Hello IBM Community,

I am trying to change the Cognos configuration to use an Active Directory (as opposed to Local) Account to connect to both the Audit and Content Store database, but I am encountering some challenges. I would greatly appreciate any guidance, tips, or resources anyone could provide to help me successfully navigate this process.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Hi Mary,

To enable Windows/AD authentication, there are a few key setup steps you'll need to follow:

• Database Configuration:
  Ensure your Content and Audit databases are configured to support Windows Authentication. The account you plan to use must have Read, Write, and DDL permissions.
• Driver Installation:
  Confirm that the appropriate drivers are installed.
• For SQL Server, you'll need to place the sql_auth file in the bin64 directory, in addition to the JDBC driver in the drivers folder.
  Set up database connectivity for a Microsoft SQL Server content store - IBM Documentation
• For Oracle, you'll need to modify the bootstrap.properties file to enable Kerberos authentication.
  Creating a content store using an Oracle database with Kerberos security - IBM Documentation
• Windows Service Configuration:
  Once the drivers are in place, configure the Windows Service to run as the user account you set up in Step 1. You'll need to restart the services for the changes to take effect.

Once everything is properly configured, Windows Authentication should be available as an alternative to SQL accounts.

Important Note:
Cognos Configuration doesn't allow you to change the authentication type of existing database connections. You'll need to delete and recreate them. Be sure to capture any critical connection details before deletion.

------------------------------
Todd Schuman
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed September 17, 2025 03:19 PM
From: Mary Quan
Subject: Seeking Assistance: Configuring Cognos to Use AD (instead of Local) Account to connect to Audit and ContentStore DBs

Hello IBM Community,

I am trying to change the Cognos configuration to use an Active Directory (as opposed to Local) Account to connect to both the Audit and Content Store database, but I am encountering some challenges. I would greatly appreciate any guidance, tips, or resources anyone could provide to help me successfully navigate this process.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Hello Mary,

I am not sure about your Active Directory's password expiration policies but I wanted to share this with you. I have found that using a dedicated, non-expiring local account for the main Cognos services is the most reliable approach.
The main reason is that a local account isn't affected by Active Directory's password expiration policies. If an AD account's password expires, it can cause the entire Cognos service to stop unexpectedly, leading to an outage. By using a local account for the service itself, you can completely avoid that risk and ensure uninterrupted access for all users.

Thank you,

Abbas

------------------------------
[Abbas] [Alnamar]
[Data Management and Analytics System Administrator]
[Emporia State University]
[Kansas, USA]
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed September 17, 2025 03:19 PM
From: Mary Quan
Subject: Seeking Assistance: Configuring Cognos to Use AD (instead of Local) Account to connect to Audit and ContentStore DBs

Hello IBM Community,

I am trying to change the Cognos configuration to use an Active Directory (as opposed to Local) Account to connect to both the Audit and Content Store database, but I am encountering some challenges. I would greatly appreciate any guidance, tips, or resources anyone could provide to help me successfully navigate this process.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Mary,

Another point I'd like to add to Todd's very thorough explanation is that you need special consideration during the testing phase within Configuration. That test is performed as the logged on user unless you've run Configuration as another user since that is itself not a service that you can set to run as a different user. I recommend running configuration as the service account or you'll have to make sure you also have the same permission to the database so that the test doesn't fail.

------------------------------
Robert Hofstetter
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed September 17, 2025 03:19 PM
From: Mary Quan
Subject: Seeking Assistance: Configuring Cognos to Use AD (instead of Local) Account to connect to Audit and ContentStore DBs

Hello IBM Community,

I am trying to change the Cognos configuration to use an Active Directory (as opposed to Local) Account to connect to both the Audit and Content Store database, but I am encountering some challenges. I would greatly appreciate any guidance, tips, or resources anyone could provide to help me successfully navigate this process.

Thank you in advance for your support!