Cognos Analytics

Cognos access is driven by your data needs and development role.

Report consumers can request access to existing reports via their local report developer or via bah.ucsd.edu.

Report developers can get started by:

• Requesting Report Developer access to an Activity Hub via Data Access, if applicable.
• Join the Active Directory (AD) security group for your team's folder for Cognos DEV. 
  • Your local IT team can add you to your teams' AD group.  BIA does not have that abilitiy.
  • If your team does not have a team folder, email busintel@ucsd.edu with your folder name and Active directory security groups to request your team folder be created.  See Data Access > New Folders for more information.
  • If your team doesn't remember what AD group is mapped to their team folder, email busintel@ucsd.edu and we'll look it up.

UC San Diego has purchased an enterprise license for Cognos. No further action is needed to obtain a license for your project. 

Dedicated Cognos Analytics Training Environment 

Find sample reports and dashboards from the standard IBM Go Sales Go Retail reports training. You can modify the existing reports or build your own. See Cognos Analytics training resources.

Note: we will be refreshing this content periodically with IBM delivered content, so anything that you create may go away.  

Cognos Dev Environment

Get started now developing content in our Cognos Analytics DEV environment. Cognos DEV is where all report development should occur. Report developers can select data from Hana Production to see database production data or from Hana QA to test Activity Hub enhancements during user acceptance testing.

Cognos Analytics QA Environment 

From the QA environment, you will be able run all of your reports and connect directly to your production databases. This environment is where all testing, including consumer/user acceptance testing, should occur prior to migration to production. 

Cognos Analytics Production Environment 

Once all of your production reports and content have been migrated, you will use the production environment to run your reports. Reports views can be created and scheduled in Cognos Production to notify users of refreshed data.  Cognos Production always provides data from production databases and is supported 24/7.

ITS-BIA recommends sharing links to reports via portals like the Business Analytics Hub for ease of use.

Note: ITS-BIA follows industry standards of code deployment by requiring report development only occur in the Cognos Development environment.

Environments

Report Developers build their reports in the Cognos Analytics Development (DEV) environment where they can select from various data connections.

Reports migrated Cognos QA are made available to customers for user acceptance testing (UAT).  Report developers can migrate reports from Cognos DEV to Cognos QA in order to support frequent report modifications during UAT periods.

Reports ready for consumer use are migrated to Cognos Production.  Cognos Production is set up for report running/interaction only.  ITS-BIA recommends sharing links to Cognos Production reports via portals like the Business Analytics Hub for ease of use.

Folder Organization

Team folders should be organized by audience and report development state. Folders are secured by one or more Active Directory groups. End users should access the reports via links to the report as navigating the Cognos portal is cumbersome. 

Any Cognos development that you do not want to share should be saved to your "My Content” area.  This folder is completely private. 

Folder Organization Example: 

• Cognos DEV 
  • My Content 
  • Business User Development > BFS-DEV (reports are in progress, BFS team can access) 
  • BFS-XYZ (reports are in testing or completed, BFS team can access) 
    • Report A
      
    • Report B  
    • Report C  
  • BFS-IPPS (reports are in testing or completed, BFS team can access) 
    • IPPS Data Winners 
    • IPPS Executive Dashboard 
• Cognos QA 
  • BFS-XYZ (reports are in testing, BFS and XYZ teams can access) 
    • Report A (completed report) 
    • Report B (completed report) 
    • Report C (report in UAT) 
  • BFS-IPPS (reports are in testing or completed, BFS and IPPS teams can access) 
    • IPPS Data Winners 
    • IPPS Executive Dashboard 
• Cognos Prod
  
  • BFS-BIA (reports are completed, BFS and XYZ teams can access) 
    • Report A
      
    • Report B 
      
  • BFS-IPPS (reports are completed, BFS and IPPS teams can access) 
    • IPPS Data Winners 
    • IPPS Executive Dashboard 

Moving Reports from Dev to QA

When an interactive report is ready for user acceptance testing (UAT) it can be moved to Cognos QA where end consumers can view the report and provide the developer with feedback. For the first migration only, Developers should email busintel@ucsd.edu to request migration of a folder from Cognos DEV to Cognos QA. After the first migration, the report developer can migrate the folder ad hoc. 

Moving Reports from QA to Production

To migrate reports from Cognos DEV to Cognos Production the developer will email busintel@ucsd.edu to request the folder or group of folders be migrated. 

Check to see if your browser is compatible with the BI tools used at UC San Diego.

Compatibility with most frequently used browsers

Notes:

(1) Full list of supported browsers for on-premise Cognos Analytics 11.x.

