Cognos ReportNet Architecture

Cognos ReportNet

Cognos ReportNet uses Platform Independednt technologies such as
1) XML -Extensible markup Language
2) SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol
3) WSDL - Web Services Definition Language

ReportNet Architecture:
We have 3 layers in the Cognos ReportNet: Web Server, Application Layer and Data Layer

User Interfaces:
Following are the interfaces through which we can access Cognos ReportNet.
* Cognos Connection
* Report Studio
* Query Studio
* Framework Manager

In the above four except Framework Manager (FM) all are web based whereas FM is windows based.

Cognos Connection:
1) Public Folders:
2) My Folders:
3) Directory:
4) Capabilities:
5) Schedule Management:
6) Server Administration:
7) Deployment:

Cognos Application Firewall and ReportNet Gateway - Tier 1 Web Server layer

Cognos Application Firewall:Cognos Firewall in addtion to the organization Firewall provides high levl secutiry to ReportNet on top of ReportNet Gateway.

ReportNet Gateways:
Following are some of the gateways supported by Cognos ReportNet - CGI, ISAPI, APACHE_MOD and SERVELET.

* CGI Gateway: It is the default gateway supported by all webservers. It delivers slow performance.
* ISAPI: It is used for Microsoft IIS -faster with MS IIS.
* APACHE_MOD: With Apache Web Servers
* Servelet: To use this gateway, Your web servers should support this.

When a ReportNet gateway receives a request, it encrypts passwords to ensure security; extracts information needed to submit the request to a ReportNet server; attaches environment variables.

Tier II - Applications - ReportNet Server
Runs the Reports and Queries forwarded by ReportNet Gateway.
Renders the Cognos Connection Interface.
Content Manager - which manages ReportNet Information.
Dispatcher - operates services and route requests.

Content Manager:
1) It stores all ReportNet information in Relational Database (Content Store).
2) We can install Content Manager any number of times for a ReportNet Installation, But only one is active at any time.
3) Following are the information stored by Content Manager:
Reports - Report Specs, Properties, Security Settings and outputs.
Packages - Metadata, Reports and Folders
Server Configuration - Directory information, Cognos Namespace, Information about contact, Distribution Lists, Data Sources and Printers.
Personal User Information - It consists of My Folders and My Pages.
4) It contains names, descriptions and tool tips in different languages to support Multilingual Capabilities.
5) It also Performs Content Store Management Functions such as Export and Import.

Content Access Manager: Primary Security component of ReportNet.
#) It Provides ReportNet with a consistent set of Security Capabilities and APIs - Including authentication, authorization and encryption.
#) Some security capabilities, such as user authentication, are external to ReportNet but are exposed to ReportNet by Access Manager.
#) Other capabilities, such as authorization, are internal to ReportNet, and are implemented by Access Manager.
#) For many security-related functions, Cognos Access Manager requires certificates and interacts with a Certificate Authority.
Dispatcher:
1) Starts all ReportNet Services configured in the computer, routes the requests, distributes configuration changes.
2) It is a Multi Thread application, which uses one or more thread per request. 3)
3) When a dispatcher starts, it registers itself with the content manager.
4) The Services managed by dispatcher includes the following:
Presentation Service, Batch Report and Report Services. Job and Schedule Monitoring Service and Log Service.
Presentation Service - Used in cognos Connection and Query Studio.
* Accepts the User imformation
* Stores and Retrieves information in content Manager.
* Creates Cognos Connection page in Report Viewer

Batch and Report Services - Used to run reports and retrieve Metadata from Content Manager.
It also includes many components like Metadata Service, Query Engine and PDF engine.

Job and Scheduling Service - It manages the scheduled jobs and reports, which are run y Batch service. It also send e-mail.

Log Service - manages all logs generated by the dispatcher and other services.

TIER III- DATA CONTENT STORE
The ReportNet data tier contains the content store which may be anyone of the RDBMS.

It is used by content manager to store the information that are visible and mabager through cognos Connection. Information stored in the Content Store may include - Packages, Folders, Reports, Saved outputs, Directories, Server Coonfigurations and ReportNet Deployment.
Content Manager user JDBC API to access the content store. ReportNet comes with respective JDBC drivers specific to different Databses available in the market.

Cognos does not publish the content store schema. It periodically updates the schema isolating the changes from the user through stable user interfaces and API.

Much of the information in Content Store, Such as Report Results and XML report specs are stored as Binary Large Object Fields (BLOB). All the report outputs in different formats are compresses and stored in content store. Content Manager uncompresses when it is sending to User.