8.4 Go! Dashboard Install & Config

[funkigreendog]

Hi Joseph,

I wholeheartedly concur that this is one annoying install!!!

I also have the same issue with the second authentication screen popping up once "new dashboard" is clicked. I have raised a Cognos case and they have confirmed that there is a bug whereby dashboard won't work whilst SSO is turned on. I find it quite suprising that this would be the case, as I would have thought a large number of users would be using SSO and have come across this problem.

Anyway for what it's worth this is the response from Cognos. Feel free to reference the number below if raising a Cognos call:

"We have discovered that there is a product issue with GO Dashboard when using single signon and NTLM security configuration.

An emergency development ticket has been raised under reference 615600. Work has already commenced on resolving this issue. This service request is directly associated with that development work, so we will be updated as work progresses."

[kolonell]

When I clicked on the menus, some 'undefined' alert messagebox appeared. I wonder if you have met this problem before, how to deal with it .
   Many thanks!

Hi Jessy

You might want to check you have MSXML6 installed on every PC that will access Go! Dashboard. Due to a Bug
in IE this version of MSXML is required. If you try using Firefox you should see that Go! Dashboard works fine.

[gcekol]

Sorry to interrupt the post but I have similar problem.

I have successfully installed Go! Dashboard. I can access Go! Dashboard application and on the left side of the screen I see all Cognos 8 content but when I click on Toolbox an error message appears: PRS-PRH-0250 The target server returned an HTTP error code.

I had one case before where the same thing happened but that was solved by changing Regional setting from Croatian to English (United States) and I've done it now but this time it didn't helped.

The difference from the first and this case is that first one was installation of all components on one computer and this time it's distributed installation.

Does the other computer needs to have the same regional settings?

Can you help?

Thank you!

[mmartins]

This is one heck of an annoying tool to install....

I've been following the installation guide, but their guide is very very misleading.

Anyway, I've the dashboard service up and running, but I still have that PRS-PRH-0250 error message.

Another problem that I encounter is that Once I click on the New Dashboard icon toolbox, it will then bring me to authentication page again (without any images/colours) as it it's pointing to a new dispatcher...

Basically what happen is that once I click on the New Dashboard icon, the URL will change from http://Http://webserver/cognos8 to http://Http://appserver/cognos8 where the dashboard server is installed.

The most annoying bit is that not only it doesnt recognise the existing SSO that i've setup, but if I click the "Home" icon, it will not bring me to the webserver, but to the appserver instead....

I'm wondering if the above was ever resolved?  I'm having basically the same exact issue that I've bolded above.  I'm at my wit's end here.

[kolonell]

That is normal ... Go! Dashboard is kind of a layer on top of BI and to resolve XSS vulnerabilities it's not as simple as just redirecting and "injecting"  all the correct parameters. That'd be a Major security concern in my opinion. That's why they implemented the "Proxy" approach.

All of that is documented in the "Go! Dashboard companion guide" by the way. If you read through that , It'll answer most of your questions (at least it did for me) ;-)

Hope this helps

[mmartins]

That is normal ... Go! Dashboard is kind of a layer on top of BI and to resolve XSS vulnerabilities it's not as simple as just redirecting and "injecting"  all the correct parameters. That'd be a Major security concern in my opinion. That's why they implemented the "Proxy" approach.

All of that is documented in the "Go! Dashboard companion guide" by the way. If you read through that , It'll answer most of your questions (at least it did for me) ;-)

Hope this helps

thanks for the input, kolonell.  i will definitely check out the companion guide.

i disagree, however, that what is shown in the attached screenshots are normal operation...

btw, where can i get the companion guide?  i can't seem to find it online.

[kolonell]

ah I see now .. missing pictures is indeed not normal ;-) the URL thingy however is. Do you mind  posting the (anonymised) dashboard.properties file ?

go_broken ;-) good one !

[mmartins]

ah I see now .. missing pictures is indeed not normal ;-) the URL thingy however is. Do you mind  posting the (anonymised) dashboard.properties file ?

go_broken ;-) good one !

   


sure can do..

Code: [Select]

################################################################################
# IBM Cognos Go! Dashboard WAR/EAR deployment properties
################################################################################

#
# context_root - Specify the context root for ear file
#
context_root=/cognos

#
# dist_path - Specify where all the deployment files will be generated.
#             This folder is relative to the top IBM Cognos 8's root install
#             directory.
#
dist_path=./dashboard

#
# ear_name - Specify the ear file name, will be saved in "dist_path" folder.
#
ear_name=dashboard.ear

#
# war_name - Specify the war file name, will be saved in "dist_path" folder.
#
war_name=dashboard.war


################################################################################
# IBM Cognos Go! Dashboard configuration properties
################################################################################

#
# c8_dispatch - Set this property with the value specified in either the Internal
#               Dispatcher URI or External dispatcher URI Environment setting in
#               IBM Cognos Configuration.
#
c8_dispatch=http://myserver.company.com:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch

#
# c8_gateway - Set this property with the value specified in the Gateway URI
#              Environment setting in IBM Cognos Configuration.
#
c8_gateway=http://myserver.company.com/cognos/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi

#
# c8_webcontent - Based on "c8_gateway" above, set this property with the value
#                 specified as the Web Server's virtual directory value for
#                 Cognos 8 web content.
#
c8_webcontent=http://myserver.company.com/cognos

i did open a support call with cognos yesterday.  they were able to reproduce the problem and are working on a solution.  hopefully i will hear something today.

[mmartins]

I just realized that I'm also getting an "PRS-PRH-0250 The target server returned an HTTP error code." error message when I try to expand any item.

All Go! Dashboard components appear to be installed in the right location.  I did reinstall to be sure.

[kolonell]

Hi again

I am wondering ... maybe try and copy over the webcontent folder from the BI machine to the Go Dashboard  webapps folder   

[mmartins]

Hi again

I am wondering ... maybe try and copy over the webcontent folder from the BI machine to the Go Dashboard  webapps folder   

i can definitely try that.  i'm not sure which folder to copy to though.

would it be:
C:\Program Files\cognos\c8\tomcat6.0.14\webapps

?

[kolonell]

yes, under that folder there should be (if I remember correctly) a folder cognos/. I would copy the contents in there

[mmartins]

thanks for all the suggestions, kolonell.   

it looks like i figured it out.  it actually turned out to be a server configuration issue, which is what i had suspected in the first place.

i decided to look up the 401.2 error, which is "Unauthorized: Access is denied due to server configuration."

reading the details on the error here, http://blogs.msdn.com/david.wang/archive/2005/07/14/HOWTO_Diagnose_IIS_401_Access_Denied.aspx, it started to make sense that it was something to do with tomcat trying to communicate with IIS (my best guess anyway).

so i enabled anonymous access to IIS and voila, everything started coming up.

now i just need to see what the implications are of having anonymous access enabled in this environment.

again, thanks for your help.

[kolonell]

good to hear .. The only issue with Anonymous Access (for BI) is that SSO might stop working.   

[Super_K]

I have worked with Cognos for years but this is the most ridiculous configuration I have gone through.

I cannot believe Cognos would release this tool with a setup like this.

Cognos amazes me on a daily basis.  Not in a good way anymore.