Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

Interesting. Is this on the first run, or after a user reprompts the page?

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

This occurs on the first run of the report. User runs report from Cognos Connection, answers prompts, list displays. 99% of the time all charts are shown fine. On the very odd occasion random charts in the list will show the missing icon.

Interesting. Is this on the first run, or after a user reprompts the page?

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

 The fact that it's intermittent is the most frustrating thing here. Does it happen to you, or only to the users? Have you had any luck running into the issue with Log My Session enabled? It might show what's going on. I don't remember off the top of my head which service renders the c10 graphs, graphics service maybe? Can you set debug logging on that and run the report a bunch of times until it happens?

This occurs on the first run of the report. User runs report from Cognos Connection, answers prompts, list displays. 99% of the time all charts are shown fine. On the very odd occasion random charts in the list will show the missing icon.

Interesting. Is this on the first run, or after a user reprompts the page?

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

Yes, the very intermittent is the thing that makes it un-debuggable. Even if you make a change, you still can't guarantee that you have fixed it. It happens to a variety of users, so not user specific.

Will look into the Log My Session, may get lucky and get a dodgy render.

The documentation around the graphics service is very light. I think its responsible for creating and serving. I did a test of running a report with a graph in with the graphic service off, no surprise that errors. If we use a known working graphic URL with the graphic service off, this doesn't generate an error but just returns a blank page - which almost fits in with what we are seeing.

 The fact that it's intermittent is the most frustrating thing here. Does it happen to you, or only to the users? Have you had any luck running into the issue with Log My Session enabled? It might show what's going on. I don't remember off the top of my head which service renders the c10 graphs, graphics service maybe? Can you set debug logging on that and run the report a bunch of times until it happens?

This occurs on the first run of the report. User runs report from Cognos Connection, answers prompts, list displays. 99% of the time all charts are shown fine. On the very odd occasion random charts in the list will show the missing icon.

Interesting. Is this on the first run, or after a user reprompts the page?

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

Is this a distributed install?  Are the images loaded to all servers, incl. web servers?

Yes, the very intermittent is the thing that makes it un-debuggable. Even if you make a change, you still can't guarantee that you have fixed it. It happens to a variety of users, so not user specific.

Will look into the Log My Session, may get lucky and get a dodgy render.

The documentation around the graphics service is very light. I think its responsible for creating and serving. I did a test of running a report with a graph in with the graphic service off, no surprise that errors. If we use a known working graphic URL with the graphic service off, this doesn't generate an error but just returns a blank page - which almost fits in with what we are seeing.

 The fact that it's intermittent is the most frustrating thing here. Does it happen to you, or only to the users? Have you had any luck running into the issue with Log My Session enabled? It might show what's going on. I don't remember off the top of my head which service renders the c10 graphs, graphics service maybe? Can you set debug logging on that and run the report a bunch of times until it happens?

This occurs on the first run of the report. User runs report from Cognos Connection, answers prompts, list displays. 99% of the time all charts are shown fine. On the very odd occasion random charts in the list will show the missing icon.

Interesting. Is this on the first run, or after a user reprompts the page?

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

Yes, this is a multi-server install, which makes things much more difficult to debug. Unsure if the chart images make their way to an actual web server. The workflow for a chart doesn't appear to be documented anywhere. 

A bit more digging has uncovered the following...

As I said above, you can get a chart to display directly using the URL like:

http://xxxxxxxxxx/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=12512&f=MjIyRjNCODA6TXE5ZHFDamw4R0dsd3kyODhDMnNxamhNMnl5c0cyd3FkaGhHZHdqcw__&k=AhQAAABL4kJO5mKOs1%2AJnYeYwcuPk7JwkwcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAD9SjnxhFk52C%2AtLqfgz9XJJGb9MHGyxtjxqdsu-THmO&s=AhQAAABL4kJO5mKOs1%2AJnYeYwcuPk7JwkwcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAKfKuRZEiupnCrmvFZe-XCWs7czuuJxYgiltfQJeAtb2&did=122

In a multiserver install, if I use the similar url on dispatcher 1 I get:

Unable to load balance a request with absolute affinity, most likely due to a failure to connect to the remote dispatcher. See the remote dispatcher detailed logs for more information. Check the health status of the installed system by using the dispatcher diagnostics URIs.

