Inside IBM Cognos administration the status for the servers are partially available

Product:

Cognos BI 8.4.1 32 bit version

Windows 2008 R2 server

Symptom:

After install of a second instance of Cognos BI on the same server, inside IBM Cognos administration the status for the servers are partially available.

The Cognos BI service are up and running in Microsoft Windows.

It is only Cognos that reflect that the new BI services is not working, but say that the new Cognos dispatcher at port 9500 is unavailable.

Error message:

In the file cbs_cnfgtest_run.log or localhost_log.txt, you can see errors.

Cause:

The local firewall on the Windows 2008 R2 server is blocking the new port you configured for the new Cognos 8 instance, so the Cognos Content Manager can not establish a contact to it.

More information from IBM:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21340076

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/cbi/v10r2m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.c8pp_inst.10.2.0.doc%2Ft_newinstancesettings.html

More Information on How to install a second instance of Cognos BI:

Logon as local administrator on the Windows server.

Run NETSTAT from a command (CMD) prompt to see what ports are being used on the server.

Ensure that port 9500 is not used, because that is the port we will use in the example.

Go to Windows Firewall and Advanced Security from the control panel.

Click on inbound rules.

Open a existing rule or create a Cognos rule.

Ensure under protocols and ports tab, that TCP local port 9500 is open for all remote ports.

Ensure that "Allow the connection" is enabled.

Click OK.

Restart the Firewall function to get the change to be implemented.

Run iisetup.exe from the install share for the Cognos BI server.

(Right click and select Run as Administrator, this need to be done on Windows 2008 servers)

Click next for English as language during installation.

Agree to license agreement and click next.

Agree to non IBM license agreement and click next.

Change install directory to d:\program files (x86)\cognos\c8extra2 and click next.

Click yes to the dialog about installation folder "do you want to create it during installation".

Only select "Application Tier Components" in the Components Selection, and click next.

(Gateway and content manager should not be selected, on a extra BI report service install).

Change program folder name to : IBM Cognos 8 (extra2) and click next.

Click next on summary.

Wait during the install of the 244 components.

Click OK.

Click Finish.

Repeat above steps for the install of Cognos BI Samples, and Cognos BI model (framework manager). Ensure you install to same folder (c8extra2).

Install TM1 portlets (if you are running reports from TM1 data) to the d:\program files (x86)\cognos\c8extra2 folder, from the C8_TM1_Portlets_win32_8.4.102.23.tar folder.

Update the varibales_TM1.xml file in folder d:\program files (x86)\cognos\c8extra2\templates\ps\portal to include the URL to the TM1 server.

(you can copy the file from the previous working installation of Cognos BI)

Rename cogstartup.xml in folder d:\program files (x86)\cognos\c8extra2\configuration to cogstartup_org.xml.

From old working Cognos BI Cognos Configuration program export the configuration to a text file in your c:\temp folder, named the file to cogstartup.xml.

Copy that file to the d:\program files (x86)\cognos\c8extra2\configuration folder.

Then go to start menu and under All programs - IBM Cognos 8 (extra2) - select IBM Cognos Configuration (right click and open with "Run as Administrator")

Now you should get the configuration for content store pre-entered, same configuration as the old Cognos Bi installation. This can save you some time in configuration.

You must now change all the port numbers and rename the Cognos BI service.

Click on environment and change;

external dispatcher URI to have port 9500 instead of 9300

internal dispatcher URI to have port 9500 instead of 9300

dispatcher URI for external applications to have port 9500 instead of 9300

Click on logging and change local log server port number from 9362 to 9562.

Right click on IBM Cognos 8 under IBM Cognos 8 services, and select rename;

Enter new name: IBM Cognos 8 Extra2

Click on IBM Cognos 8 Extra2 and change shutdown port number from 9399 to 9599.

Click on Portal Service and change port number from 9300 to 9500 at Location of "applications.xml".

Click on local configuration in top left corner and Click on save icon.

Click on Start icon to start the service.

Stop the service to install any additional service packs that have been installed on the previous installed Cognos bi 8 services. All Cognos BI servers must use the same service packs to work best. After install of service pack, open Cognos Configuration and click save, before start of the service. This to ensure the Service pack is correct applied.

After the new Cognos 8 BI service is up, in Cognos connection go to IBM Cognos Administration - Configuration tab - Dispatchers and click on more.

Click on set properties.

Click on Settings tab.

Change value for Logging to be the same as the other Cognos BI service, e.g. Basic.

Change any other values to be as the old service, for instance check that value for "Queue time limit of the report service (seconds)" are the same as the old installed Cognos 8 server.

If there are different values on the installed instances you can get odd behavior.

To use the new Cognos BI service better, you can consider to use advance routing:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/c8bi/v8r4m0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.swg.im.cognos.ug_cra.8.4.0.doc/ug_cra_id5272SpecifyAdvancedDispatcherRouting.html

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