Cognos Cloud Best Practice

Copyright IBM Corporation 2010 TrademarksCognos cloud best practices: Moving from a single- to amultiple-image topology

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Cognos cloud best practices: Moving from asingle- to a multiple-image topologyBest practices to help you manage multiple-image Cognoscloud performance

Stephan JouTechnical ArchitectIBM

William LeeSenior Software Consulting EngineerIBM

Thanh PhamSolution ArchitectIBM

Biraj SahaAdvisory Software DeveloperIBM

Skill Level: Intermediate

Date: 25 Aug 2010

Just like in a traditional data center, the deployment of Cognos into the cloud mayrequire multiple machines, so your cloud solution may require multiple images.Criteria such as performance, scalability and high availability typically lead to amulti-image topology. The authors demonstrate the best practices for managingthis type of multi-image topology.

View more content in this series

Cloud Computing: Introduction to Software as a Service http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/training/kp/cl-kp-cloudsaas/index.htmlJust as a traditional data center deployment of Cognos may require multiplemachines, so your cloud solution may require multiple images. Criteria such asperformance, scalability, and high availability typically lead to a multiple-imagetopology. Some best practices for these multi-image topologies are described in thisarticle.

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Cognos cloud best practices: Moving from a single- to amultiple-image topology

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This is the first in a series of best practices and installation and configuration tips forCognos in the cloud. Cognos 8 is used in this series.

Before starting with best practices for using multiple software images, performanceand scaling, and high availability issues, let's take a look at clouds, workloads, andhow Cognos 8 can leverage the power of the cloud.

Cognos 8 BI: Fasten your seatbeltsFirst, a few words about IBM Cognos 8 BI for those of you not familiar with thisproduct.

IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (BI) is a member of IBM's InformationManagement brand which handles all kinds of software besides Cognos BI,there's DB2, Cloudscape, InfoSphere, Optim, FileNet, Informix, andOmniFind doing all kinds of tasks analytics, data and database management,enterprise content and compliance management, messaging and collaboration, andportals and mashups. Cognos software and SPSS's statistical analysis softwaremake up IBM's Business Analytics division.

IBM Cognos 8 BI is made up of four major task-oriented components:

1. IBM Cognos 8 BI Reporting: Provides a set of reporting capabilities in asingle, web-based solution for all components of the reporting life cycle, forexample:

Self-service reporting that enables users to grab the info they need withoutbothering IT.

Author once, access anywhere reporting allows IT to create a single reportthat users can access on a multitude of devices; it includes support formore than 25 languages, can be issued in multiple formats, and can beaccessed by other applications and processes.

2. IBM Cognos 8 BI Analysis: Lets you interactively explore informationregardless of where the data is stored (online analytical processing anddimensionally modeled relational sources). It provides quick analysis of complexissues, lets you slide between summary-level detail and transaction-level detailto find the critical piece of data, and has built-in customizable time series so youcan construct detailed, sophisticated trend "photos" of what's happened in yourcompany over time.

3. IBM Cognos 8 BI Dashboards: Helps you monitor, measure, and manageperformance by providing an at-a-glance view of what your data is trying to tellyou; they are a key tool to help you spot a small anomaly before it becomes abig business problem. Dashboards can be personalized to produce the level ofvisualization you require and to provide output in multiple formats.

4. IBM Cognos 8 BI Scorecarding: Helps you take the analysis from the reportsyou got through the dashboards, turn it into a metric, then generate a forward-looking strategy from the analysis. It also helps to communicate this strategy to

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others by creating metrics they can measure the results of their actions against.The component is like the central command for an operation:

Each metric in a scorecard can be assigned an owner. Each scorecard can be ranked by priority within the entire strategy map. Each scorecard can have BI capabilities embedded into it for on-going

analysis in a fast-changing situation. Each scorecard can be viewed within the overall strategy map, making it

easier to determine how the scorecard fits as the overall plan evolves.

There are also various components available to extend Cognos 8 BI.

Cognos 8 BI: Into the cloudsWe think it's obvious that the power of business analytics software and the scope ofcloud computing are an exciting fit. Both concepts are about blasting past limitationsthat more traditional systems impose upon us:

Cloud computing attempts to beat both virtual and physical resource storagelimitations by facilitating the ability to share data resources and by eliminatingthe need to have all data resources hosted on the same machine. It tries toeliminate the peak CPU-usage conundrum by balancing workloads across thevarious systems inside (and sometimes outside of) the cloud in question. Ittries to solve the access-cost problem by making predefined application-testingsystems and productivity applications available on a per-need basis.

