Windows vs. Unix for Cognos Components

[footyref]

We have been tasked to look at moving from a Windows environment to Unix (Solaris) for all of our Cognos components. We have Upfront, IWR, PPES (all are 7.1 MR1) and are just now starting to deploy ReportNet 1.1.

I would like to know from anyone experienced in both, who is willing to share, what the advantages/disadvatages to doing this will be so I can put together appropriate documentation either supporting or opposing it.

Some of the things I have come up with are:

- Tremendous learning curve on Unix for all of us in our unit to administer Cognos as nearly everything is command line.

- Scripting that we have done would have to be changed as CognosScript will not work and everyone will have to learn a scripting tool like Perl.

- Configuration changes are done via command line and are very tedious to make.

- Training classes do not cover anything related to administering Cognos through Unix.

- Scheduling is easily done through Windows but do not know how to do it in Unix.

- Resources can easily be monitored through Windows Task Manager, however, it is unknown how to do the same thing through Unix.

- Having difficulty getting database clients installed on Unix server.

- Promotion of work would be difficult as files would have to be FTPed locally, modified and then FTPed into Testing and the same with Production whereas we can make the necessary changes directly on the Windows servers.


Scott Gaffney
Information Technology Consultant

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Management Information Systems
Bureau of Strategic Systems Development
Information Delivery Section
Client Delivery Unit

4200 East 5th Avenue
L403
Columbus, OH 43219
(614) 387-8718

 

[DoubleD]

Cognos (prior to ReportNet) was written for the Windows platform. We spent much time attempting to run everything on Unix and found that IWR did not perform as well in a Unix environment (Tried in Solaris & AIX).
It sounds like your team also doesn't have a lot of Unix experience. This sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Anything you can script or schedule in Windows, you can script or schedule in Unix.
Why does your company want to switch to Unix? I know it's a very stable platform, and usually performs very well. But if you've got a solid Windows server environment I don't see any major advantages to switching to Unix.

BTW, We are currently running Cognos 7.1 on AIX, except for IWR which we are still running from a Windows NT server.
We use the following Cognos web apps: Upfront, Powerplay, IWR and Cognos Query.

Pain is stress leaving the body.

DoubleD

 

[footyref]

Thanks for the info, DoubleD. I keep hearing "stable" and "performs very well", but yet I cannot put my finger on what exactly about what folks are talking when they say this. Are they talking Unix or Cognos running on Unix? I think of an example in our environment where we have a quad processor Windows 2000 Serevr which is running IWR. If four people are in cubes and drill through to detail reports, once IWR is done querying the database and the results are returned, impserver grabs 25% of the processing power, or a whole processor, and I cannot imagine that Unix would be any different. You say that you are still running IWR on Windows, so I was wondering if that might have been why. Also, I know that when publishing in IWR, one cannot use the Unix path for the Source files, so they must be stored either on a Windows machine or a Novell file server.

If you do not wish to type a reply, although this information might be valuable to others in the forum, please feel free to contact me at 614-387-8718 to discuss any issues you have with Unix. I have had others in another Cognos forum contact me with some good information, so it is all immensely appreciated and very valuable.

Scott Gaffney
Information Technology Consultant

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Management Information Systems
Bureau of Strategic Systems Development
Information Delivery Section
Client Delivery Unit

4200 East 5th Avenue
L403
Columbus, OH 43219
(614) 387-8718

 

[DoubleD]

We kept IWR on NT due to performance problems. We were not able to get the response times on Solaris or AIX that we got on NT.
From a stability standpoint, I think most hardcore techies will agree that Unix is a more stable environment then Windows.
Unix generally performs as well as Windows, from an OS standpoint. All of the Cognos products that we've used, other than IWR, performed as well or better on Unix. When I say performed, I mean response times and resource allocation.

Pain is stress leaving the body.

DoubleD

 

[footyref]

Oh, well, that doesn't help me speak against it. I guess I need to find other reasons not to move to Unix. Thanks for the info, and if you can help me think of reason not to do it, please share them.

Scott Gaffney
Information Technology Consultant

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Management Information Systems
Bureau of Strategic Systems Development
Information Delivery Section
Client Delivery Unit

4200 East 5th Avenue
L403
Columbus, OH 43219
(614) 387-8718

 

[cindyw]

We have all our Series 7 on W2k, and our CRN on AIX. I'm a point & click gal, so was not thrilled I'd be administering on a Unix platform. I am not having any negative feelings whatsoever...we have Unix Admins for the hard-core unix stuff, but file mgmt is easy. As for command line, forget that! You can easily use a Windows emulator and do all the configuration in a GUI enviornment. I really like how in Unix, you set the environment for YOUR APP. In Windows, you seem much more stuck with a universal environment, and you have to tweak your product to work in that environment.