Administer the Cognos 8 BI Server Environment

Cognos 8 BI

Objectives
 At the end of this module, you should be able to:  describe the tasks required to administer the Cognos 8 BI server environment  perform administrative tasks using Cognos Administration  manage dispatchers and services  examine the log message facility  discuss server performance tuning  identify issues while troubleshooting the server environment  identify the Cognos 8 BI backup strategy

Administration Workflow

Plan  Cognos 8 architecture  installation and configuration options  performance variables  multilingual requirements

Install Cognos 8  single server  distributed

Configure Cognos 8  servers  security (environment)

Administer Cognos 8  servers  backup  activities and schedules  data connections  deployment  security (content)  BI content

Administer Cognos 8 BI Servers

 From Cognos Administration, use the System and Configuration tabs to:
    

monitor system performance manage dispatchers and services manage Content Managers tune server performance configure how to save report output to a file location set the logging level for log messages

Monitor System Performance

 Monitor performance using system metrics.  For the system, servers, server groups, dispatchers, and services, you can monitor:


metrics, including their associated scores and current values status

Metric Groupings
 Metrics are grouped by type.
    

process request queue session Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

Set Thresholds

Set Metric Thresholds

 Set a threshold value for a metric, so that when the value is crossed, the state of the metric score changes.  Values depend on your operating environment.  Set the performance pattern of the metric.
  

high values are good middle values are good low values are good

Reset System Metrics

 Can reset the system metrics in two ways:
 

by restarting the application through Cognos Administration

Demo 1
Set Thresholds on a System Metric and Monitor System Performance

Manage Dispatchers and Services

 Perform maintenance on dispatchers and services.
       

start and stop dispatchers and services activate a Content Manager service remove dispatchers from the environment move dispatchers rename dispatchers test dispatchers administer failover for multiple dispatchers specify advanced dispatcher routing

Stop and Start Dispatchers and Services

 You can stop and start dispatchers and services manually. If a service stops responding, you must stop and restart it.  Stopping a service stops all its processes.  Stopping a dispatcher stops all its services.

Activate a Content Manager Service

 You can manually activate a Content Manager Service that is in standby mode.

Perform Dispatcher Administration

 Remove a dispatcher if you no longer need it in the Cognos 8 BI environment.  Rename a dispatcher to secure the system.  Test a dispatcher to ensure that it is responding appropriately.  Administer failover for multiple dispatchers.

Specify Advanced Dispatcher Routing

 Define routing sets for packages or groups/roles.  Define routing rules for a server group that control where the routing sets will be executed.
Define routing set for a package in Cognos Connection GO Sales Define routing rule in Cognos Administration Sales Server

Routing set 1

Define routing set for a group or role in Cognos Administration Finance Group Routing set 2 Finance Server

Manage Content Managers

 You can set advanced Content Manager parameters for the following:
   

database connection pool settings sorted entries for non-English locales Content Manager synchronization control browsing of external namespaces

Tune Server Performance

 Tune configuration settings and services to optimize the speed and efficiency of the Cognos 8 BI system.  Consider:
    

tuning to meet peak usage times scaling up if necessary the logging level optimizing Framework Manager models the operating system

Group Dispatchers in Folders

 Organize dispatchers in folders to apply common configuration settings to a set of dispatchers and services.

Balance Requests Among Dispatchers

 Balance the request load among dispatchers in the Cognos 8 BI system.

Set the Load Balancing Mode

 When using an external load-balancing mechanism, you should use the local preferred dispatch option.

Tune for Peak Demand

 Determine the start and end hours of the peak demand period for your organization.  During the peak period you may want to:


set the number of connections and processes lower than during non-peak period set the number of jobs lower than during non-peak period

Specify the Number of Processes and Connections

 For peak and non-peak periods, specify:


the number of processes for the report, batch report, and data movement services the number of connections for the agent, Content Manager, delivery, and job services

High Affinity Requests

 High affinity requests:


benefit from the labors of previously processed requests are routed to the same process that was initially invoked, if it is available run report again (Cognos Viewer) HTML report navigation report delivery top/bottom, next page email, save, save as, print

 Examples:
  

Low Affinity Requests

 A low affinity request:
 

has no affinity for a particular process performs equally well regardless of which process handles the request administrative test data source connections, add objects, refresh authoring metadata retrieval, query validation querying, running reports (interactive and batch) processing, prompting

 Examples:


 

Affinity Connections
 For the report service, the batch report service, and the data movement service, you can also specify the maximum number of high affinity and low affinity connections that the dispatcher can open to handle requests.  Affinity connections:
 

are used to process requests remain unavailable for the duration of a request

 Once a connection is completed, it is pooled, and is ready to be consumed by another request.