Business analytics takes the labor-intensive work of trend- and anomaly-spotting out of the hands of humans and automates it; it creates "visualizations"of the data, turning data into information so people can easily perceive thetrends and share the discoveries; it provides possible interpretation/solutioncombinations, turning the information into knowledge, allowing people toconcentrate on the most important task of all to answer the question "Wheredo I go from here?"

In this series

In this series we discuss best practices based on our own experiences including:

Managing a multi-image cloud topology of Cognos based on such criteria asperformance, scalability, and high availability. We discuss using the existingHosts file to manage multiple images, scaling out to different cluster sizes,creating snapshots using private images, and where you may want to storeneeded files.

Sizing your architecture for performance and scalability. We'll talk about howthe user community and geographic distribution affect performance and howapplication complexity can affect performance. And we'll provide a general ruleon post-deployment scalability.

Choosing the settings to enable high availability. We'll provide recommendationsfor setting up and maintaining Cognos in the cloud for high availability and



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for disaster recovery, including how to use Cognos gateways and Cognosapplication servers, Cognos Content Manager in both active and standbymodes, and the IBM DB2 High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR).

General topology, security, and data considerations. We'll talk about where yourdata, query database, and authentication source should reside for various typesof workloads and requirements.

We may address Cognos 8 BI/IBM Cloud-specific security best practices andinstallation variations in future articles if readers decide that it is necessary.

To kick off the series, we provide a simple (not exhaustive) list of considerations fordesigning and testing your topology.

Four tips to get started with the cloudAs you design and refine your topology:

1. Begin simply; satisfy your requirements, but avoid unnecessary complexity.2. Always keep the number of cloud instances in your topology as low as possible;

adding instances is easy so initially underestimate your requirements.3. #2 also applies when it comes to the number of unique cloud images. For

example, it is easier to manage a single DB2 database image that customizesitself on startup rather than to create five different query database images.

4. The process of designing and testing your topology should be iterative,something like this:

1. Design/refine your topology.2. Create/customize the required instances.3. Install/configure the instances.4. Save image snapshots.5. Test for functionality and performance.6. Repeat.

Now let's look at the main article: Best practices for managing a multi-image cloudtopology.

Best practices: Using the Hosts file to manage multipleimagesWhen dealing with multiple cloud images, you have to deal with multiple andchanging IP addresses associated with those images.

A hostname pairs a logical name to an IP address; hostnames are often stored by aDNS server to allow programs to map the hostname to an IP address or vice-versa.For example, the IP address for your standby Content Manager, version 10.3.0.1,may be mapped to the hostname cm_standby.

For complex solutions, it may be appropriate to deploy an internal DNS server tomanage these hostnames. As a bonus, though, machines also have a file known



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as the hosts file which is used by the operating system to map hostnames to IPaddresses. In many cases, it is easier to use the hosts file to manage your cluster ofinstances:

On UNIX, the hosts file is located at /etc/hosts. On Windows, the hosts file is located at \Windows\System32\Drivers\etc

\hosts.

For the purposes of this article, we assume that all your instances are in thesame cloud region and therefore the same private class IP range. If you havecloud instances in different geographical regions, you may have the additionalconsideration of dealing with multiple class IP ranges.

Example: An elastic Cognos 8 cluster with a single imageRemember, it is always simpler to manage a cloud solution that has as few imagesas possible. For example, although a Cognos 8 cloud deployment may haveinstances with different roles (gateway, dispatcher, content manager, etc.), it is ofteneasier to manage the deployment by creating a single generic image that can then becustomized.

A Cognos 8 cluster can include three logical components:

Gateway Dispatcher and content manager Database.

One approach to building this cluster is through the use of three separate cloudimages:

Gateway image (with Cognos and Apache) Dispatcher cloud image DB2 database image

Remember the rule: As few images as possible. Scaling the solution dynamically inthis scenario also presents challenges that are not present when all the componentsare loaded on a single cloud image.

You can start with a single cloud image that includes all the software components(Cognos 8, Apache, and DB2). Then define a mechanism to dynamically startinstances from this single image and configure it to dynamically grow.

The three main steps to do this are:

1. Install all the required software into a single cloud image.2. Configure the solution cluster using hostname aliases.3. Map these aliases into an actual instance and its associated IP address using

the hosts file.



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Hostname aliasesCreate a hosts file that contains the following entries:

myCognos. Alias to the current instance (similar to localhost). vm-db2. Alias for the DB2 instance. vm-gateway. Alias for the Cognos gateway instance. vm-cognos1. Alias to the first Cognos dispatcher. vm-cognos2 ... vm-cognos10. Aliases to the remaining nine potential Cognos

dispatchers.

By default, all the aliases in the hosts file are mapped to localhost, the alias for thecurrent machine instance.

