For the Cognos part of IBM Connections together with an Oracle database you need to install the 32-bit Oracle database client on your Cognos node. Cognos is only supporting the “Runtime-Client” and not the smaller “InstantClient”, so make sure you choose the right one.

Below I describe the steps how to install the client on your Cognos node:

Assumptions:

Path where to install the client: “/opt/oracleclient”
Linux user for the Oracle client (cannot be installed as root!): oraleclient

  • Create a new file “/etc/oraInst.loc” and add the following two lines:[codesyntax lang=”text”]

    [/codesyntax]
  • Due to a bug in the Oracle client installer you need to remove all lines starting with “#” (comments) from the file /etc/services. Before you should create a backup copy of that file. You can do that with the following commands:[codesyntax lang=”bash”]

    [/codesyntax]

    If you do not do that, then the installation program might hang at about 60% during “Copying files for ‘Oracle Notification Service'” (at least this was the case for me with SuSE Enterprise Linux (SLES) Version 11)

  • Now login to the Linux machine as the user “oracleclient”
  • Go to the Oracle client install directory and run the installer:cd /opt/INSTALL/Oracle/client
    ./runInstaller
  • Now follow the instructions in the Screenshots:
    ScreenClip1
    ScreenClip2
    ScreenClip3
    ScreenClip4
  • An automated script is created to fix the issues. Open a second connection to the Linux machine as user “root” and run that script before you continue with the installation:ScreenClip5

    [codesyntax lang=”bash”]

    [/codesyntax]

    Result is something similar like that:

    [codesyntax lang=”text”]

    [/codesyntax]

    After the scripts has been run click “OK” and then continue with the installation program.

    ScreenClip6
    ScreenClip7

    During the installation of the client a new window will pop up:

    ScreenClip8

    You need again to open a second command line window as user “root” and run the script mentioned in that window:

    [codesyntax lang=”bash”]

    [/codesyntax]

    The script is asking for the full pathname of the local bin directory. Just type ENTER to use the default value of “/usr/local/bin”.

    The output is something similar like that:

    [codesyntax lang=”text”]

    [/codesyntax]

  • Now click OK and continue with the installation program.
    ScreenClip9
  • Add the following lines to “/home/oracleclient/.profile” and also to the file “/root/.profile” (make sure to match you path name for the IBM Cognos installation ,the Oracle database client installation and the Linux user name you used for installation!):[codesyntax lang=”bash”]

    [/codesyntax]

  • Create the file “/opt/oracleclient/product/11.2.0/client_1/network/admin/tnsnames.ora” and add the following lines:
    Caution: Use the correct HOST and PORT for your environment!!!!
    “conn50_db” is the alias name for your database connection. If you use a different name you need to use that name also in the SQLPLUS command below!
    [codesyntax lang=”text”]

    [/codesyntax]

  • Log off of all sessions and login as “root” again (to activate the .profile changes)
  • Check if the installation has been successful by running the following command:[codesyntax lang=”bash”]

    [/codesyntax]

    The output should look like that:

    [codesyntax lang=”text”]

    [/codesyntax]

  • From the SQL prompt run the following command to check if you arealeto access the METRICS tables:[codesyntax lang=”sql”]

    [/codesyntax]

    You should see all tables with owner name “METRICS” be listed:

    [codesyntax lang=”text”]


    [/codesyntax]
  • Now you have finished the installation of the Oracle database client.
Installing 32-bit Oracle database client for IBM Connections (Cognos)
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3 thoughts on “Installing 32-bit Oracle database client for IBM Connections (Cognos)

  • 13.01.2015 at 15:11
    Permalink

    Thanks Michael! Everything works as described here, except “sqlplus metricsuser/@” this must be “sqlplus metricsuser/@conn50_db” or different SID like set within tnsnames.ora.

    Reply
  • 13.01.2015 at 15:12
    Permalink

    Ups sorry command must be sqlplus metricsuser/password@SID or metricsuser/password@conn50_db

    Reply
  • 13.01.2015 at 15:33
    Permalink

    Thanks a lot. It was correct before WordPress deleted everything after a “lower than” character 🙁 Just corrected it and now it should be ok again.

    Reply

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