Installing all the Cognos BI components on my work laptop has gotten oh so much easier than when I first started out 10 years or so ago. I remember in 1999 when Upfront and IWR were a hassle getting them to work together on my laptop let alone on the server. Now things like making sure your Hard drive is NTFS or the cognos.com is in the domain properties, is all in the past as it should be. There were times when it would take me several days to get things working. Now it takes only a few hours.
Tonight I started my install of Cognos 8.3 on my Windows XP laptop at 7PM. First thing I did was make sure I had my IIS installed.
Then I put on SQL Server 2005.
I choose the Default instance, the Local System Account and the Mixed Mode options.
When that all finishes I set up my Content Store database in SQL Server Management Studio.
Then I install the Cognos installers with the BI Server being first and by accepting all the defaults and allowing the creation of all new directories. I expand the options and make sure they are all checked off such as with the BI Server Install, the Content Database (even though I delete this later).
I didn't bother installing the Composite Server or Transformer this time but I do install the Samples.
Then I configure my Virtual Directories in IIS (cognos83, cgi-bin, images). I choose Read, Run and Browse for Cognos83 and cgi-bin. For images I choose just Read and Browse.
Then I start up Cognos Configuration and Delete the Cognos content database.
And I add my SQL Server Cognos Content Database.
Then I click on the small pencil icon and enter my SQL user name and passcode (e.g sa).
Right click to test, then click at the top Local Configuration and choose Save, then Run.
Hopefully you get a success message.
Then you can open your browser and type http://localhost/cognos83
I'm going to do another blog post in the next few days with the steps of setting up Metrics Manager samples.
If there is anyone out there reading, give me a shout!
Night Night!

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