How to install IBM Cognos Transformer on separate Windows machine for Metrics 4.0

By default, the Cognos installation script provided by Metrics installs Cognos Busniness Intelligence and Transformer together on one machine. But sometimes customers have requirement of installing them on separate machines, for example, installing Cognos BI on one Linux system and Transformer on Windows system. This article gives a solution of how to install Cognos Transformer on one separate Windows machine for Metrics4.0.

Following the steps:

1. Install IBM Congos Transformer on Windows

1. Get the installation files of IBM Cognos Transormer 10.1.1

2. Run isetup.exe to install Cognos Transformer to machine

2. Configure IBM Cognos Transformer

• On the computer where you installed IBM Congos Transormer, start IBM Congos Configuration
• In the Explorer window, click Environment
• In the Properties window, in the Gateway URI and Dispatcher URI for external applications box, type the following value poiting to yor Cognos BI server:

http[s]://host_name:port/cognos/servlet/dispatch

• From the File menu, click Save

3. Prepare the Cognos Server Setup Package

• CognosConfig.zip can be found in the /Cognos folder within the Connections product meida
• Download the CognosConfig package to a temporary location on the Transformer server
• Create a directory to contain the expanded package; for example:

  C:\CognosSetup

• Expand the package into the new directory

4. Prepare cognos-setup.properties file

Prepare the cognos-setup.properties file by filling in a value for the following property:

cognos.transformer.install.path - set this property to the path where the Cognos Transformer is installed

Example:

cognos.transformer.install.path=c:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Cognos

Please note that the default installation directory of transformor is ...\Cognos\c10. If the default directory is used, please set the path as ...\Cognos\c10

5. Configure the Cognos Transformer with Metrics code

Prepare the following input value:

Value Name	Description	Example
SetupProp	Path to Cognos setup properties file	"C:\software\cognos\CognosConfig\cognos-setup.properties"
cognosSrvLink	Cognos BI server URL to the context root part	http://example.company.com:9081/cognos
cognosCubePath	Path to where the Cognos cube will be stored. Should be network folder if Cognos BI server is on a different server than Cognos Transformer server	"C:\cognos\cube"
metricsDBType	Metrics db type (db2, oracle, sqlserver)	sqlserver
metricsDBName	Metrics database name	METRICS
metricsDBLocalName	Transformer server node local metrics database name	METRICS1
metricsDBHost	Metrics database host name and port	mydb.company.com:1511
metricsDBUser	Metrics database user name	METRICSUSER (for Oracle and SQLServer) or LCUSER (for DB2)
metricsDBPassword	Metrics db user password	"password"
cognosAdminUserName	Cognos admin user (LDAP user)	CognosAdminUser
cognosAdminUserNS	Cognos namespace for admin user	IBMConnections
cognosAdminUserPW	Cognos admin user password (LDAP user)	"password"

Go to the Cognos server setup package folder:
for example:

For Windows: C:\CognosSetup

Make sure the Cognos BI server is started and running okay.

Run following command with input values:

bin/configTransformer.bat|sh -setupProp="" -cognosSrvLink= -cognosCubePath="" -metricsDBType= -metricsDBName= -metricsDBLocalName=  -metricsDBHost= -metricsDBUser= -metricsDBPassword="" -cognosAdminUserName= -cognosAdminUserNS= -cognosAdminUserPW="" -update=true

Example:

bin\configTransformer.bat -setupProp="C:\software\cognos\CognosConfig\cognos-setup.properties" -cognosSrvLink=http://example.company.com:9081/cognos -cognosCubePath="C:\cognos\cube" -metricsDBType=sqlserver -metricsDBName=METRICS -metricsDBLocalName=METRICS1  -metricsDBHost=mydb.company.com:1511 -metricsDBUser=METRICSUSER -metricsDBPassword="password" -cognosAdminUserName=CognosAdminUser -cognosAdminUserNS=IBMConnections -cognosAdminUserPW="password" -update=true

6. Verify the Metrics cube can be build

Go to metrics cube folder: cognos_transformer_install_location/metricsmodel

for example:

For Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Cognos\metricsmodel

Run the build-all.bat script to build cube. And then check the log to verify there is no error:

For Windows: My Documents\Transformer\Logs\MetricsTrxCube.log and My Documents\Transformer\Logs\MetricsAuditCube.log