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** Troubleshooting ** "The Cognos Controller link is not installed" (or 'The Excel-link is not installed') errors

Troubleshooting


Problem

When using Controller, user receives error message.

Symptom

The error varies depending on Controller version.

Controller 10.2.1 (and later):

The Cognos Controller link is not installed


Controller 10.2.0 (and earlier):

The Excel-link is not installed

Cause

There are many different potential causes for this error message:

Scenario #1 - Microsoft Excel 'Macro Security Setting' is configured too high, therefore blocking access to the Controller add-in.

  • The Microsoft Office Service Packs often change the Excel 'Macro Security Settings' level. For example, MS Office XP SP3 changes the setting from the original default 'Medium' to 'High'
  • This may cause Excel not to trust the Controller Excel Add-in.


Scenario #2 - Customer deploying Controller via Citrix, and only one user affected (all other users work OK).

  • In this scenario, the issue is clearly specific to the one end-user's Windows profile (or their Windows domain user account settings).


Scenario #3 - User accessing Controller via standard (non-Citrix) local client installation.

  • In this scenario, the client PC installation pre-requisites were not performed correctly.


Scenario #4 - Excel is trying to use the wrong version of .NET Framework (and/or that version does not have the security configured correctly).

Scenario #5 - Excel 2007 feature "Require Application Add-Ins to be signed by Trusted Publisher" was enabled, which stopped controller add-in to be shown in the Add-in list by default.

Scenario #6 - Windows Roaming Profiles causing unexpected behaviour.

Scenario #7 - Controller client was installed by a user who was not a local administrator on the client device.

Scenario #8 - During the installation of Microsoft Office (on the client device) the required (prerequisite) optional components of MS Office/Excel were not chosen/installed.

  • For more details, see separate IBM Technote #1372860.
  • Alternatively, the client device has a mixture of 2 different MS Office versions installed (for example Word 2003 and Excel 2007). This will stop these required components to be correctly installed.


Scenario #9 - End user's Windows account cannot launch Microsoft Excel, due to NTFS file permission restrictions on the Microsoft Office installation folder.

Scenario #10 - All Microsoft Excel VBA Add-ins have been blocked by an I.T. department security policy.

Scenario #11 - Excel itself has disabled the Controller add-in, due to a previous session of Excel where it detected a problem with the add-in.

Scenario #12 - Controller 10.2.1 (or earlier) client device has 64-bit version of MS Office installed.

Scenario #13 - The end user has never launched Microsoft Excel in the past (on this client device).

  • If the MS Office registry branch (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office) does not exist, then the self-healing will fail, and an error is shown. This branch is only created when the end user first launches Office (typically Microsoft Excel), therefore the Controller Excel-link process will (naturally) fail if the end user has never launched MS Excel before.


Scenario #14 - Issue with Microsoft Internet Explorer, where it does not launch correctly (for the end user)

  • The Controller client requires a working/functioning Internet Explorer for some of its component's communication. If Microsoft IE is not working, then this causes the Controller client to fail.


Scenario #15 - Intermittent issue caused by deploying Controller via Citrix, and only some Citrix servers having Excel link correctly installed/registered.

  • For more details, see separate IBM Technote #2000337.

Resolving The Problem

Scenario #1 - Change the Macro Security to 'Medium' and ensure that 'Trust all installed add-ins and templates' is ticked:

  1. Launch Excel
  2. Tools - Macros - Security
  3. Change the security level to 'Medium'
  4. Click on 'Trusted Publishers' tab
  5. Tick the box 'Trust all installed add-ins and templates'
  6. Click OK.

Scenario #2 - Reset the user's Citrix (or Terminal Services) Windows profile.

  1. Ensure affected (bad) user is not logged onto the Citrix server
  2. Logon to Citrix server as an administrator
  3. Rename the user's Windows Profile (e.g. rename C:\Documents and Settings\USERID to C:\Documents and Settings\USERID.OLD)
  4. Ask user to test.

If this fails to fix the problem, create new Windows domain user for the affected end user:

  1. Create a new Windows domain user account (e.g. USERID2) for the affected (bad) user
  2. Ensure that it has *exactly* the same rights and permissions, and is inside the same OU (same policy settings) as a 'working' user account
  3. Ask user to test with the new Windows username/password.

 

Scenario #3 - Double-check that all the installation pre-requisites (for example the Excel macro security settings set to medium) have been performed on the client PC. If necessary, uninstall the Controller Excel add-in and then re-install it. Finally, launch Excel and ensure that the Controller Excel Add-in is ticked (enabled) inside the "add-ins" section:

 

 

  1. Launch Excel
  2. Tools - Macros - Security
  3. Change the security level to 'Medium'

Click on 'Trusted Publishers' tab
Tick the box 'Trust all installed add-ins and templates'
Click OK.

THEN:

  1. Start - Settings - Control Panel
  2. Add/Remove Programs
  3. Uninstall Controller Excel link (for Controller 8.2 this is labelled 'IBM Cognos 8 Controller Link Add-In')
  4. Download (e.g. save to Desktop) Controller link install file from http://<controllerserver>/cognos8/controllerbin/controllerclient.msi
  5. Double-click on ControllerClient.MSI to install link


THEN:

  1. Launch Excel
  2. Click 'Tools - Add-ins'
  3. Locate add-in labelled 'Controller' or 'ControllerXL'
  4. Ensure that the box next to this add-in is 'ticked' (enabled)
  5. Ensure that the 'Controller' menu item now appears inside Excel menu bar
  6. Close Excel
  7. Launch Controller and test

 

Scenario #4 - Ensure that client PC has correct file 'excel.exe.config' located inside Microsoft Office installation directory.

 

  • Refer to separate IBM Technote #1347807 for steps.

 

Scenario #5 - In Excel 2007, Excel Option -> Trust Center, click on Trust Center Settings, Add-ins, uncheck "Require Application Add-Ins to be signed by Trusted Publisher"

 

  • Refer to separate IBM Technote #1362039 for steps.

 

Scenario #6 - Refer to separate IBM Technote #1370810 for steps.

 

 

Scenario #7 - Refer to separate IBM Technote #1345902 for steps.

 

Scenario #8 - Ensure that the installation of Microsoft Office (on the client device) contains all the required optional components of MS Office/Excel

  • Refer to separate IBM Technote #1398023 for steps.
  • Also see Technote #1372860 for more information.

 


Scenario #9 - Ensure that the end user's Windows account has at least read and execute NTFS file permissions on the Microsoft Office installation folder (default = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICExx") and all subfolders/files.

 

 

Scenario #10 - Refer to separate IBM Technote #1372860 for steps.

 

 

Scenario #11 - Refer to separate IBM Technote #1403281 for steps.

 

Scenario #12 - Uninstall Office 64-bit and replace with 32-bit.

  • See separate IBM Technotes #1504061 & #1981289.

 

Scenario #13 - Ignore the (benign) error, and re-try.

 

  • See separate IBM Technote #1673386.

 

Scenario #14 - Fix Internet Explorer (on the client device) so that it works correctly.

 

  • See separate IBM Technote #1997908.

 


Scenario #15 - Re-install the Controller client on the 'bad' Citrix servers.

 

  • See separate IBM Technote #2000337.

[{"Product":{"code":"SS9S6B","label":"IBM Cognos Controller"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"Controller","Platform":[{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"10.3;10.2.1;10.2.0;10.1.1;10.1","Edition":"Not Applicable","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
22 November 2018

UID

swg21396195

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