Questions Log: What’s New in Cognos BI Version 10.2.2

WHAT’S NEW IN COGNOS BI VERSION 10.2.2
Questions Log from Webinar

Questions Overview
• Is there actually a Framework Manager 10.2.2 or Report Studio 10.2.2? Can you go over the
actual products that were updated, and if not, what their packages may be (i.e., Framework
Manager 10.2.1 + TM1 10.2.2) or other actual updated mix & matches to install to get the
updates claimed in the videos?
• Will the IBM Cognos quick setup be available for SQL server in the future?
• Will the tenant capabilities be called out in the licenses?
• Do I have to get 10.2.2 for additional RAVE charts?
• Will Cognos add Venn diagrams to their reports?
• Is external data still available?
• Is it possible to easily assign colors so they are consistent across multiple charts?
• Can you stop someone from loading 10M rows?
• How will the admin know who has loaded large files?
• Can we load multiple data sets into one package?
• Can you link multiple spreadsheets or worksheets?
• How can I do the join for more than one Excel file column?
• Could we have created a new calculated field when modeling the external data?
• Can it connect to databases, or only to the files?
Questions Log: What’s New in Cognos 10.2.2
2Copyright 2014 Senturus, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Questions Overview
• How will My Data Sets affect resource needs? Limits to how much users can store?
• Is the space consumption shared across all users? Can we put limit on the size for users? What
would be the size of the database?
• If the spreadsheet has multiple worksheets, will it import all of them and create multiple
tables? Will the package have all the metadata?
• When Excel data changes, how do I refresh the data from Excel to data stored in Cognos (DB2)?
• Can we keep changing the Excel files?
• Can I join two dataset packages?
• Can we upload multiple Excel files and get one model published that is inclusive of data from
all the uploaded Excel files?
• Can we schedule the loading frequency of data to get the latest data every day?
• Can we restrict the My Data Sets feature?
• Is the default that everyone can use My Data Sets, or do you have to specifically give a user
access?
• What's the modeling process of multiple external files to use it in a single package?
• Can relationships be set between two My Data Sets or between two external files in creating
one My Data Set?
• Can I make updates to the same my data set?

Questions Overview
• Will it be updated when source file is updated?
• Can data sets be combined in a single package?
• Can we use two external spreadsheets and create one package out of them?
• Can I change the source Excel file at a later time?
• If I have multiple sheets in my Excel file, can I import all the sheets?
• Can we use multiple files in Data Set and create one package?
• Can we join multiple My Data Sets?
• Can My Data Sets be used as data sources for modeling in FM?
• Can we join two Excel sheet one create one package?
• Can data published out ever be refreshed? Or do you need to create a new package each time
you want current data?
• Does that mean you can't refresh the data in My Data Set?
• When backing up the content stored from Cognos, does it also backup the data set in DB2?
• Do I have to republish the Excel file if the data changes after the report created?
• Will Transformer cubes still work in Cognos 10.2.2?
• Is Query Studio and Analysis Studio still supported in the new version of Cognos?
• Do we have any zoom option to enlarge particular region in a map?

Questions Overview
• Can the values on the axis be formatted to remove extra decimal places?
• As an Australian example, is there a way to display labels on the chart, so we could see
Australia category without hover over?
• In Report Viewer, can we finally expand/collapse, re-sort columns, do on the fly calculations
and on the fly resizing?
• How stable will 10.2.2 be?
• How is My Data Sets different from Cognos Insight? Do we still need Cognos Insight?
• Any info on Analysis Studio capabilities in workspace? I understand that Analysis Studio is
depreciated in 10.2.2?
• Is dynamic filtering only available in Workspace or can it be used in HTML report?
• Is Dynamic filters only available in Workspace or can it be used in Report Studio reposts?
• If you have both relational and dimensional widgets on a page, will the global filter work for
both?
• Is possible to use dynamic filters if the other charts don't have the filtering element visible?
• Can we use the dynamic filters in chart like the crosstab?
• Will dynamic filters work on any two fields with the same name or only on base package fields?
• Do you have to use the personal edition of DB2? (We are an ORACLE shop)
• Cognos 10.2.1 requires IE11 to run in compatibility mode. Is this true in Cognos 10.2.2?