Which implies a chart request must have absolute affinity.

If I use the same URL on dispatcher 2 I get:  

DPR-ERR-2101 Your request was invalid. Please contact your administrator.  

Which I wasn't expecting. I was expecting to get the same error on both dispatchers.

Is this a distributed install?  Are the images loaded to all servers, incl. web servers?

Yes, the very intermittent is the thing that makes it un-debuggable. Even if you make a change, you still can't guarantee that you have fixed it. It happens to a variety of users, so not user specific.

Will look into the Log My Session, may get lucky and get a dodgy render.

The documentation around the graphics service is very light. I think its responsible for creating and serving. I did a test of running a report with a graph in with the graphic service off, no surprise that errors. If we use a known working graphic URL with the graphic service off, this doesn't generate an error but just returns a blank page - which almost fits in with what we are seeing.

 The fact that it's intermittent is the most frustrating thing here. Does it happen to you, or only to the users? Have you had any luck running into the issue with Log My Session enabled? It might show what's going on. I don't remember off the top of my head which service renders the c10 graphs, graphics service maybe? Can you set debug logging on that and run the report a bunch of times until it happens?

This occurs on the first run of the report. User runs report from Cognos Connection, answers prompts, list displays. 99% of the time all charts are shown fine. On the very odd occasion random charts in the list will show the missing icon.

Interesting. Is this on the first run, or after a user reprompts the page?

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

Can you open the report and find out where the image is and its name?  like install drive/webcontent/bi/images.  then verify if that image is on each server, including the web server.

Yes, this is a multi-server install, which makes things much more difficult to debug. Unsure if the chart images make their way to an actual web server. The workflow for a chart doesn't appear to be documented anywhere. 

A bit more digging has uncovered the following...

As I said above, you can get a chart to display directly using the URL like:

http://xxxxxxxxxx/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=12512&f=MjIyRjNCODA6TXE5ZHFDamw4R0dsd3kyODhDMnNxamhNMnl5c0cyd3FkaGhHZHdqcw__&k=AhQAAABL4kJO5mKOs1%2AJnYeYwcuPk7JwkwcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAD9SjnxhFk52C%2AtLqfgz9XJJGb9MHGyxtjxqdsu-THmO&s=AhQAAABL4kJO5mKOs1%2AJnYeYwcuPk7JwkwcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAKfKuRZEiupnCrmvFZe-XCWs7czuuJxYgiltfQJeAtb2&did=122

In a multiserver install, if I use the similar url on dispatcher 1 I get:

Unable to load balance a request with absolute affinity, most likely due to a failure to connect to the remote dispatcher. See the remote dispatcher detailed logs for more information. Check the health status of the installed system by using the dispatcher diagnostics URIs.

Which implies a chart request must have absolute affinity.

If I use the same URL on dispatcher 2 I get:  

DPR-ERR-2101 Your request was invalid. Please contact your administrator.  

Which I wasn't expecting. I was expecting to get the same error on both dispatchers.

Is this a distributed install?  Are the images loaded to all servers, incl. web servers?

Yes, the very intermittent is the thing that makes it un-debuggable. Even if you make a change, you still can't guarantee that you have fixed it. It happens to a variety of users, so not user specific.

Will look into the Log My Session, may get lucky and get a dodgy render.

The documentation around the graphics service is very light. I think its responsible for creating and serving. I did a test of running a report with a graph in with the graphic service off, no surprise that errors. If we use a known working graphic URL with the graphic service off, this doesn't generate an error but just returns a blank page - which almost fits in with what we are seeing.

