IBM Cognos BI Server Distribution Options - How to Manage Distributed Servers Session Number Dean Browne, IBM Corp.

Transcription

1 IBM Cognos BI Server Distribution Options - How to Manage Distributed Servers Session Number 1290 Dean Browne, IBM Corp. 0

2 Disclaimer Information regarding potential future products is intended to outline our general product direction and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. Information about potential future products may not be incorporated into any contract. The development, release, and timing of any future features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion. 1

3 Agenda IBM Cognos Platform Architecture Overview IBM Cognos BI Server Distribution Options The IBM Cognos Administration Console & Metrics When to Scale Out vs. When to Scale Up Using the IBM Cognos System Management Methodology 2

4 Architecture Overview Scalable 3-Tier Architecture Web Gateway Application (SOA) Content Manager Dispatcher Application Services Data Content Store, Data Sources, Authentication Sources 3

5 PRESENTATION/WEB TIER: Zero Footprint Browsers Portal Ad Hoc Query Deep Comparative Analysis Event Lifecycle Management Reporting Dashboarding and Scorecarding Administration APPLICATION TIER Distributed Clients/Tools Controller Framework Manager Planning Contributor Planning Administration Planning Analyst Cognos BI Bus SOAP, XML Microsoft Excel Users ROUTER/FIREWALL (optional) WEB SERVER(S): Web Gateways, Web Services API Industry Standard Portals Cognos Application Firewall Windows Client/Add-ins Disconnected OLAP Client Analysis Excel Client FIREWALL/ROUTER/ENCRYPTION IBM Cognos BI DISPATCHER(S) PLANNING SERVICES DATA MOVEMENT SERVICE QUERY SERVICE JOB & SCHEDULING SERVICE PRESENTATION SERVICE CONTENT MANAGER SERVICE METRICS SERVICE EVENT SERVICE MONITORING SERVICE AUDIT SERVICE PLANNING SERVICES CONTROLLER SERVICES & COM+ DATA TIER FIREWALL/ROUTER/ENCRYPTION Cognos ETL, other in-place ETL RELATIONAL XML, 4WSDL, LDAP, JDBC SQL IBM DB2 UDB, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, other Dimensionally Aware Relational MODERN MDX COMMON METADATA OLAP Enterprise Planning Real-Time Plans PowerCubes: High Performance Dimensional Cache Industry Standard OLAP Providers: IBM, Microsoft, SAP CONTENT & METRICS STORE DB2, ORACLE, SQL Server, Sybase SECURITY PROVIDERS LDAP, Active Directory, NTLM, Netegrity, SAPBW, Cognos Namespace, Custom Providers AUDIT RDBMS, UNIX Sys Logs, NT Event Log Planning - Contributor SQL Server, Oracle DB2 Controller SQL Server, Oracle

6 IBM Cognos Gateway Web communications in IBM Cognos is typically via Gateways. Gateways typically reside on Web Servers (IIS or an implementation of Apache) Can be load balanced externally Made up of static content, documentation, JavaScript Three web server based implementations: CGI (common gateway interface) ISAPI apache_mod 5

7 Gateway Communication When a IBM Cognos gateway receives a request, it encrypts passwords to ensure security extracts information needed to submit the request to a IBM Cognos server attaches environment variables for the Web server adds a default namespace to the request to ensure that the server authenticates the user in the correct namespace passes requests to a IBM Cognos dispatcher for processing 6

8 Content Manager Manages the storage of application data security (authorization only) configuration data models metrics report specifications report output Communicates with the Content Store Database directly by JDBC Supports failover Multiple Content Manager servers can be installed within a single platform by deploying multiple JVM s (in most cases on a different computer) One Content Manager computer is active and one or more Content Manager computers are on standby. 7

9 Dispatcher Provide application tier communications Dispatcher for Gateway Peer to peer application tier server communications Request routing and load balancing Java based services Self-registering with Content Manager 8

10 Dispatcher Dispatcher is a multithreaded Java process One dispatcher is available on each computer by default except the gateway server Starts all IBM Cognos services configured and enabled on a computer The dispatcher can route requests to a local service, such as the report service, presentation service, job service, or monitoring service etc 9

11 Dispatcher Load Balancing Requests can be routed to specific dispatchers based on load-balancing needs Load Balancing is based on a weighted round-robin algorithm Routing is configurable by Administrators Processing is configurable by Administrators Gateway Dispatcher for Gateway Dispatcher Dispatcher Dispatcher Report Server Report Server Content Manager 10

12 Dispatcher Topology in IBM Cognos Administration 11

13 BIBusTKServerMain Report Server Process Spawned by Dispatcher Controlled by Administrator configuration settings Processes report requests Maintains connection pools 12

14 IBM Cognos BI Reporting Services Java BiBusTKServerMain Dispatcher Content Manager Authentication Presentation Report Service Batch Report Service Report Processing 13

15 Threads = Units of Work Dispatcher BIBusTKServerMain BIBusTKServerMain High Low Low Low Low High Low Low Low Low 14

16 Report Services & Threading 15

17 Topology Requirements Topologies for shared infrastructure can be driven by two overall requirements Pure Combined Load Assume all users are the same Deploy hardware to meet overall utilization & performance requirements Load Segregation Geography Security SLA - deploy hardware to meet the requirements of individual groups of users (business units for example) 16

18 Considerations for Load Segregation Servers should be deployed local to data sources A distributed platform should be deployed if one of the follow is true: (A server platform includes all IBM Cognos server components; i.e. - Gateways, Content Manager, Report Server) network utilization or latency is high and impacting performance reporting data sources are distributed across the network rather than being centralized server platforms must be physically separate in order to comply with business rules or security policies 17

19 Application Server Segregation For optimum throughput Distribute FPM & BI application servers Distribute Content Manager Keep batch (Planning Job Servers, Peak-hour batch report generation, Transformer) separate from Web Tier and application servers used interactively by users 18

20 System Management Methodology What is the SMM? Framework upon which to build a solid administrative practice Based on IBM Cognos functionality, it extends the current offering to provide additional ROI Evolving collection of best practices, techniques, reports, dashboards, & SDK apps Provides consistency moving forward to new releases What the SMM isn t Mandatory The end of System Management investment 19

21 Sample SMM Dashboards 20

22 Information and Analytics Communities On-line communities, User Groups, Technical Forums, Blogs, Social networks, and more Find a community that interests you at ibm.com/software/data/community Information Champions Recognizing individuals who have made the most outstanding contributions to Information Management communities ibm.com/software/data/champion 21

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