Cognos 8.4.1 on Win 2008 R2 on SQL 2008 / 2012?

[jeffowentn]

I currently have a distributed environment of Cognos 8.4.1 BI Fix Pack 4 and EP Fix Pack 2, sitting on a primarily Win 2003 server environment with SQL 2005, with Cognos Series 7 / Access Manager on top of Sun One Java 5.2 Directory Server.  Our landscape primarily supports Planning fucntionality, with very little BI content.

We have no option to upgrade the Cognos software, but we are standing up new environments (DEV and PROD) on Win 2008 R2 servers, ideally on SQL 2012, if possible. 

We have an issue with Sun One Java, and are currently trying to get Active Directory / Lightweight Directory Server to work in place of Sun One, with Access Manager still as the front end.  Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

We are currently having an issue with getting the Cognos configuration on the content manager server to connect to a copy of the existing ContentStore database.  We keep getting "Content Manager failed to connect to the content store.  The connection string is "jdbc:JSQLConnect:[Instance Name]/ContentStore".

We've changed the client tools on the instance to SQL 2008 from SQL 2012.  That didn't appear to resolve the issue.

We've also installed a temp SQL 2008 instance just to test this issue, and copied the ContentStore database to that instance - that didn't resolve the issue, either.

I've also tried connecting from our existing DEV standby content manager server to the temp SQL 2008 instance just to "test" the connection, and we get the same error, there.

At the moment, I have only installed Cognos 8.4.1 BI and EP and have not installed the Fix Packs.  I will start on that, in case that affects some of the versioning, as I've seen that is the case with some components.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I have a small window to get this cut-over in PROD before the business jumps back into the next budget cycle.  What else do you need from me?  I'm trying to offer as much as I can in the name of helping someone else and also to simplify someone's effort to make suggestions for me.

Thank you, in advance, for your assistance!

jeff

[cognostechie]

I would create a brand new DB (empty DB) in 2012 first and then create a new Data Source from Cognos to connect to it. If that succeeds then the connectivity between Cognos and 2012 is ok.  If no, then you will have to find out where the problem is. If the new DB tests out fine then you can configure that one as the Content Store and ask the DBAs to backup the Content Store from 2008 and restore it in your new DB in 2012.

[jeffowentn]

Excellent, cognostechie, and you answered my migration question, as well.  Let me try that...

Thank you!

[jeffowentn]

So I believe these are all the scenarios I've tested with the same error message:

1.  Changed the ContentStore on 2012 to a different name, and created a new ContentStore_test database, and this did not work
2.  Tried testing the connection from our existing DEV on Win 2003 to SQL 2012 ContentStore, and no luck
3.  Had our DBA copy the ContentStore from our existing DEV to a different SQL instance that has only ever had SQL 2005 on it, and no luck on the Win 2008 R2 server or on our existing DEV server running Win 2003.

Every time, we are getting the "Content Manager failed to connect to the content store.  The connection string is "jdbc:JSQLConnect:[Instance Name]/ContentStore".

Any other thoughts?  I believe we've tested the port connections.  I can access the ContentStore databases on the SQL 2012 instance from the Win 2008 R2 server using the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio for SQL Server 2012.  I can also access it using SQL 2008.

Jeff

[cognostechie]

I would try to understand what's going on instead of just trying out different things. With so many things changed, I don't even know what's the current state on the servers. One thing you might want to check is the installation guide of 8.4 to see supported environments. Did SQL 2012 even exist when Cognos 8.4 was released? If not, then that's probably not supported. To prove the point, you must be able to connect 8.4 to SQL 2005 or 2008 at least.  Ask IBM whether 2012 is supported for 8.4 or install 8.4 on a clean machine like a laptop, install 2008 and 2012 , make new DBs and then try to connect. If you can connect to 2008 but not 2012 that might explain it.

[jeffowentn]

SQL 2012 is not even listed as compatible, which I've advised my DBA's. 

I was able to get 2008 R2 to connect to the pure SQL 2005 instance - had the wrong Content Store database name entered, when I tried previously, as I was bouncing back and forth between database instances and database names.

I believe SQL 2008 is also listed as compatible, so that would be the next step.

Thank you, as always, Cognostechie!

[jeffowentn]

Here's what I've tested, now, in trying to get the ContentStore connection working:

App instance is Cognos 8.4.1 BI FP4 on Win 2008 R2 (other servers will have EP FP2, as well).

SQL instances:

WORKED - SQL 2005 on Win 2008 R2
WORKED - SQL 2008 on Win 2008 R2
DID NOT WORK - SQL 2008 on Win 2012 (also had SQL 2012 components on it, so we are looking for an instance that has not had SQL 2012 installed, in case that might have caused issues)

Jeff

[ericlfg]

Hey Jeff,

From what I remember, the content store connection is not dependent on the SQL client version that is installed.  A JDBC driver is supplied with the cognos install and is used for the CS connections, so for troubleshooting such a connection to a SQL 2k12 machine, you may want to look at 3rd party test utilities, or check SQL documentation regarding these kinds of connections.  ie: 2k12 may block certain types of connections out of the box.

Also, SQL 2k12 would definitely not be supported with 8.4.1.. 

[bdbits]

If you must use SQL 2012 with version 8, it might be worth trying the "compatibility level" property on the database itself. Your DBAs should be familiar with this setting. I am thinking this may fool Cognos into thinking it is using an earlier version of SQL Server, and the database to respond as if it was an earlier version.

Just a theory and may or may not solve anything.

[AndyW]

Hi,
this is an old thread but just wanted to know, that if someone has got 8.4.1 to support SQL 2012 by using 2008 compatibility mode?  We are in a middle of server migrations and people would like to get rid of old SQL 2008 server and move databases to a new server 

[AndyW]

Here's what I've tested, now, in trying to get the ContentStore connection working:

App instance is Cognos 8.4.1 BI FP4 on Win 2008 R2 (other servers will have EP FP2, as well).

SQL instances:

WORKED - SQL 2005 on Win 2008 R2
WORKED - SQL 2008 on Win 2008 R2
DID NOT WORK - SQL 2008 on Win 2012 (also had SQL 2012 components on it, so we are looking for an instance that has not had SQL 2012 installed, in case that might have caused issues)

Jeff

How did it go eventually?

[jeffowentn]

Andy,

Forgive me, but I hit a roadblock with the Cognos Access Manager component (only seems to work on Win 2003), and then mgt has asked me to move on to different things as we are moving away from Cognos.  We did not complete our migration / upgrade, so I do not have more to offer, at this time.  That's not to say that someone may not ultimately pick up with this effort before we finally shift away from Cognos.  If we do something, I plan to update this thread.

Jeff

[AndyW]

Andy,

Forgive me, but I hit a roadblock with the Cognos Access Manager component (only seems to work on Win 2003), and then mgt has asked me to move on to different things as we are moving away from Cognos.  We did not complete our migration / upgrade, so I do not have more to offer, at this time.  That's not to say that someone may not ultimately pick up with this effort before we finally shift away from Cognos.  If we do something, I plan to update this thread.

Jeff

Thanks for the heads up. I think our company is planning the same thing -moving away from Cognos eventually. Unfortunately not before the SQL migration.. Might be that I will go with 2008 to be safe.