Download Installing Oracle 9i Server for Controller Guideline

Guideline
Installing Oracle 9i Server for
Controller
Product(s): Controller 8.1
Area of Interest: Infrastructure
Installing Oracle 9i Server for Controller
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cognos ULC (formerly Cognos Incorporated). Cognos ULC
is an IBM Company. While every attempt has been made to ensure that the
information in this document is accurate and complete, some typographical
errors or technical inaccuracies may exist. Cognos does not accept
responsibility for any kind of loss resulting from the use of information
contained in this document. This document shows the publication date. The
information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.
Any improvements or changes to the information contained in this document
will be documented in subsequent editions. This document contains
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This document is maintained by the Best Practices, Product and Technology
team. You can send comments, suggestions, and additions to
[email protected].
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Contents
1
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 4
1.1
1.2
1.3
PURPOSE .............................................................................................................. 4
APPLICABILITY ....................................................................................................... 4
EXCLUSIONS AND EXCEPTIONS .................................................................................... 4
2
QUICK GUIDE TO INSTALLING ORACLE 9I CLIENT ON A CONTROLLER
APPLICATION SERVER AND CONFIGURING AFTERWARDS ..................................... 4
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1 Introduction
1.1
Purpose
This document provides information on installing Oracle 9i with Controller 8.1
1.2
Applicability
Controller 8.1
1.3
Exclusions and Exceptions
There are no known exclusions and exceptions at the time this document was
created.
2 Quick guide to installing Oracle 9i client on a Controller
application server
When you launch Controller v8, you receive the following error message: An error
occurred while trying to access server.
Explanation & solution
There are several potential causes for this error. In many cases, the error is due to
security permissions.
Use the following checks to ensure that everything is correctly configured.
Check#1 – COGNOSCONTROLLER COM+ application username (“identity”)
From the Start menu, click Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools >
Component Services.
Expand the top row until you see the COGNOSCONTROLLER COM+ application.
Right-click COGNOSCONTROLLER and select Properties.
Click Identity.
Ensure that this user (e.g. DOMAIN\Controller_admin) is a member of the local
“Administrators” group on the application server:
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Installing Oracle 9i Server for Controller
Check#2 - COGNOSCONTROLLER COM+ authorised user group(s)
From the Start Menu on the application server, open Cognos Controller
configuration.
Open the COM+ Server section.
Check the Controller COM+ roles and users section
For the most secure system you can lock the Controller COM+ roles/users down to
specific user(s) and group(s)
However, for most customers, it is best to simply have the following entries:
FrangoUsers Everyone
FrangoUsers NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
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Check#3 – Application server website – authentication method
All communication between client and server is over HTTP requests to the IIS/webserver on the application server. By default, the IIS default website uses anonymous
access.
This means that the application runs under the above user’s credentials IUSR_<servername>.
This is one of the reasons why it is simpler to ensure that the group Everyone is a
member of the FrangoUsers role (see Check#2 above), because
IUSR_<servername> is a member of Everyone.
In other words, if the IUSR_<servername> user was not a member of any of the
FrangoUsers roles, they would receive the error message.
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Check#4 – TEMP directory permissions
By default the application runs under the IUSR_<servername> user account (the
server’s anonymous web user account).
The user account needs read/write access to certain folders. For example, it may 1
require read/write to the following folder on the application server:
C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
1
Possibly only when running Controller 8 as a server on Windows XP Professional
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You could add the user explicitly to have permissions, or alternatively add the group
Everyone to have permissions to solve this issue.
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Check#5 – Ensure that there is a valid database for the user to connect to
Open Controller Configuration, and examine the database connections. You may
have several databases listed:
Each user can have the database selection mode enabled or disabled.
This can be changed once the user is inside Controller, by clicking Maintain >
Database > Database Selection Mode.
This setting is stored under the user’s profile in the ccr.config file. The file is found in
the C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Cognos\ directory.
You can open up the ccr.config file in your favorite text editor and modify the
SelectDB option.
If you have the Database Selection Mode disabled then you must have a
database connection called default. For this reason, you should ensure that the
primary database connection is called default.
The connection name does not have to be the same name as the SQL server’s
database name.
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For example, if the default database connection pointed to a database that was
blank (for example, the database was newly-created inside SQL Enterprise Manager,
with no Controller tables in it) then you would get that error.
The solution is to select that the default database connection is accessible by
selecting the database connection called default, clicking the green tick to ensure it’s
valid and clicking the green play button.
Check#6 – Ensure that the server address is reachable from the client PC
Launch Controller Configuration, and go to Client Distribution Server
Configuration.
Ensure that the web-addresses are reachable. Ensure that the names for servers are
using the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN). For example, in the screenshot
above, you would pneed to change the NetBIOS name vbraconta8ap1 to an name
such as vbracont8ap1.domain.org.uk.
Ensure that the client computers can resolve, or ping, this address successfully.
These changes can be made directly in the ccr.exe.config file located in the
C:\Program Files\cognos\c8\webcontent\ccr\ directory.
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Check#7 – Ensure client PC is not using a Proxy Server
This is connected with Check#6.
Check the client computer’s Internet Explorer proxy settings, by right-clicking the
Internet Explorer icon, and selecting Properties > Connections > LAN Settings.
If you are using a proxy server, click Advanced and add the Controller application
server’s address to the list of locations that are in the Exceptions text box.
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Troubleshoot/Workarounds
For a typical Controller system, security checking should be enforced. However, to
try to troubleshoot the issue, it may be helpful to do the following.
After the cause of the issue has been located, you should put these settings back to
the correct settings, so that the system is in an optimal state.
Temporary #1
Inside Component Services, right-click COGNOSCONTROLLER and select
Properties.
Click the Security tab and clear the Enforce access checks for this application check
box.
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Temporary #2
From the Start menu, open Cognos Configuration.
Click Security > Authentication > Cognos and set Allow Anonymous Access
to True.
Click Save and then restart the service.
Temporary #3
Change the authentication method (see Cause #3 earlier in document) so that
Enable Anonymous Access is selected.
Change the username to a local administrative user (e.g.
DOMAIN\Controller_admin). Open a command prompt, and type the following to
apply these settings:
IISRESET
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