Set up a connection to a datasource

Access and share content by setting up your connections to a datasource.

A connection to an IBM® Cognos® Analytics system provides access to relational, OLAP, and dimensionally modeled relational (DMR) packages. If you have a connection to an IBM Cognos Analytics system, you can also open a report from IBM Cognos Connection and publish a Microsoft Office document to IBM Cognos Connection.

You need to set up a connection to an IBM Planning Analytics Workspace URL if you want to access IBM Planning Analytics datasources and share content.

You can use only datasources that were previously created and published to IBM Planning Analytics or IBM Cognos Analytics. For more information about creating datasources, see the IBM Cognos TM1® Performance Modeler or the IBM Cognos TM1 Operation documentation.

For more information about creating Cognos BI packages (also known as IBM Cognos Analytics packages), see the Framework Manager User Guide.

This video demonstrates how to set up a connection to a datasource

Before you begin

Contact your administrator for the URLs you'll need to connect to a datasource. The URL identifies the location of the datasource.

  • Syntax of a URL for an IBM Cognos Analytics system:

    http://<host>:<port number>/bi/v1/disp

    Do not use localhost to refer to the local computer that the IBM Cognos Analytics (IBM Cognos BI) gateway is running on. By using localhost, the information sent to the server is routed back to the local computer. As a result, requests to the report server will fail when importing prompted reports.

    Note: The values for host are variables and depend on the exact settings that are used. Contact your IBM Cognos administrator for more information about these settings.
    Example of a URL without a Cognos Analytics gateway:
    http://cognos-analytics.ibm.com:9300/bi/v1/disp
    Example of a URL with a Cognos Analytics gateway:
    http://cognos-analytics.ibm.com:80/analytics/bi/v1/disp
    Example of a URL if your Cognos system is using Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS):
    http://10.121.25.121/ibmcognos/cgi-bin/cognosisapi.dll
  • Syntax of a URL for a IBM Planning Analytics Workspace datasource:

    http://<IP of the system / system name>

Procedure

  1. Open the IBM Planning Analytics ribbon.
  2. Click Options to open the Options dialog box.options button
  3. In the navigation pane of the Options dialog box, click IBM.
  4. Click Add to create a new connection to a datasource.
  5. In the Datasource Type box, select the datasource.
  6. In the Connection URL box, enter the URL provided by your administrator.
  7. In the Friendly Name box, enter a name for your new connection.
  8. Click Test Connection to test if the URL that you entered is live.

    If the connection fails, contact your administrator to verify the connection information.

  9. Click Save.
    Adding a connection

Results

The saved connections appear in the IBM connections list and the friendly name appears in the Connect drop-down on the ribbon.