(2) Not Supported on Windows Mobile. Not supported with Touch Enable devices (i.e. Microsoft Surface and Touch Enabled Laptops).  For Windows 10: Internet Explorer 11.0.10240.17443 and higher.

(3) IBM actively supports only the Extended Support Version of Firefox ESR 45. Customers using the non-ESR versions (46, 47...) should not experience issues unless Mozilla removes certain functionality or tools. Contact IBM support if you experience issues. If you experience issues uninstall the non-supported browser version, install the supported ESR version and turn off automatic updates.

(4) Google Chrome Version 85.0.4183.x known issues: DASHBOARD FREEZES AND SHOWS STRANGE ICONS & REPORT AUTHORING DOES NOT SHOW PROMPTS. Issue resolved with released build 86.0.4240.111

Cognos Analytics provides self-service business intelligence training that enable users to efficiently navigate and access data to create and run customized reports and dashboards. The engaging, intent-driven interface features content-sensitive menus that guide users through the development process.

Getting Started With Cognos

The Cognos Workshop guide Turning Data into Insight (PDF), provided by IBM, includes step-by-step instructions to get you started, reference data and sample files available to you in our Cognos Analytics Training environment.

Contact busintel@ucsd.edu to request access to UC San Diego data in Cognos.

UCSD Specific Training

• How to add a single select prompt
• How to copy and paste a non-drill through report
• How to limit report run types
• How to replace fields
• How to set filters that report consumers can change
• How to set filters that report consumers cannot change
• How to work with images

Video Training

• Introduction to Cognos Analytics - Top 3 User Enhancements with Cognos Analytics, Ironside (58 minutes)
• Cognos Analytics for quick and easy dashboard creation (35:40 minutes)
• Presenting IBM Cognos Analytics (35 minutes)

Tools & Resources

• Adobe Color CC - Use this online resource to help generate consistent colors in your reports
• Cognos Analytics Community - Online support group for Cognos Analytics
• COGNOiSe - The largest independent IBM Cognos collaboration community
• CognosSkills - Blog for Cognos topics

Additional Information

• IBM Cognos Analytics V11 is designed for user self-service and intelligence at the scale for business
• Help documentation provided by IBM

IBM releases enhancements for Cognos several times a year. UC San Diego upgrades our environments at least once a year.

The strategy for all upgrades is:

1. ITS-BIA will review the upgrade in our sandbox prior to planning an upgrade of Cognos DEV.
2. Perform upgrades of the Cognos DEV environment on the weekend before the 3rd week of a month as this is generally the quietest period of the month for most teams.
3. Allow one week for review of the upgrade in the Cognos DEV environment.
   1. At the end of the week a GO/ROLLBACK determination will be made.
      1. GO – the upgrade is applied to Cognos QA over the weekend following the Cognos DEV upgrade. (Upgrade is NOT applied to PROD.)
      2. ROLLBACK – the upgrade is rolled back from Cognos DEV
   2. During the one week period where Cognos DEV has been upgraded and Cognos QA / PROD has not, all teams will be in a “code freeze” in that no migrations out of Cognos DEV can occur.
4. Allow two weeks for review of the upgrade in the Cognos QA environment.
   1. At the end of the week a GO/ROLLBACK determination will be made.
      1. GO – the upgrade is applied to Cognos PROD over the weekend following the Cognos QA upgrade.
      2. ROLLBACK – the upgrade is rolled back from Cognos DEV and Cognos QA.
   2. During the one week period where Cognos DEV and Cognos QA have been upgraded and Cognos PROD has not, all teams will be in a “code freeze” in that no migrations to Cognos PROD can occur. Migrations from Cognos DEV to Cognos QA may be conducted.
5. Upgrade the Cognos PROD environment.
   1. With a GO determination from both Cognos QA and Cognos DEV environments based directly on your feedback.

Q: How do I resolve an "Unable to Load Requested View" error?

A: Cognos Unable to Load Requested View Error

Q: How do I resolve an "Unable to Load Requested View, Displaying Home View Instead" error?

A: Cognos Unable to Load Requested View. Displaying Home View Instead.

Q: How do I migrate my folder of reports from Cognos DEV to Cognos Prod?

A: UCSD follows change management best practices.  Email busintel@ucsd.edu with the name of your folder and the ITS-BIA team will complete the migration.

Q: How do I migrate my folder of reports from Cognos DEV to Cognos QA?

A: ITS-BIA will create a migration object for your team to use when you want to migrate your folder from Cognos DEV to Cognos QA.  Email busintel@ucsd.edu to request a migration object creation.