Part 3: Install IBM Cognos Analytics on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

In the first part of this blog you downloaded the required files, in part 2 you installed DB2 on your machine, in this last part you will perform the installation of IBM Cognos Analytics and setup your DB2 content store.

1. Install CA Requirements and Prerequisites

While for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS many additional libraries are listed in the compatibility report, this is not the case for 24.04 LTS.

Please take also notice of the «Known issues in 12.0.x» page. Additionally, within the chapter «Installing and Configuring Cognos Analytics» you might find useful information for your specific case.

Please note, that in this chapter we assume that you installed OpenVNC on your server using a graphical environment like xfce that can be started and stopped on demand, optionally using a systemd unit file. You will also need a VNC client on your workstation, e.g. TigerVNC. This involves in short the following steps:

• install and configure OpenVNC and xfce: You will find many resources on the web describing this task;

• if your server should not be starting a graphical environment, set the default target to multi-user.

You might find those resources as useful:

https://gist.github.com/mixalbl4-127/4f5ab6744be6f98555f3e29f1cfc7050

https://askubuntu.com/questions/788323/how-do-i-change-the-runlevel-on-systemd

To access your remote host from your local workstation, those steps might be involved:

On your remote host start openvnc / xfce in the manner you installed it, e.g. if you have configured a systemd unit file:

$ systemctl start vncserver@1

On your local workstation open a ssh tunnel to your remote hosts vnc server with ssh -L ...

Now you can start your vnc viewer, connecting to localhost:xxxx where xxxx is the local port number you assigned with the above ssh -L command. Credentials are as configured on your remote host during the OpenVNC installation.

You should be logged in now in your remote xfce installation. There you open a terminal. Maybe you find that all your nice and usual terminal settings and aliases are not present, this you can change by calling:

$ bash -l

Please note that you will stay within the graphical environment during all aspects of CA installation. Please also note, that you will be logged in as root, except in the cases, where you have to start or stop DB2. For such work you will have to su to db2inst1 user.

2. Install Cognos

For an installation you must have downloaded the installer, named ca_instl_lnx86_VERSION.bin and the CA server archive, named ca_srv_lnx86_VERSION.zip. Make the installer bin file executable with chmod.

Start the installation in the terminal by calling the installer file and follow the instructions:

$ ./ca_instl_lnx86_VERSION.bin

A graphical application will pop up, giving you some options and easy-to-answer questions. When finished, CA is installed.

3. Copy DB2 Drivers

For CA to establish a connection to DB2 for use as content store, the DB2 drivers and license must be copied into the CA environment:

$ cp /home/db2inst1/sqllib/java/db2jcc4.jar /<ca install path>/drivers/

$ cp /home/db2inst1/sqllib/java/db2jcc_license_cu.jar /<ca install path>/drivers/

You can check the drivers:

$ /<ca install path>/ibm-jre/jre/bin/java -cp /<ca install path>/drivers/db2jcc4.jar com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Jcc -version

4. Create the DB2 Content Store

Change to db2inst1 user and start DB2:

$ sudo su -l db2inst1

$ cd ~/sqllib/adm

$ ./db2start

Determine port on which DB2 is listening, call this command and get the TCP/IP Service name, that is in my case «db2c_db2inst1». Then lookup the service name in /etc/services. Note the port number, you will use it in CA configuration.

$ db2 get dbm cfg | grep SVCE

$ grep db2c_db2inst1 /etc/services

5. Configure CA

Here we get into the large field of configuration options. This blog article will only describe how to configure DB2.

First, get back to root user by typing exit, if you are still as db2inst1 user. Then change to the relevant directory and run the CA configuration utility:

$ exit

$ cd /<ca install path>/bin64/

$ ./cogconfig.sh

The graphical configuration application opens. Go to «Content Store Settings» and fill in appropriate values. Of course, use a different IP or host name for the database server entry, if not installed on the same machine:

Right click on the «Content Store» entry in the navigation tree and select «Generate DDL». Click on «Details» to see the path/file where the ddl file was created:

/<ca install path>/configuration/schemas/content/db2/createDb.sql

Run ddl file against DB2, maybe opening a second terminal:

$ sudo su -l db2inst1

$ cd ~/sqllib

$ db2 -tvf /<ca install path>/configuration/schemas/content/db2/createDb.sql

The command will produce some output and finish with stating «DB20000I The SQL command completed successfully.».

Now you can right click in the CA config tools navigation tree on «Content Store > Test», which should run successfully.

6. Notes on using LDAP

Error on startup

If you should be configuring LDAP as an authentication provider for Cognos you could get on CA startup the error «CAM-AAA-0022 The provider /<install dir>/bin64/libCAM_AAA_AuthLDAP.so could not load.»

If this happens, referring to: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/876920, the solution is to link the missing library:

$ cd /<ca install path>/bin64/

$ ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/nss/libsoftokn3.so .

I have to note that in my 12.x installations this was not necessary, and in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS the referred library did not exist at this place.

Bind user DN

Each time I install cognos, I make the same mistake. The Bind user DN is of course a DN like cn=xxx, ... and not a user name only.

Testing LDAP connection

You can test by by selecting «Test» from context menu and enter the user name and password from a user you expect to be able to login to Cognos - here you use «real» user names/passwords and not DNs.

7. Note on Anonymous Access

You may be tempted to disable «Anonymous Access» right away. Instead you might want to wait, until you have setup an admin account in the Cognos UI.

Conclusions

This was part 3/3 of the installation manual for installing IBM Cognos Analytics 12.0.4 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, using DB2 11.5.9 as content store. I hope, this series of blog posts helps other CA responsibles to have a good installation experience in a field that is not sooo well documented and where information is spread over many pages in the internet. If you are a user like I, more feeling home in the field of business application than in system management, you might be happy with some of the hints found in this manual.