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How To configure External Data with a browser on Windows and IBM Cognos server on Unix?

Troubleshooting


Problem

How to configure External Data, when the browser runs on MS Windows and IBM Cognos server is installed on Unix? Which path has to be configured in the External Data wizzard?

Resolving The Problem

The file, containing the external data, must be stored on a public network drive. It is important that the share is accessible from the unix machine by precisely the same name as the path supplied from the browser (A quick test is to logon the unix machine and ls <path name>).

In the External Data wizzard a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path must be used, such as
\\servername\filename. The IBM Cognos server does automatically translate the specified UNC path in a unix path.

Steps
1. On the Windows client create a share which is accessible as \\servername\share.
2. Store the external data file (Book1.csv) there. The UNC path to the file is \\servername\share\Book1.csv.
3. The IBM Cognos server runs on Linux. Mount the Windows share from Linux via samba and define a symbolic link, so that the file is accessible from Linux as /servername/share/Book1.csv. To create a symbolic link on Unix system you can use the command

ln -s [TARGET DIRECTORY OR FILE] [SHORTNAME]

More information is available on Internet related to ln command.

4. Open IBM Cognos Connection with the browser on the Windows machine.
5. Define the path to the file in the External Data dialog using the 'browse' function -> \\servername\share\Book1.csv.
6. Save and publish the new package.

NOTE: The translation from \\servername\share\Book1.csv (Windows) to /servername/share/Book1.csv (Unix) is done by the IBM Cognos server.

[{"Product":{"code":"SSEP7J","label":"Cognos Business Intelligence"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"Report Studio","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"10.2;10.1.1;10.1","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
15 June 2018

UID

swg21620240