Questions Overview
• What happened to the query studio icon and other icons?
• With external data sets, is it only with DB2 or other RDBMS as well?
• Is it possible to publish Cognos workspace in a Cognos viewer within a portal tab?
• How do you clean up all the junk if it’s uploaded in DB2?
• Does the Excel file need to be present on the BI server, or it can be local to user's machine?
• Can I publish my report objects created using My Data Set to other people in my team?
• Does this new integrated DB2 component included in 10.2.2 require special
configuration/installation file when upgrading to 10.2.2 from 10.1.1?
• How does the data refresh happen for external data?
• Can an external data source have a scheduled refresh in Cognos?
• What is the difference between charts and visualizations? Are visualizations just more options
for displaying data?
• Can you only use My Data Sets using the DB2 database?
• With the upgrade from 10.2.1 to 10.2.2, is it a new installation or an upgrade of the current
version?
• Can the built in DB2 engine shipped with 10.2.2 be used as the content store? If so, does that
replace the Apache database used in the previous versions?
• How can I do more than one Excel file that I need to join?

Questions Overview
• Do we have any size limits on the local files?
• Does My Data Sets have to be uploaded to its own DB2 database? Is that separate from the
content store?
• Is self-analytic support connecting to DB through Cognos data sources?
• Is it possible to upload multiple spreadsheets and then perform "joins" as in Framework Studio?
• Can we include this option as part of existing package like external data?
• Can I join the uploaded table (new package) to an existing package?
• Do you need separate licensing for DB2 server installed with Cognos 10.2.2?
• Will that affect the current database behind Cognos (i.e. Oracle)?
• Can you access other packages with My Data Sets?
• What version of DB2 is the My Data Sets using?
• What's the maximum size for a data set?
• What's the difference between My Data Sets and external data source in this version?
• Is each import a different package?
• Is Cognos 10.2.2 certified on IE 11?
• Do we have to import RAVE visualizations into Cognos, or do they come with a Cognos License?

The questions in this log were collected during Senturus’
webinar entitled, “What’s New in Cognos BI Version
10.2.2.”
After the webinar, the Senturus team answered the
questions and distributed the following answers.
To view the FREE recording of the entire presentation
and download the slide deck, go to:
www.senturus.com/resources/whats-new-cognos-bi-
version-10-2-2/

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Q: Is there actually a Framework Manager 10.2.2 or
Report Studio 10.2.2? Can you go over the actual
products that were updated, and if not, what their
packages may be (i.e., Framework Manager 10.2.1 +
TM1 10.2.2) or other actual updated mix & matches to
install to get the updates claimed in the videos?
A: This is probably because it hasn't actually been
released yet. The beta cycle is complete, and it will be
released to manufacturing soon. Once that happens,
you'll see all of the 10.2.2 components for which you're
licensed.

Q: Will the IBM Cognos quick setup be available for
SQL server in the future?
A: Most likely not, because DB2 is actually packaged in
as the content database. Therefore, DB2 actually gets
installed during the Cognos install.
Q: Will the tenant capabilities be called out in the
licenses?
A: We believe they will have to be, because multi-
tenant support usually has very license-specific terms
and conditions.

Q: Do I have to get 10.2.2 for additional RAVE charts?
A: Yes, several of the Rave visualizations are release-
specific.
Q: Will Cognos add Venn diagrams to their reports?
A: This has not been confirmed. However, the nice thing
about RAVE is that we also have partners and third party
developers creating new visualizations, so it could
happen, whether IBM does it or not.

webinar entitled, “What’s New in Cognos BI Version 10.2.2.”
To view the FREE recording of the entire presentation and
download the slide deck, go to:
www.senturus.com/resources/whats-new-cognos-bi-version-
10-2-2/
Senturus’ comprehensive library of recorded webinars,
demos, white papers, presentations and case studies is
available on our website:
www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: Is external data still available?
A: Yes. This is a separate capability. External data is still
supported.
Q: Is it possible to easily assign colors so they are
consistent across multiple charts?
A: Yes, this is much easier in 10.2.2.

Q: Can you stop someone from loading 10M rows?
A: Yes, you can put both global governors as well as
user specific governors on it. You have the ability to
make sure this feature is not abused.
Q: How will the admin know who has loaded large
files?
A: Cognos administrator can control and manage files for
the entire system. Further, you can limit the amount of
space that is used for this function, even on a per user
basis.

Q: Can we load multiple data sets into one package?
A: We've seen this capability demonstrated internally,
but this function did not make the initial 10.2.2 release.
It could show up in a future release, but there is no
guarantee.
Q: Can you link multiple spreadsheets or worksheets?
A: Not currently, but this could possibly be added in a
future release.

