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ICA LTS versions

  • 1.  ICA LTS versions

    Posted Mon February 03, 2025 05:14 AM

    Hello Gurus,

    Does anyone knows what is the schedule of v12 LTS on premises ?

    Thanks,

    Best regards,

    German



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    German Rodriguez
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  • 2.  RE: ICA LTS versions

    Posted Tue February 04, 2025 09:02 AM

    Hi German,

    To my knowledge, there is no LTS date announced for Cognos Analytics v12.0 release.

    Best regards,



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    Patrick Neveu
    Collaboration Betters The World (CBTW)
    IBM Champion
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: ICA LTS versions

    Posted Tue February 04, 2025 09:24 AM

    Hi,

    my knowledge re this topic is that IBM discontinued to mark versions as "LTS" releases. The term will vanish from the IBM website. The reason is that each minor or major release is/should be stable enough for production. Speaking of CA 12.0 version 12.0.4 is the last one for this release and 12.1.x will follow.



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    Robert Dostal
    Team Leader BI
    GEMÜ Gebr. Müller Apparatebau GmbH & Co. KG
    Ingelfingen
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: ICA LTS versions

    Posted Wed February 05, 2025 02:01 AM

    Thank you very much Patrick and Robert for your answers. 

    That's a very interesting point Robert and I find that this LTS label did help to product management in house.

    Now IBM could ask to update to any major release at any time if a bug is detected. So it is not a good news for us.

    Thank you again for your answer. 

    Best regards.



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    German Rodriguez
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: ICA LTS versions

    Posted Wed February 05, 2025 02:02 PM

    What's more interesting is 11.2.4 was supposed to be the last LTS.  However with FixPack 5 they included new code for generating PDFs that was included in 12.0.4, which unfortunately requires a few new MIME types added in IIS.  Since I always do a full uninstall/reinstall including running the IIS config script, we were unaffected.  But there were tickets open that without the new MIME types added to IIS, some PDFs were rendered blank.

    I was surprised IBM would include a major change like that in a FixPack that the majority of which was just supposed to be security vulnerability fixes.

    Ever since we moved from Cognos 10.2.2 to IBM Analytics 11.x, we've only applied FixPacks when when we were planning to go to a new version (like we are now with 11.2.4) and always do THOROUGH testing.  It's amazing what gets broken by a seemingly straight-forward fixpack and we'd gotten burned a few times.

    So the fact that they're not even going to attempt to release a more "stable" version does not bode well and is probably going to make people upgrade only when they absolutely have to - ie: the version no longer suppored.

    Wayne



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    Wayne Westlake
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: ICA LTS versions

    Posted Fri February 07, 2025 03:34 AM

    Thank you to all of you for these exchanges. 

    .... and I asked our IBM contact and the response is that "releases are supported min. 2 yeas beginning with the date of the individual release" That seems to be good, but the counterpart is what @Wayne Westlake commented.



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    German Rodriguez
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: ICA LTS versions

    Posted Thu February 06, 2025 07:52 AM

    Best way to find out is to ask IBM themselves and we know that those in the know see and reply to this forum.

    So IBM, would you be able to confirm the position around LTS releases please, are they remaining or is the process changing?



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    jonathan chesterton
    NHS Supply Chain
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: ICA LTS versions

    Posted Thu February 06, 2025 12:03 PM

    Hi @jonathan chesterton,

    I am not from IBM. However you can see an official written position on supported and product lifecycle in the following page:

    https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/lifecycle/search?q=cognos%20analytics

    When/if you use Software Product Compatibility Reports, you will be able to see if a release is LTSR,

    For instance, for Cognos Analytics v11.2.4.5, you will see:

    and with Cognos Analytics v12.0.4, you will have (and also not see Long Term Support Release):

    Last point, Cognos Analytics v11.1.7 is also listed as Long Term Support Release, which is probably a wrong allegation because the product is EOS (End of Support) since 2024/04.

    Best regards,



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    Patrick Neveu
    Collaboration Betters The World (CBTW)
    IBM Champion
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: ICA LTS versions

    Posted Fri February 07, 2025 03:20 AM

    The LTS term will disappear as all versions are supported until the end of life notice is issued, so just depends on where you want to be in terms of functionality and features.

    From the February AMA yesterday, 12.1 won't be available until late April or May

    Andy



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    andy ellis
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: ICA LTS versions

    Posted Fri February 07, 2025 04:17 AM

    Thank you for the replies and detail around this.

    I also dialled into the call yesterday afternoon so got the verbal confirmation as well from IBM.

    Cheers



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    Jonathan Chesterton
    NHS Supply Chain
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    Original Message