The current landscape of system architecture is changing with the appeal of cloud offerings. More and more services and solutions are being house in a cloud environment which can pose certain challenges to IT staffs around connecting to this information. DashDB is IBM’s “cloud-based data warehousing and analytics as a service offering forming a core pillar of the insight trifecta with Data Works and Watson Analytics.” IBM has made it relatively easy to connect DashDB and Cognos Analytics. Below is a step by step process for connecting the two.  The entire process can take as little as 5 minutes to complete!

Getting Started

First of all, start by logging into IBM Cognos Analytics with a user that has System Administration privileges.

In the bottom left corner, select the Manage entry.

Manage button in IBM Cognos Analytics

From the Manage list of tasks, select Data server connections to open the pane where Data server connections can be managed.

Data server connection option in IBM CA 11

We will be adding a new connection, so select the Add data server (+) symbol.

Add data server button

Once Cognos Analytics prompts you to select a type, select DashDB from the list.Select a type list

Rename the new data server connection at the top.

Get Information from DashDB Instance

To get the connection information easier, open a new tab in your browser; go to your DashDB instance and sign in.

log into DashDB

From the IBM Db2 dashboard, go to Settings > Connection info in the upper right corner.

Connecting Cognos Analytics to DashDB Dashboard

The connection string may change based on your operating system, so select the OS of your Cognos Analytics implementation.

Select an OS

From here, you will have 2 options: Note the information or Copy the connection string

Take note of the following:

  • Host name
  • Port Number
  • Database name
  • SSL True or False

DashDB connection properties

Copy the connection string:

Select the Copy JDBC String hyperlink

DashDB copy link

Provide Connection Information to Cognos

Now, you will navigate back to the Cognos Analytics browser tab.

Add the JDBC URL in the following pattern or paste in the copied URL.

Jdbc:db2://<hostname>:<port>/<databasename>

Paste in connection string

If your connection to DashDB is SSL, ensure you add the below code to the Connection properties section.

sslConnection=true;

Add SSL Connection properties

From here, there are 2 options for adding a default user and password: Add connection properties or Add Use the following signon.

Add Connection properties to JDBC string (requires that you copied/pasted the JDBC string):

Move the below part of the jdbc string to just before the sslConnection=true; Connection property

user=<username>;password=<your_password>;

Populate <username> with the standard user name for log in

Populate <your_password> with the above users password

Add user and password to Connection propertiesAdd Use the following signon

Remove everything in your JDBC string that comes after your database name

No user and password added to Connection properties

Select Save button on the left pane.

Select Close in the bottom right corner.

Change the radio button selection from Connect anonymously to Use the following signon

Select the Add Signon (+) symbol

Add Signon user

At the top of the pane, give the signon a name at the top

Provide the User ID

Provide the User ID’s password twice

Create Signon user

Select Save from the left pane.

Finally, test you new connection to ensure everything is working properly.

Test connection

I hope you found this post helpful. Please contact me at the email address below for issues or other CA 11 inquiries.

Trevor Schulte
Sr. Consultant
tschulte@ecapitaladvisors.com