Q: How can I do the join for more than one Excel file
column?
A: You can't do this currently, but it's possible this could
get added in a future release.
Q: Could we have created a new calculated field when
modeling the external data?
A: Not prior to the import. You'd have to do this either
in Report Studio, or Workspace Advanced.

10-2-2/
www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: Can it connect to databases, or only to the files?
A: It's intended to help you upload delimited text files,
or spread sheets. It's not intended to copy data from an
existing relational data source.
Q: How will My Data Sets affect resource needs? Limits
to how much users can store?
A: It will increase the disk space needed where the DB2
instance is installed, memory for DB2 execution. You can
govern how much space users have access to.

Q: Is the space consumption shared across all users?
Can we put limit on the size for users? What would be
the size of the database?
A: You can govern space at the user level in order to
limit the overall size of the DB2 implementation.
Q: If the spreadsheet has multiple worksheets, will it
import all of them and create multiple tables? Will the
package have all the metadata?
A: It currently imports the data from the first tab.

Q: When Excel data changes, how do I refresh the data
from Excel to data stored in Cognos (DB2)?
A: Re-import the data from Cognos Connection.
Q: Can we keep changing the Excel files?
A: Yes, and refresh the data from Cognos Connection. If
you add or remove columns, the package will change. If
you remove columns, your reports can break.

Q: Can I join two dataset packages?
A: Not currently.
Q: Can we upload multiple Excel files and get one
model published that is inclusive of data from all the
uploaded Excel files?
A: This is not available in this release.

Q: Can we schedule the loading frequency of data to
get the latest data every day?
A: It's currently a manual process, meant to be ad hoc
rather than part of a workflow.
Q: Can we restrict the My Data Sets feature?
A: Yes, and you can limit the amount of space any user
can consume.

10-2-2/
www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: Is the default that everyone can use My Data Sets,
or do you have to specifically give a user access?
A: The default is that nobody can use it. You enable and
allow use at your discretion.
Q: What's the modeling process of multiple external
files to use it in a single package?
A: This is not currently supported.

Q: Can relationships be set between two My Data Sets
or between two external files in creating one My Data
Set?
A: Not currently, but you'd have to be careful with this,
because you're turning the Cognos app server into a
query federation server, and the performance would be
very slow, with no way around it.
Q: Can I make updates to the same my data set?
A: You can import and refresh the package.

Q: Will it be updated when source file is updated?
A: No, you'll have to do it manually.
Q: Can data sets be combined in a single package?
A: Not currently.
Q: Can we use two external spreadsheets and create
one package out of them?
A: Not currently.

Q: Can I change the source Excel file at a later time?
A: Yes, you would re-import the data, and your new data
will be reflected in your reports.
Q: If I have multiple sheets in my Excel file, can I
import all the sheets?
A: This is not available in the current release.
Q: Can we use multiple files in Data Set and create
one package?
A: Not currently.

Q: Can we join multiple My Data Sets?
A: Not currently.
Q: Can My Data Sets be used as data sources for
modeling in FM?
A: No, because the result is a package rather than model
files.
Q: Can we join two Excel sheet one create one
package?
A: Not currently.

10-2-2/
www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: Can data published out ever be refreshed? Or do
you need to create a new package each time you want
current data?
A: You can refresh the data.
Q: Does that mean you can't refresh the data in My
Data Set?
A: You can refresh from Cognos Connection.

Q: When backing up the content stored from Cognos,
does it also backup the data set in DB2?
A: This is a separate process, unless the content store is
in DB2. Even still, they're separate schemas, two
separate backups.
Q: Do I have to republish the Excel file if the data
changes after the report created?
A: If the data changes, you need to re-import the data.
You don't need to change the report spec unless the
schema of the data changes.

Q: Will Transformer cubes still work in Cognos 10.2.2?
A: Yes, this is still supported.
Q: Is Query Studio and Analysis Studio still supported
in the new version of Cognos?
A: Query Studio and Analysis Studio will remain in the
product. However, the standard deprecation processes,
where IBM announces that a capability will no longer be
in the product, will follow. Strategically, these
capabilities have been replaced by a combination of
Cognos Workspace Advanced, Dynamic Cubes and TM1
score carding.

Q: Do we have any zoom option to enlarge particular
region in a map?
A: It will zoom into the countries in that region, and
from there you can drill on provinces and states.
Q: Can the values on the axis be formatted to remove
extra decimal places?
A: Yes. Formatting on visualizations is much better in
the 10.2.2 release!

