Cognos 8 Architecture

Cognos Service Factory

Features of C8 Architecture

 Designed for scalability, availability, and openness.

 Features a consistent, zero footprint, Web-based user interface for

viewing, creating, analyzing and administering reports, scorecards,
and events.

 Uses platform independent technology, such as Extensible Markup

Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Web
Services Definition Language (WSDL). This allows to integrate
Cognos 8 with and leverage existing IT infrastructure on multiple
platforms.

 It has a common dispatcher and supports leading relational

databases as well as OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) and
dimensionally modeled relational cubes.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 2

Contd…

Web Administration – No client installation required to perform

day to day report and server administration of the application.
Common Dispatcher – Central dispatcher awareness through
content manager. Dynamic load balancing occurs automatically
and provides fail over for 24X7 operation.
Scalability – Scale up to larger servers by adding more
processing capacity to accommodate thousands of users.
Availability – Can perform distributed installation for disaster
management and load balance.
Multi-Lingual Capabilities – Consumers and administrators can
select English, French, German, Japanese as the UI language
of choice.
Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 3
Contd…

Support of leading RDBMS for content management such as IBM

DB2, Oracle, and MSSQL.
Integration with Web farms and supports multiple web server types,
e.g. IIS, Apache.
Platform Independent with support on windows NT/2000/XP, HP-
UX11/11i, AIX 4.4.3, 5L, SOLARIS 8, 9 OS.
Open and Extensible through a documented API that uses industry
standards, web services technologies (SOAP, XML, WSDL, JAVA)
for application integration (portals, browsers, applications,
application servers). The internal messaging system is SOAP
based and provides a low level API to the core functionality of the
product. The API calls can either SOAP or URLs.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 4

Architecture Tiers

The Cognos 8 architecture can be separated into three tiers:

 Web server
 Applications
 Data

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 5

Contd…

Web-based and
IBM Cognos 8 Windows-based interfaces
User interfaces

network firewall

Event IBM Cognos 8 gateways

Tier 1: Web server WebStudio
server

network firewall

IBM Cognos 8 Application

Tier 2: Applications IBM Cognos 8 Tier Components with
server Dispatcher and Content Manager

network firewall

Tier 3: Data
JDBC API JDBC

Content store Metric stores

Query databases

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 6

User Interfaces

The communication protocol is SOAP over HTTP.

Cognos 8 user interfaces are Classified as Web-based and Windows-
based:
Web based Interfaces – Windows based Interfaces –

 IBM Cognos Connection  Framework Manager

 IBM Cognos Administration  Metric Designer
 Query Studio  Transformer
 Report Studio  Map Manager
 Analysis Studio  IBM Cognos 8 Go! Office
 Metric Studio
 Event Studio

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 7

BI Bus & Simple Object Access
Protocol

• The BI Bus is an open, documented API that uses Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP). The BI Bus provides programmatic access to all Cognos 8
administrative and reporting functionality
• SOAP is encoded in XML, which allows third party application to interact
with Cognos 8 BI solution. This interaction occurs through BI bus.
• SOAP is common protocol for Cognos 8 components, or third party
components to communicate with any of the Reporting services.
• SOAP consists of an open, documented API. It provides programmatic
access to all Reporting administrative and reporting functionality.
• SOAP is based on request-response paradigm. If you make request, you
get a response, regardless of whether there is an error.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 8

Cognos 8 Welcome Page

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 9

Cognos Connection

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 10

Contd…

Cognos Connection is a Web portal, provides a single point of entry to

Cognos 8 for creating, running, viewing, scheduling, organizing, and
distributing reports. Report Authors/Users can access any of the
Studio’s through Cognos Connection based on the access levels.
It also includes:
• Public Folders: Public Folders store shared Cognos 8 application
content, such as packages, reports, shortcuts, and jobs.
• My Folders: My Folders store personal Cognos 8 content, such as
reports, shortcuts, and jobs.
• Directory: The directory selection is used to specify Cognos 8 data
sources and their associated connections, define groups and roles for
security purposes, and specify distribution lists, contacts, and printers.
• Schedule Management: Schedule Management is used to manage
and monitor current and scheduled reports and jobs.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 11

Contd….

• Server Administration: Server Administration is used to administer the

Cognos 8 environment, including monitoring dispatchers and services,
configuring and fine-tuning performance-related parameters, and
customizing auditing and logging.

• Content Administration: Is used to import and export the Cognos 8

content like packages, reports, views etc., form one environment to
another, Create a jobs and schedules, Check for content consistency
and content updates.

