Installation, Upgrade, and Configuration of IBM Cognos Analytics: Smooth Onboarding of Data Analytics and Business Intelligence on Red Hat RHEL 8.0, IBM Cloud Private, and Windows Servers

By Alan Bluck

This book shows how to install IBM Cognos Analytics software and related systems on RedHat Enterprise Linux 8.0, IBM Cloud, IBM Cloud Private (Community Edition), and Windows 10. It includes step-by-step instructions for downloading and installing IBM Cognos Analytics. It also includes numerous examples of setups and updates to analyze the OLAP database utilized by the IBM Case Manager.

The initial chapters discuss the installation of IBM Information Management Products. The reader will know the URLs of the downloading sites, the product codes, descriptions, sizes, and the names of each software downloaded to the gzip tar file. It includes setting up RHEL 8.0 Linux OS and using the Docker system for installation on IBM Cloud PAK servers, RedHat Openshift clusters, and IBM Cloud Private. The IBM Cognos installation contains versions 11.1.1 through 11.4.0 on RedHat Linux 8.0 and Windows 10. The book includes the usage of the IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1 R4 Dynamic Cube Datastore and the 11.1 R4 Cube Designer for the report and dashboard.

Additionally, the book includes constructing the essential Zlib library from the C language source download, its compilation, and linking.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BPB Online LLP
• Release date: Sep 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9789391392116

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Getting Started with IBM Resources for Cognos

Introduction

This chapter covers the Bill of Materials for the IBM Information Management Products to be installed along with the download site URLs, product codes, descriptions, size, and the name of the download files for each software download.

It also describes the summary contents of each available IBM Redbook publications which supports the use of the listed IBM software products.

The technical references to the related configuration and preparation of the systems used (such as DNS server set-up, Linux Security, Network configuration, etc.), the URLs and descriptions of the Interpretation of the Product and Fix Pack online generation tools, and the downloadable Excel spreadsheets and their usage are described.

The RedHat 8.0.iso disk image installation procedure on the VMware Workstation Pro 15.5, disk resource and sizing requirements, network card(s) and mapping, yum, dnf, pip, and conda installations, and firewall port set-up for the IBM Software Product prerequisites of the products listed are referenced to the DOI listings in Section 1.22, ASB Software Development Ltd publication references, with the pages which cover these.

The prerequisites for the installation procedure on Windows 10, Disk resource, and sizing requirements are outlined.

The prerequisites for the RedHat Linux RHCOS (Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS) server cluster machine requirements for the OpenShift 4 on-premises cloud installation support for Kubernetes controlled containers are outlined.

(Every Red Hat Linux server in an OpenShift Container Platform 4 cluster must use RHCOS, including the first-boot provisioning program called Ignition. Ignition enables the cluster of servers to be configured. The operating system updates are then delivered as an Atomic OSTree repository, embedded in a container image that is deployed to the cluster servers by an Operator).

The references to the installation of the Docker Container system are described, with the use and function of the main docker commands.

Structure

In this chapter, we will discuss the following topics:

RedHat Linux RHEL 8.0

IBM Cloud

RedHat OpenShift 4.5

IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1.0 -> 11.1.4 -> 11.1.6 -> 11.2.0

Compatibility Matrix URLs

IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1.x - Linux

IBM Cognos Analytics 11.2.x - Linux

IBM download procedures

RedHat and CentOS Linux download

On-premises server configurations and prerequisites

IBM Cognos Analytics 11.2.x - Windows

Red Hat OpenShift server cluster requirements

Installing the other components

Default login credentials

IBM fix packs

IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1.x

IBM Cognos Analytics 11.2.x

IBM publication references

RedHat publication references

ASB software development Ltd publication references

End-of-life support

Objectives

After studying this chapter, you will be able to identify the prerequisite system versions required for each of the system components which will be required to support the IBM Cognos Analytics software versions targeted for installation. You will understand the prerequisite disk, memory, and network requirements for the target software components to be installed and know how to configure them. You will also learn how to search, identify, and download the latest supported versions, and configure the security required to maintain a secure and robust system.

1.1 RedHat Linux RHEL 8.0

Download RHEL 8.0, the ISO image from the following URL:

https://developers.redhat.com/products/rhel/download/

The following URL specifies the detailed download and configuration requirements for IBM Cognos Analytics 11.x on RedHat Linux RHEL 8.0:

https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.21708.16001 titled: Case Manager 5.3.3 Installation on RHEL 8.0 with Content Navigator 3.0.6 .

The preceding link (https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.21708.16001) describes the installation of the base RHEL 8.0 Linux system from page 7 to 38 of the downloaded document, CaseManagerInstallationonRHEL8.0_V3.docx.

1.1.1 Download location, estimated download time, and version

Currently, only the most recent release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available from the preceding link for the developers. You can find all the releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the Red Hat Customer Portal, https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/479/ver=/rhel---8/8.4/x86_64/product-software.

Download the selected version using the dropdown, as shown in Figure 1.1, and then choose the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 Binary DVD:

Figure 1.1: The Required RedHat Linux version is selected from the drop-down

RHEL 8.0 Size: 6,936,576 KB (6.62 GB)

Estimated download time at 40 MBits/second = 1 hour 15 minutes

(On my Fiber Network, the download took around 17 minutes for 7.9 GB of the RHEL 8.2 version.)

1.1.2 License Requirements – User Value Unit (UVU) and Processor Value Unit (PVU)

The Red Hat Linux RHEL 8.0 system can be loaded using a Developer License (free) for non-production purposes. This gives access to all the currently supported versions of Red Hat Linux (including versions 5 and 6).

1.1.3 Fix pack location and versions

As shown in Figure 1.1, the version updates can be selected. For Red Hat Linux RHEL 8.x, the subscription manager can be used together with the yum installer to upgrade the packages.

1.2 IBM Cloud

The full details for this Section 1.2 for IBM Cloud access are covered in the BPB Book, Installation and Configuration of IBM Watson Analytics and StoredIQ in Chapter 1, Section 1.2: IBM Cloud (BPB Publications, ISBN 9390684498, 9789390684496). See the following URL link: https://www.ibm.com/cloud

1.2.1 Download location, estimated download time, and version

The main download, initially required for using an IBM Cloud based system, is to install the IBM Cloud CLI client on an RHEL 8.0 server, when you log into the installed IBM Cloud CLI using the