distributing cognos 6 reports for oracle db 1

[raygg]

The software product we sell includes an Oracle 817 db with more than 50 impromptu 6 reports and and imp catalog. A customer with a novell network recently installed this and found that the installation of each canned report took over an hour to find our supplied catalog which we developed and was located on a server with the oracle db on the same floor of the building connected via a novell network. This happened moments after the net8 oracle connection was done in a matter of a couple of minutes. The customer has offices on three continents connected by the network and we wondered whether the install routine was actually searching the multi-continent network to find the catalog. When we developed the impromptu catalog each report retains the name of our server in the report when we ship it - so when the customer tries to install it our server name 'develop1' comes up. Is there some way that as each report is developed the name of the server where the catalog is stored can be held as a variable which can then be loaded thru some script routine into each report, so the search for the catalog does not take forever. That way every report individually does not have to find the catalog - only the variable would have to be changed. I am told by my coworkers this delay in finding the catalog is something they have never seen happen with a customer site before. This is one of the first customers to install the imp 6 catalog, and the first with a very large network. I am the oracle dba and impromptu illiterate so could you phrase the response in a way I can understand it?

 

[n30er]

I would use drive letters, not UNC paths, that way you can tell the customer to create appropriate shares and map them accordingly. That way it doesn't matter what the servername is, only the drive letter it is trying to connect to.

 

[raygg]

I am not sure what UNC means - but what I think you mean is before doing the connect for any of the reports to the catalog - you are suggesting that the catalog location should be mapped to a drive? Then the connect should be made to that drive?

 

[n30er]

Yes. UNC is the Universal Naming Convention used to designate the servername in the connect string instead of a drive letter. Normally your reports are looking for \\<servername>\<share>\catalogx.cat instead if you map the drive first and then connect the reports to that they will look for z:\catalogx.cat and you can customize what z is when mapping the drive.

 

[raygg]

This is very helpful - I might get back to this in a week or two with a couple of more questions - thank you.

One further question - is the method you suggest more or less the accepted convention for distributing canned impromptu reports to software customers?

 

[n30er]

I'm not sure, never had to do that before. Regardless, I think it is the easiest/cleanest way to do it.

 

[griffindm]

Yes, The method that n30er mentions is the accepted way to distribute catalog / report bindings.

 

[raygg]

Thank you - is there a drive that is most often used for this by convention , such that the &quot;W&quot; drive, for instance, is generally known to be mapped as a convention for Impromptu reports?

 

[Guest_imported]

Take a look at Novell's KnowledgeBase. TID 10052031 and TID 10023308. You can also change the Name Resolution Timeout to 1. Under the Novell Client Configuration - Protocols -you can also uncheck SAP - it does speed the process up tremendously - BUT - I would recommend that it only be used to point to the proper Catalogue location. Check it again when you are done so you have access to all of your services.

 

[raygg]

to evat:

what do you mean by <<You can also change the Name Resolution Timeout to 1. >> - is this an IMPROMPTU parameter or a MS network parameter?

 

[Guest_imported]

These are Novell Netware client Parameters. If your customer has a pure MS network - this does not apply. The problem you describe, however, is a known problem in Novell Netware environments

 

[raygg]

This is very helpful - just so that I clearly understand you - when you say <<The problem you describe, however, is a known problem in Novell Netware environments>> - you are referring to :
1- distributing impromptu reports with a UNC reference on a Novell network and the Name Resolution Timeout has not been modified to 1 - thus causing a very long time to resolve the impromptu report
or
2- distributing anything on a Novell Network and the UNC reference takes a very long time because the Name Resolution Timeout is not set to 1
or
3- distributing anything on a Novell Network and the UNC reference takes a very long time because the Name Resolution Timeout is not set to 1 -and- the SAP is not unchecked.

I apologize for seeming to be picky - but I want to be able to clearly specify to a customer the correct description of this issue and its resolution - you are helping a lot... and I know nothing about Novell. We do not use it here.

The only SAP I am acquainted with is the SAP software vendor - and only by reputation - I presume SAP means something else?

Ray

 

[Guest_imported]

If you go to Novell's website and do a search in their knowledgebase for the two TIDs I referenced above, things should become clearer. Basically the problem has to do with the newer releases of the Netware Client. Changing the Name Res. Timeout is a fix. For more information on SAP, go to the Novell site. It is the protocol Netware uses to advertise services.