• Preferences : Allows to organize the Cognos 8 content, Product and

Content language selection, Report output format selections and also
add portal pages to the Cognos 8 portal.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 12

Tier 1- Web Server:
Cognos 8 Gateways

 Gateway transfers information from the Web server to another

server.
 Information exchange over the web in Cognos 8 is typically
through gateways
Gateways resides on one or more web servers

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 13

Types of Gateways

Cognos 8 supports several types of Web Gateways, including the

following:
 CGI
 ISAPI
 apache_mod
 servlet

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 14

Functions of Gateway

Whenever Cognos 8 Gateway receives a request, it will perform the

following tasks
 Encrypts the password to ensure security
 Extracts required information and submits to Cognos 8 Server
 Attaches environment variables for web server
 Adds default namespace to identify the user authentication
 Routes the request to Dispatcher

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 15

Tier 2 - Application:
Report Server

Report Server

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 16

Contd…

• A report server
– accepts and executes query specifications from reporting
applications
– renders the Cognos Connection user interface

• Each report server can operate several services, including the report
service and presentation service. To manage performance, the
Cognos 8 administrator can disable the report service or presentation
service and configure the number of report services used on each
computer.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 17

Contd…

Components of a Report Server installation:

 Bootstrap service
 Dispatcher
 Content Manager Service
 Presentation service
 Report service
 Job Service
 Batch report service
 Log server

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 18

Contd…

• Bootstrap Service: Each Cognos 8 computer has a bootstrap

service that starts, monitors, and stops the dispatcher. If the
dispatcher fails, the bootstrap service restarts it. The bootstrap
service is a native executable written in C++. It runs as an NT
service under Windows, and as a daemon under UNIX.

• Dispatcher: Each Cognos 8 computer has one dispatcher. It starts

all Cognos 8 services configured on that computer and routes
requests. The dispatcher is a Java servlet.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 19

Dispatcher

Dispatchers route requests to an appropriate Cognos 8

computer’s dispatcher to execute a given request; or to a local
service, such as the report service, presentation service, or job
and schedule monitoring service, for execution.

• When a dispatcher is started, it registers itself with the Content

Manager. In this way, all Cognos 8 dispatchers are aware of each
other. If a dispatcher fails, requests are re-routed to the next
available dispatcher until the failed dispatcher re-registers itself.
Configuration changes are also propagated to all running
dispatchers.

• The dispatcher is used for all report server requests and some
Content Manager requests.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 20

Contd…

• Dispatcher can initiate below services based on the request -

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 21

PresentationService

The PresentationService is a Java service used for -

• rendering reports in the report viewer and UI pages in Cognos

Connection

• accepts user requests, primarily through Cognos Connection

• retrieves information from Content Manager or stores information

in Content Manager

• creates Cognos Connection pages

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 22

ReportService and
BatchReportService

• ReportService and BatchReportService are native C++

applications that run as separate processes managed by the
dispatcher. They provide
- metadata access
- data access (query)
- prompting
- report execution

• They communicate with Content Manager to get report

specifications that determine report content and layout,and access
query databases using native API or ODBC to execute reports and
store report results.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 23

Contd…

• ReportService - runs all interactive reports. They provide

metadata to Report Studio, Query Studio, and any third-party
applications integrated with Cognos 8.

• Consists of many internal components, including the metadata

service, query engine, and PDF engine.

• BatchReportService - runs scheduled reports as initiated by the

job and schedule monitoring service.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 24

JobService

• Job and schedule monitoring service manages scheduled jobs and

reports, which are executed by the batch report service

• Job and schedule monitoring service runs on both report server

and Content Manager Server

• Job and schedule monitoring service sends email with the desired
report

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 25

Log Server

The log server manages all log messages generated by the

Dispatcher and Content manager services.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 26

Content Manager Service

Content Manager stores all Cognos 8 information in a Relational

database referred to as the content store, including information about
 Packages: contain metadata, reports, and folders.
 Reports: contain specifications, properties, security, and outputs.
 Server configuration: contains directory information, including the
Cognos namespace,contacts, distribution lists, data sources, and
printers.
 Personal user information: consists of My Folders and My Pages.
 Multilingual support: includes names, descriptions, and tool tips.
 API: Content Manager uses a JDBC API to access the content
store. The JDBC driver for Microsoft SQL Server is included with
Cognos 8. JDBC drivers for Oracle and DB2 are available from
their vendors.
Content Manager performs general functions such as add, query,
update, delete, move, and copy. It also performs content store
management functions, such as export and import.
Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 27
Tier 3 - Data:
Content Manager

Content Manager server

Log server

Bootstrap Dispatcher
service
Presentatio
n
service

Job and
Certificate Content Schedule
Authority Manager monitoring
Service

JDBC

Content
store
Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 28
Contd ..

