IWR 7 Remote Publishing Problem 1

[puppyquestion1]

SCENARIO:

A) IWR 7.1 running on an NT server. All report sources and sets on the server.
B) IWR 7.1 Report Administrator running remotely on an NT workstation.
C) Attempt to publish from report sources on A to report setarea on A using Report Administrator on B.
D) We get the error "The folder {\\servername\sharename\foldername} does not exist. Would you like to create a new folder?"

PROBLEM:

The folder DOES exists. The person (their NT account) doing the publishing remotely has FULL CONTROL share and directory permissions to both the server's report source and set shares/directories.

Answering YES does not create the folder.

So, essentially, we cannot publishing remotely using the Report's Admin tool in 7.1. Anybody else seen this problem? Cognos support is at a loss.

 

[puppyquestion1]

Hey all, REALLY wondering if anyone has any insights to this. If you've got some suggestions, I'm listening!

 

[griffindm]

If I were you I would have it create a totally new directory name and then check on the webserver to see where it made it. This would ensure that you have made no typos in your path and that there are no permissions issues. Then report back with your results.

Dave Griffin


The Decision Support Group
Reporting Consulting with Cognos BI Tools
"Magic with Data"
Want good answers? Read FAQ20-2863 first!

http://www.decisionsupportgroup.com

 

[puppyquestion1]

Thanks Dave. Basically we tried that. ALL security permissions have been essentially removed from the server directory, file, and share permissions (ie, EVERYONE, SYSTEM, INTERACTIVE, etc. accounts) have FULL CONTROL permissions to the shares, directories and files.

If we published on the server locally, no problem. But as soon as we run the IWR Report Administration on a workstation connecting to the server in an attempt to publish remotely, no dice.

We've tried publishing to the server both using a UNC path \\servername\ReportSets and as a mapped drive. Again, no dice.

Any other ideas? Thanks again!

 

[griffindm]

Still a little confused about what the results were of the test I proposed. Did it create a new directory on the server, or did it return an error?

Dave Griffin


The Decision Support Group
Reporting Consulting with Cognos BI Tools
"Magic with Data"
Want good answers? Read FAQ20-2863 first!

http://www.decisionsupportgroup.com

 

[gasman009]

I think I ran into this problem a while back with 7.0 MR1. It was on a mixed environment: Server on Unix, Report Administrator on Win2K. Now if I can only remember how I got it to work... I know I've gotten it to work on an all windows environment at another client site.

My feeling is that it is still security related. If I have some time before I rebuild my development Servers, I can try it here and let you know.

As a workaround, have you considered using a remote control app, like PCanywhere, Terminal Services, or NetMeeting?

 

[puppyquestion1]

Dave, I tried publishing from a remote workstation to a new directory on the server and get the same message:

"{reportset} could not be published.
Could not create a folder under UNC path.
Ensure the path is correct and try again."

All share, directory, and file permissions on the server are WIDE OPEN. EVERYONE and all NT system accounts have FULL CONTROL access to everything.

As for PCAnywhere, et al, they're not allowed on our network and pretty much not needed since we're publishing on the same NT-based LAN. The workstations running IWR Report Administration are in our development division on the fifth floor and the server running IWR is in our secured server area in the basement (hence the problem and the need for remote publishing - access to the secure server room).

At this point, I'll try anything somebody throws at me. This shouldn't be happening.

Thanks all.

 

[griffindm]

Forgive me if some of my suggestions seem basic. Sometimes it's the simple things that get missed.

Have you mapped a network drive to the remote computer and confirmed that the user has the ability to create a folder under Windows Explorer, and to write to the existing target folder?

Dave Griffin


The Decision Support Group
Reporting Consulting with Cognos BI Tools
"Magic with Data"
Want good answers? Read FAQ20-2863 first!

http://www.decisionsupportgroup.com

 

[puppyquestion1]

Thanks Dave for the response. We've tried using both UNC and mapped drives and have hit "the basics", ie, file and share permissions are wide open and we've read, wrote and deleted other files successfully using a variety of other applications.

It's just the Report Administrator (7.1 or 7 version 2 - choose your moniker) that can't write.

Frustrating....

 

[CanadianTechie]

Under the report set location, have you tried specifying the logical drive letter "as if you were running the administration tool locally"? One thing which is "confusing" is that when defining a report set using the Report Administration client from a remote machine, the "Browse" buttons pull up the file level directory view of the LOCAL machine...in fact what appears to occur in this instance is:

The Source Directory indicated (ie. where you are publishing from) is actually going to look to the current machine you are executing the admin tool.

The IWR Server Report Set Location however, (though the browse dialog shows you YOUR machine where you are executing the admin tool from remotely) as the "publish to" location will resolve on the server itself...so in my test, I put in C:\ as the IWR Server Report Set Location when I was running the admin tool on my desktop, and after publishing, on the IWR server itself, the test report set directory was created in C:\....clear as mud?

Let me know if this works for you..though I imagine you would have tried this already...?

Good Luck,



Pedro Cardoso
A.K.A CanadianTechie

 

[puppyquestion1]

Thanks all for the help on this issue.

Cognos Support nailed the problem for us. The IWR service was running under the NT account "SYSTEM" and it needed to be running as a named account with administrative privileges on the server, ie, create an account named something like "CognosService" and give it admin privileges, then run the IWR service startup using that account in the NT services area.

Once we started the IWR service under the new account, we could publish on a remote workstation using a UNC code.

Again, thanks all for the help.