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.
From the Manage list of tasks, select Data server connections to open the pane where Data server connections can be managed.
We will be adding a new connection, so select the Add data server (+) symbol.
Once Cognos Analytics prompts you to select a type, select DashDB from the 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.
From the IBM Db2 dashboard, go to Settings > Connection info in the upper right corner.
The connection string may change based on your operating system, so select the OS of your Cognos Analytics implementation.
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
Copy the connection string:
Select the Copy JDBC String hyperlink
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>
If your connection to DashDB is SSL, ensure you add the below code to the Connection properties section.
sslConnection=true;
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
Remove everything in your JDBC string that comes after your database name
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
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
Select Save from the left pane.
Finally, test you new connection to ensure everything is working properly.
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