Affinity Connections (cont d)

 Low affinity connections process low affinity requests.  High affinity connections process high affinity requests.  A high affinity request may be processed using a low affinity connection.  For peak and non-peak periods, specify the number of low and high affinity connections (threads) for the report and batch report services.

The Process/Thread Model

 Cognos 8 BI report processes manage the allocation of high and low affinity connections.  There is direct relationship between the settings for the report, batch report and data movment service processes and those for high and low affinity connections.
Default settings for the report service during non-peak period Report Processes Low Affinity Connection Setting
4

High Affinity Connection Setting

1

Total Low Affinity Connections

8

Total High Affinity Connections

2

Tune Application Servers

 Select the appropriate configuration type.
 

Use small or medium for Windows. Use any configuration for UNIX.

Additional Tuning
 Specify queue time limits  PDF file settings  Set maximum execution time  Specify how long to keep Watch List report output

Additional Tuning (cont d)

 Limit hotspots that are generated in an Analysis Studio or a Report Studio Chart report  Set compression for email attachments  Set the report size limit for the report data service

Save Content to the File System

 You can save report outputs to a file system location outside Cognos 8 in different formats including:
    

HTML PDF Excel Delimited text (CSV) XML

Demo 2
Examine Dispatchers and Services

Demo 3
Tune the Cognos 8 BI Server Environment

Demo 4
Save Content to the File System

Set the Logging Level

 Set the level detail to captured by log messages.

Audit Database Tables

Table Name COGIPF_ACTION COGIPF_USERLOGON COGIPF_NATIVEQUERY

Description Stores information about operations performed on objects Stores user logon and logoff information Stores information about queries that Cognos 8 makes to third-party components Stores parameter information logged by a component Stores information about job runs Stores information about job step runs

COGIPF_PARAMETER COGIPF_RUNJOB COGIPF_RUNJOBSTEP

Audit Database Tables (cont d)

Table Name COGIPF_RUNREPORT COGIPF_VIEWREPORT COGIPF_EDITQUERY COGIPF_AGENTBUILD COGIPF_AGENTRUN COGIPF_THRESHOLD_VIOLATIONS Description Stores information about report runs Stores information about report view requests Stores information about query runs Stores information about agent mail delivery Stores information about agent activity including tasks and delivery Stores information about threshold violations for system metrics

Use the Sample Audit Model and Reports

 Cognos 8 BI includes a sample audit model and audit reports that you can use to identify activity.

Sample audit model in Framework Manager

Sample audit report run in Cognos Viewer

Demo 5
Set the Logging Level for the Dispatcher, Examine the Audit Log Database, and Run Audit Reports and Agents

Troubleshoot the Server Environment

 Troubleshooting issues:
  

unable to log on cannot access data excessive execution times servers and server properties configuration error messages log files configuration files Cognos Configuration component test

 Troubleshooting areas:
 

 Troubleshooting resources include:

   

Troubleshooting Resources
 Use log and configuration files to track the operations performed in Cognos 8 BI.
      

transfer log file (.txt) transfer summary-error log file (.txt) gateway.log file cogserver.log file cogstartup.xml file coglocale.xml file metricdump.xml

Back Up Data
 Regularly back up Cognos BI data, including:
 

content store configuration - for example, cogstartup_<date/time stamp>.xml the directory that contains the encryption and signing key settings (if changed from the default location) Framework Manager projects:
 file

system control system (for example, Visual Source

 version

Safe)

Summary
 At the end of this module, you should be able to:  describe the tasks required to administer the Cognos 8 BI server environment  perform administrative tasks using Cognos Administration  manage dispatchers and services  examine the log message facility  discuss server performance tuning  identify issues while troubleshooting the server environment  identify the Cognos 8 BI backup strategy

Workshop 1
Troubleshoot the Cognos 8 BI Server Environment