 The fact that it's intermittent is the most frustrating thing here. Does it happen to you, or only to the users? Have you had any luck running into the issue with Log My Session enabled? It might show what's going on. I don't remember off the top of my head which service renders the c10 graphs, graphics service maybe? Can you set debug logging on that and run the report a bunch of times until it happens?

This occurs on the first run of the report. User runs report from Cognos Connection, answers prompts, list displays. 99% of the time all charts are shown fine. On the very odd occasion random charts in the list will show the missing icon.

Interesting. Is this on the first run, or after a user reprompts the page?

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

Can you open the report and find out where the image is and its name?  like install drive/webcontent/bi/images.  then verify if that image is on each server, including the web server.

------------------------------
Amy Rivito

Original Message:
Sent: Tue January 28, 2025 02:50 AM
From: Marc Reed
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

Yes, this is a multi-server install, which makes things much more difficult to debug. Unsure if the chart images make their way to an actual web server. The workflow for a chart doesn't appear to be documented anywhere. 

A bit more digging has uncovered the following...

As I said above, you can get a chart to display directly using the URL like:

http://xxxxxxxxxx/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=12512&f=MjIyRjNCODA6TXE5ZHFDamw4R0dsd3kyODhDMnNxamhNMnl5c0cyd3FkaGhHZHdqcw__&k=AhQAAABL4kJO5mKOs1%2AJnYeYwcuPk7JwkwcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAD9SjnxhFk52C%2AtLqfgz9XJJGb9MHGyxtjxqdsu-THmO&s=AhQAAABL4kJO5mKOs1%2AJnYeYwcuPk7JwkwcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAKfKuRZEiupnCrmvFZe-XCWs7czuuJxYgiltfQJeAtb2&did=122

In a multiserver install, if I use the similar url on dispatcher 1 I get:

Unable to load balance a request with absolute affinity, most likely due to a failure to connect to the remote dispatcher. See the remote dispatcher detailed logs for more information. Check the health status of the installed system by using the dispatcher diagnostics URIs.

Which implies a chart request must have absolute affinity.

If I use the same URL on dispatcher 2 I get:  

DPR-ERR-2101 Your request was invalid. Please contact your administrator.  

Which I wasn't expecting. I was expecting to get the same error on both dispatchers.

------------------------------
Marc Reed
Reporting Lead
UK Government

Original Message:
Sent: Mon January 27, 2025 11:25 AM
From: Amy Rivito
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

Is this a distributed install?  Are the images loaded to all servers, incl. web servers?

------------------------------
Amy Rivito

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 05:06 AM
From: Marc Reed
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

Yes, the very intermittent is the thing that makes it un-debuggable. Even if you make a change, you still can't guarantee that you have fixed it. It happens to a variety of users, so not user specific.

Will look into the Log My Session, may get lucky and get a dodgy render.

The documentation around the graphics service is very light. I think its responsible for creating and serving. I did a test of running a report with a graph in with the graphic service off, no surprise that errors. If we use a known working graphic URL with the graphic service off, this doesn't generate an error but just returns a blank page - which almost fits in with what we are seeing.

------------------------------
Marc Reed

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 04:47 AM
From: Paul Mendelson
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

 The fact that it's intermittent is the most frustrating thing here. Does it happen to you, or only to the users? Have you had any luck running into the issue with Log My Session enabled? It might show what's going on. I don't remember off the top of my head which service renders the c10 graphs, graphics service maybe? Can you set debug logging on that and run the report a bunch of times until it happens?

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 01:59 AM
From: Marc Reed
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

This occurs on the first run of the report. User runs report from Cognos Connection, answers prompts, list displays. 99% of the time all charts are shown fine. On the very odd occasion random charts in the list will show the missing icon.

------------------------------
Marc Reed

Original Message:
Sent: Wed January 22, 2025 11:34 AM
From: Paul Mendelson
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

Interesting. Is this on the first run, or after a user reprompts the page?

