforuseinIBM
Cognosscorecardingapplications.Extractsareusedtomapandtransferinformationfrom
existing metadata sources such as Framework Manager and Impromptu Query Definition
(.iqd)files.
If IBM Cognos Metric Studio is installed and configured as part of your IBM Cognos BI
environment, you can navigate to Metric Studio content in the Content tab and add the
followingMetricStudiocontenttoadashboard:
1. Watchlists
2. Scorecards
3. Strategies
4. Metrictypes
5. Individualmetrics
When adding an individual metric to the dashboard, the historical data for the metric,
displays,inaformofabarchart.ForanyotherIBMCognosMetricStudiocontentthatyou
add,thecontentdisplaysasalistofmetricsfortheselecteditem.Eachmetricinthelisthas
ahyperlinkthatopenstheindividualmetricinMetricStudio.
37

IBMCognosFrameworkManager
IBM Cognos Framework Manager is the IBM Cognos BI modeling tool for creating and
managing business related metadata for use in IBM Cognos BI analysis and reporting.
Metadataispublishedforusebyreportingtoolsasapackage,providingasingle,integrated
businessviewofanynumberofheterogeneousdatasources.
Framework Manager can rapidly create relational and dimensional models (Dimensionally
Modeled Relational) through a guided workflowdriven modeling process, check the
executionpathofthequeries,definefilters,andconfiguredatamultilanguagesupportand
securityfilters.
Toenhancethebusinessviewofthemodel,youcanuseFrameworkManagerto:
modelforpredictableresults(starschema)
modelforOLAPstylequeries(modeldimensionally)
createoneormorebusinessviews
addcalculations
createandapplyfilters
addprompts
setrowlevelsecurity
38

39

IBMCognosTransformer
Transformerisaprovenandrelativelysimpletoolformodelingdimensionalhierarchiesand
levelsforPowerCubes.
Transformer is a data modeling tool designed for use with IBM Cognos 8 version 8.3 and
subsequentreleases.Youusethiscomponenttocreateamodel,abusinesspresentationof
theinformationinoneormoredatasources.Afteryouchooseasupportedproductlocale
(language),adddimensionalmetadata,specifythemeasures(performanceindicators),and
applycustomviews,youcancreatePowerCubesbasedonthismodel.Youcandeploythese
cubestosupportOLAPreportingandanalysis.
A model can contain any number of regular or calculated measures, together with logical
groupings that use measure folders. A regular measure is numeric data in a transactional
datasource.Acalculatedmeasureisnewnumericdatathatisderivedfromothermeasures,
functions,andconstants,suchasProfit,whichiscalculatedfromthemeasuresRevenueand
Cost.Ameasurefoldercangroupexistingmeasuresintoalogicalcollectionand,ifneeded,
canbeassignedacalculatedvalueitself.
40

IBMCognosMapManager
In a map that contains region layers, you can now create new region layers from existing
onesusingMapManager.Eachnewregionwithinthenewlayerismadeupofoneormore
completeregionsfromtheexistingregionlayer.
Asthereportauthor,youcanusethisnewfeaturetocustomizemapswhentheregionsin
thesuppliedmapsdonotcorrespondtothewayinformationismanagedandreportedon.
Forexample,yourSalesTerritoriesmaynotmatchtheStateslayer.YoucancreateaSales
RegionLayerwitharegionsuchasNorthwest(Washington,Oregon,Idaho,andsoon).Asa
result,youavoidhavingtocreateanewmaplayerinMapInfo,ataskrequiringadditional
knowledgeaswellaslicensingoftheoriginalMapInfodata.
Itisnot,however,possibletouseportionsofoneregiontoformanewregion.Forexample,
youcancombinethestateregionsofWashington,Oregon,andIdahotoformasalesregion,
butyoucannotuseportionsofanyregion,suchascities,toformanewregion.UseMap
Manager to load an existing IBM Cognos map file, define the new region layer, and then
savethemapwiththenewlayer.
InstallIBMCognosMapManagerifyouwantto
convertmapsfromnonIBMsources
assignalternatenamesformapfeatures
assignalternatelanguagesformapfeatures
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IBM Cognos BI 10

IBM Cognos 10 Business Intelligence BLACK CLOUD

The IBM Cognos Platform is built on a webbased serviceorientedarchitecture (SOA) that is

arepartofthejobs.The jobservice completesthesetasksandthensendsthejobtothemonitor

ContentManagerstores informationin a content store database,which istypically locatedin

The Cognos10data tier containsthe

respective databases,are available from their vendors.

You can view and open favorite

Create dashboards with Business

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