• Content Manager is a Java servlet. There is only one Content

Manager and one content store per implementation of Cognos 8.

• All reports, packages, securities, server configuration, personal user

information, multilingual properties and jobs are stored by Content
Manager in the content store.

• Content Manager stores and retrieves Cognos 8 data in the content

store.

• Content Manager is described as part of the Data tier because it

operates much like a database server, providing content services to
other Cognos 8 components.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 29

Contd…

• Content Manager deals with complex and constantly changing

data that must be shared in real time across multiple report and
presentation services. To ensure data integrity and
performance, all content data is stored in a relational database
referred to as the content store.

• To allow fast retrieval, Content Manager builds an in-memory

cache to service many requests without requiring database
access. Within the single content Manager process, multiple
threads can service requests for content concurrently.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 30

Contd…

• Content Manager components include a bootstrap service,

dispatcher, presentation service, job and schedule monitoring
service, and log server. Content Manager installation also
includes:
– Certificate Authority
– Content Manager Service

• Some services run in the same process space as the dispatcher,

while others run as sub processes.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 31

Certificate Authority

• By default, Cognos 8 uses its own Certificate Authority (CA)

service to establish the root of trust in the Cognos 8 security
infrastructure.

• You can configure Cognos 8 to use a third-party CA if you already

have an existing CA, such as iPlanet or Microsoft, in your reporting
environment.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 32

Messaging and Dispatching

• The Cognos 8 architecture is tuned to minimize dispatch time.

Cognos 8 uses network capabilities such as load-balancing
routers to ensure that dispatchers and Web gateways are
evenly utilized. Load balancing routers 'spray' requests across
multiple Web or application servers, ensuring that each
dispatcher is given the same workload.

• The dispatchers balance the report execution load. The

dispatcher load balancing scheme is a static algorithm. You can
specify a weight for each machine; a dispatcher with a weight of
2 can do twice as much work as a dispatcher with a weight of 1,
and so on. Each dispatcher then simply spreads work among all
the dispatchers using a weighted round-robin algorithm. Each
dispatcher will accept all requests passed its way. Requests are
queued by the dispatcher until executed.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 33

Load Balancing

Load Balancing is automatic in a distributed install. If there is more

than one instance of a report service, dispatcher will distribute
requests to all enabled instances of the service that are registered
in Content Manager. In addition, Cognos 8 supports load-balancing
routers.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 34

Load Balancing Using Routers

• Load-balancing routers and other network technologies are used to

distribute network requests across several computers to ensure an
even allocation of work. Load-balancing routers can be used with
Cognos 8 in either or both of these locations:

• Between the browser and Tier 1: Web Server Gateway

• Between Tier 1: Web Server Gateway and Tier 2: Report Server

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 35

 Routers Between the Browser
and Web Server

• One or more routers can be placed in front of the Web

servers to balance the load across the Web servers.
• Requests from browsers are distributed evenly across the
available Web servers, balancing the request load among
the servers. Because the Cognos 8 gateway runs on the
Web server, this serves to distribute the load across the
Cognos 8 servers as well, provided there are the same
number of Web servers and Cognos 8 servers.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 36

Routers Between the Web Server
and Cognos 8 Server

• Routers can also be placed between the Web servers

and Cognos 8 servers.
• Requests from Web servers are distributed evenly
across the available Cognos 8 servers, balancing the
request load among the servers.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 37

Routers in Both Locations

To provide the greatest level of load balancing and robustness, routers

can be used at both locations.
Browser

Router distributes
Router requests from Web
browsers to Web
servers

Web server
Gateway
Router distributes
requests from Web
Router servers to Cognos 8
servers

Cognos 8
server

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 38

Cognos 8 Java Servlets and
Services

• Cognos 8 operates as two Java servlets running in a J2EE-compliant

servlet container. The first servlet is the dispatcher. The presentation
service, and the job and schedule monitoring service, are Java based
and run within the dispatcher. The report service is a non-Java based
application running as a child process of the dispatcher.

• The second Java servlet is Content Manager , which runs in the same
Java process as the dispatcher.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 39

Tomcat

• Tomcat is the J2EE servlet container reference implementation for

Cognos 8. Cognos 8 ships with Tomcat and, by default, is installed with
and operates with Tomcat.

• The bootstrap service is responsible for starting, stopping, and

monitoring Tomcat. On Windows, it appears as a service. On UNIX, it
appears as a daemon.

Copyright © 2009 Accenture All Rights Reserved. 40