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare

Original Message:
Sent: Wed January 22, 2025 08:51 AM
From: Marc Reed
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

------------------------------
Marc Reed

Original Message:
Sent: Wed January 22, 2025 08:40 AM
From: Paul Mendelson
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare

Original Message:
Sent: Tue January 21, 2025 08:52 AM
From: Marc Reed
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------

Yes, the very intermittent is the thing that makes it un-debuggable. Even if you make a change, you still can't guarantee that you have fixed it. It happens to a variety of users, so not user specific.

Will look into the Log My Session, may get lucky and get a dodgy render.

The documentation around the graphics service is very light. I think its responsible for creating and serving. I did a test of running a report with a graph in with the graphic service off, no surprise that errors. If we use a known working graphic URL with the graphic service off, this doesn't generate an error but just returns a blank page - which almost fits in with what we are seeing.

------------------------------
Marc Reed

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 04:47 AM
From: Paul Mendelson
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

 The fact that it's intermittent is the most frustrating thing here. Does it happen to you, or only to the users? Have you had any luck running into the issue with Log My Session enabled? It might show what's going on. I don't remember off the top of my head which service renders the c10 graphs, graphics service maybe? Can you set debug logging on that and run the report a bunch of times until it happens?

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 01:59 AM
From: Marc Reed
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

This occurs on the first run of the report. User runs report from Cognos Connection, answers prompts, list displays. 99% of the time all charts are shown fine. On the very odd occasion random charts in the list will show the missing icon.

------------------------------
Marc Reed

Original Message:
Sent: Wed January 22, 2025 11:34 AM
From: Paul Mendelson
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

Interesting. Is this on the first run, or after a user reprompts the page?

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare

Original Message:
Sent: Wed January 22, 2025 08:51 AM
From: Marc Reed
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

This is on the first page of a list report, so the user doesn't need to navigate anywhere. Majority of time the list renders fine, its just every now and again that one of the graphs will be missing. Making it really hard to debug. If the graph image wasn't available I would expect the graph image URL to not return anything, but that has no problem returning the graph, even when the report is showing the missing object icon.

My thoughts are maybe its something to do with high/low affinity requests, or even  the graphics service not responding quick enough. But the logs/console show no errors here.

------------------------------
Marc Reed

Original Message:
Sent: Wed January 22, 2025 08:40 AM
From: Paul Mendelson
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

I've seen this happen when a report is run, then the user sits a while before navigating tabs. What's happening is that Cognos is generating the graph image and saving that into the content store. After a few minutes Cognos will flush the image from the content store, causing the broken image when the user finally clicks on the tab. I don't think I was able to find any settings that controlled the timeout, ultimately we resolved the problem by changing the design of the reports so the images would load even if the user didn't navigate to the tab.

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare

Original Message:
Sent: Tue January 21, 2025 08:52 AM
From: Marc Reed
Subject: Report sporadically show missing link/image icon instead of a chart

Hi all,

I have a list report with C10 charts for the list rows using master details. Very occasionally one of the charts will not show, instead the report shows the broken link icon. Like so:  

Re running the report will usually correct the problem so it isn't a problem with the report.

If I inspect the HTML behind the page, find the URL address for the missing chart and open a web browser on that address the missing chart image is there. So it isn't an issue with generating the chart.

The chart address is something like:

http://XXXXXXXXXXX/bi/v1/disp?b_action=rc&rsid=13084&f=NTBBM0U1ODA6TWhxQzJocTI0cTk4aENDZE12ZEdkanFxR3FoczI4ZHc5ZGo4MjRqOQ__&k=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAEAtQD24PmF61ee%2AvIAeo1khAQa3iDPoSo2SbjA8pNro&s=AhQAAADHLsvcjA2MAeSztR465CgGUdSf1AcAAABTSEEtMjU2IAAAAIzNOFYmEEzVIHXgqt-%2AGl5rF0SPk4FH5WsRaBXVR8MG&did=41

Which shows the chart fine.

Anyone have an ideas what could be causing this?

------------------------------
Marc Reed
------------------------------