From the Cognos 8 Configuration tool on the Environment tab, enter the settings fromTable 1:

Table 1. Configuration settingsGateway URL Replace localhost with vm-gateway

Dispatcher URI Enter the ten dispatchers: http://vm-cognos1:9080/p2pd/servlet/dispatcher/ext, http://vm-cognos2:9080/p2pd/servlet/dispatcher/ext, etc. for all ten dispatchers

Controller URI for gateway Replace localhost with myCognos

External dispatcher URI Replace localhost with myCognos

Internal dispatcher URI Replace localhost with myCognos

Dispatcher URI for external applications Replace localhost with myCognos

Content Manager Enter the ten dispatchers: http://vm-cognos1:9080/p2pd/servlet/dispatcher/ext, http://vm-cognos2:9080/p2pd/servlet/dispatcher/ext, etc. for all ten dispatchers

In the URIs in Table 1, replace the port 9080 (the default port used by the dispatcherwhen installed into Websphere Application Server) with the appropriate port numberin your environment. For example, 9300 if you are using Tomcat instead of theWebSphere Application Server.

These configuration settings allow you to scale out your cloud topology from a single-instance cluster to 12 instances simply by starting instances and making changes tothe hosts file.

Now let's look at cluster size.

A cluster of size 1Any instance can act as a single, standalone cluster of size 1. All the installedsoftware (Cognos 8, Apache, and DB2) runs on the single instance.

A cluster of size 2For a cluster of size 2, two instances play the following roles:



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Instance 1 plays the DB2 role. Instance 2 plays the gateway, dispatcher, and content manager role.

Assign Instance 1 to the DB2 role by making the following changes to the Instance 1hosts file:

Instance 1 hostname alias The new setting

myCognos Instance 1 IP

vm-db2 Instance 1 IP

vm-gateway Instance 2 IP

vm-cognos1 ... vm-cognos10 Instance 2 IP

Assign Instance 2 to the gateway, dispatcher, and content manager role by makingthe following changes to the Instance 2 hosts file:






Notice that changes to the hosts file should take effect immediately; under mostoperating systems (including Windows and Linux), new and updated hosts entries donot require any services to be restarted. In addition, any Cognos 8 instances that arealready running do not need to be restarted for these changes to take effect.

A cluster of size 3

Start your third instance and change the host files to assign the following roles:

Instance 1 to play the DB2 role. Instance 2 to play the gateway role. Instance 3 to play the dispatcher/content manager role.

For example, the Instance 3 host file is changed as follows:






Scaling out to clusters of sizes 4 to 12

To scale out additional instances beyond size 3, repeat the steps we've outlined. Adda new instance and attach it to the topology as an additional dispatcher by assigning



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the remaining vm-cognos hostnames to the new instance's IP. For example, addingthe fourth instance modifies instance 4's hosts file:


myCognos Instance n IP



vm-cognos1 Instance 3 IP


Essentially you are dynamically scaling out your solution by adding cloud instancesto the dispatcher list. The dispatcher list acts as a load balancer so that Cognos 8 willcontact the dispatchers in the order they appear within Cognos configuration.

The limit of 10 dispatchers (for a total of 12 instances in this topology) was arbitrarilyset for this example; it can be lowered or raised based on your requirements.

Creating snapshots using private imagesAs you develop your solution, be sure to snapshot your work by creating privateimages in the IBM Cloud. In addition to providing a backup, private images will savetime by recording all the software installation and configuration for your image.

For example, by creating a private image of your operating system with anyrepository changes, security/firewall settings, and some common tools, you cancreate a starting point for other images without having to "start from scratch" eachtime. This kind of base image snapshot is a recommended best practice.

Changes to private images create a new private image, but only the differencesbetween the first image and the second image are stored. This means that when youinstall, for example, Cognos 8 into your base image and then create a new privateimage, the result is a much smaller image. The image in this case only needs topersist the newly added Cognos 8 software.

You can not delete any intermediate private images because private images, as weexplained earlier, only store the changes between images in order to save space(called delta changes). For example, if image C is based on image B which is basedon image A, then you can not delete image B because C depends on it; the IBMCloud generates C from A by applying changes to B.

Files in the cloudFiles in the IBM Cloud are stored in two places on the file system associated withthe cloud instance or on a mounted directory.

Files can be stored on the file system associated with the cloud instance. This localfile system is analogous to a PC's hard drive. Files stored here should be considered



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temporary because each instance's file system is ephemeral. If the instance is shutdown (or suffers some sort of failure), information persisted on the file system islost. In addition, files stored within the cloud instance are not accessible to otherinstances.

Files can be stored on a mounted directory based on a file system from the IBMCloud's storage instance. This cloud file system is analogous to a NAS (networkaddressable storage) unit connected to multiple PCs. Files stored here can beconsidered permanent thanks to the backup and redundancy guarantees of the IBMSmart Business Development and Test Cloud's storage.

Files stored in this mounted directory are accessible by and sharable among allyour instances. Additional backup and recovery services of your storage can bepurchased separately from the IBM Smart Business Development and Test Cloud.

If files need to be stored outside of your cloud images or shared between cloudinstances, store the files in mounted directories from the IBM Storage Cloud. In amulti-image deployment of Cognos 8, consider storing the following in mounteddirectories rather than in your local instances:

File-based data sources Common software Common deployment scripts (allows you to update/tweak these scripts without

modifying multiple private images) Pre-built hosts files and other configuration files (to copy into your cloud

instances) Copies of important audit or log files (so they persist even if the originating

instance is shut down) Database backup files

In conclusion

We hope these best practices help you to better manage multiple-image cloudtopologies so you can effectively run Cognos in the IBM Cloud. Combining thepower of cloud computing with the ability of smart business analytics can give yourapplications a competitive edge.

Look for more information on running Cognos on the cloud at the Cognos site and ondeveloperWorks (Resources).



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ResourcesLearn

Find more information about Cognos Business Analytics. Check out other IBM Business Analytics software. The Cognos Proven Practices team delivers documentation of best practices

built from real-life customer experiences. The Redbooks draft, "IBM Smart Analytics Cloud" details a lab implementation

of a smart analytics cloud. In the developerWorks cloud developer resources, discover and share

knowledge and experience of application and services developers building theirprojects for cloud deployment.

Get products and technologies

View online demos and try Cognos 8 Business Intelligence software.

Discuss

Join a cloud computing group on My developerWorks. Read all the great cloud blogs on My developerWorks. Join the My developerWorks community, a professional network and unified set

of community tools for connecting, sharing, and collaborating.



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About the authors

Stephan Jou

Stephan Jou is a technical architect, research staff member, andSr. technical staff member at IBM's Business Analytics division, inthe Technology & Innovation group at the Office of the CTO. In hiscareer at Cognos Software, he architected and led the developmentand productization of several initial release products in that enableddata mining, neural networks, visualization, mobile, dashboarding,and semantic search. His current role at IBM focuses on translatingacademic and IBM research into product strategies for Cognos andSPSS Software. Jou holds a M.Sc. in Computational Neuroscience andBiomedical Engineering and a dual B.Sc. in Computer Science andHuman Physiology, all from the University of Toronto.

William Lee

William Lee is a senior software consulting engineer at IBM through theCognos acquisition. He is a member of the Technology and Innovationteam for the Office of the CTO in IBM's Business Analytics division; hehelps define the technical vision and direction for Cognos and SPSSsoftware products. Lee has been with Cognos and IBM since 1992 andholds a Bachelor of Computer Science and Mathematics and a Mastersof Computer Science, all from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Thanh Pham

Thanh Pham is a Solution Architect in the IBM Information ManagementAdvanced Technology. His current focus is to help customers buildapplications using IBM Mashup Center product and IBM cloudcomputing. Before this role, he was an architect for the ECM/FilenetBusiness Process Framework.

Biraj Saha

Biraj Saha is an advisory software developer at IBM Cognos,specializing in metadata and algorithm design and development for



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Cognos modeling tools such as Framework Manager, Metrics Designerand Architect, as well as SOA and SDK development for Cognos 8 BIServer. Previous to 2000, he was a senior software engineer for EDSSystemhouse, serving in lead development roles for a wide array ofcustomers on various RDBMS-related developments including ERPand RDBMS-vendor application conversions and custom Java, C++,stored procedure, and 4GL applications. Saha has a Bachelors degreein Computer Science from the University of New Brunswick in Canadaand a Masters degree in Computer Science, specializing in object-oriented database constraint theory, from the University of Waterloo,Canada.

Copyright IBM Corporation 2010(www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml)Trademarks(www.ibm.com/developerworks/ibm/trademarks/)

Table of ContentsCognos 8 BI: Fasten your seatbeltsCognos 8 BI: Into the cloudsIn this seriesFour tips to get started with the cloud

Best practices: Using the Hosts file to manage multiple imagesExample: An elastic Cognos 8 cluster with a single imageHostname aliasesA cluster of size 1A cluster of size 2A cluster of size 3Scaling out to clusters of sizes 4 to 12

Creating snapshots using private imagesFiles in the cloudIn conclusionResourcesAbout the authors

Documents

Cognos Cloud Best Practice