Q: As an Australian example, is there a way to display
labels on the chart, so we could see Australia category
without hover over?
A: Yes, it would require using a different visualization
that would contain a value in the row.
Q: In Report Viewer, can we finally expand/collapse,
re-sort columns, do on the fly calculations and on the
fly resizing?
A: In the HTML viewer, you're limited to sorting columns.
However, all of what you describe above is available
when you use Workspace.

10-2-2/
www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: How stable will 10.2.2 be?
A: Beta testers reported excellent stability, and I notice
that some of the "blemishes" that I experienced in the
pre-GA release were actually fixed before it went GA.
Q: How is My Data Sets different from Cognos Insight?
Do we still need Cognos Insight?
A: During the IBM Insight conference, the product
management team indicated that My Data Sets and
Watson Analytics were replacements for Cognos Insights
for Cognos BI. They are still advocating use of Cognos
Insight with TM1 or performance management.

Q: Any info on Analysis Studio capabilities in
workspace? I understand that Analysis Studio is
depreciated in 10.2.2?
A: We have been helping some organizations migrate
from Analysis Studio to Cognos Workspace Advanced.
We are finding that most of the capabilities of Analysis
Studio are also available in Cognos Workspace Advanced,
plus more. Sometimes, the command is in a different
place (for example, "Down a Level"). Overall, the users
are coming around to Cognos Workspace Advanced.

Q: Is dynamic filtering only available in Workspace or
can it be used in HTML report?
A: It's a function of Workspace, not the HTML report
viewer.
Q: Is Dynamic filters only available in Workspace or
can it be used in Report Studio reposts?
A: Dynamic filters are implemented in Workspace, and
can be used with content created in any authoring
interface.

Q: If you have both relational and dimensional widgets
on a page, will the global filter work for both?
A: As long as the data labels are the same. If you have
"Product Line" in both the relational data and the OLAP
data, it will work. If the labels are different (one says
"Product Line", the other says "Product Lines"), don't
expect it to work.
Q: Is possible to use dynamic filters if the other charts
don't have the filtering element visible?
A: Yes. The filtering element just needs to be in the
query. It doesn't need to be in the display.

Q: Can we use the dynamic filters in chart like the
crosstab?
A: Yes, charts, lists and crosstabs, and visualizations.
Q: Will dynamic filters work on any two fields with the
same name or only on base package fields?
A: It's based on the labels as they are exposed in the
report widget container.
Q: Cognos 10.2.1 requires IE11 to run in compatibility
mode. Is this true in Cognos 10.2.2?
A: Yes, according to the support web site.

Q: What happened to the query studio icon and other
icons?
A: The other studios are still there and supported, only
these are exposed in the AnalyticsZone implementation
of 10.2.2.
Q: With external data sets, is it only with DB2 or other
RDBMS as well?
A: The integrated version of DB2 today, other RDBMSs in
a subsequent release.

10-2-2/
www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: Is it possible to publish Cognos workspace in a
Cognos viewer within a portal tab?
A: Yes. Test it to make sure you like the behavior,
because we’ve seen where some Workspace functions
don't work well when you do this.
Q: How do you clean up all the junk if it’s uploaded in
DB2?
A: You can clean up your own, or an administrator can
clean it up. You can do the clean up from Cognos. You
don't have to use DB2 tools to do so.

Q: Does the Excel file need to be present on the BI
server, or it can be local to user's machine?
A: On your computer is fine. Much more flexibility than
external data!
Q: Can I publish my report objects created using My
Data Set to other people in my team?
A: Yes, it's a standard package. You only need the
administrative capability of publishing to a public
location, instead of My Folders. We haven't tried on
AnalyticsZone, but suspect you have limited ability to
publish beyond your My Folders.

Q: Do you have to use the personal edition of DB2?
(We are an ORACLE shop)
A: We’ve read that Oracle will be supported in a future
release, but have not seen a confirmed release date.
Q: Does this new integrated DB2 component included
in 10.2.2 require special configuration/installation file
when upgrading to 10.2.2 from 10.1.1?
A: It goes through the configuration during the
installation of Cognos. We understand that the
migration from 10.x to 10.2.2 is fairly seamless.

Q: How does the data refresh happen for external
data?
A: It's a manual process today. If you need to automate
refresh of this kind of data, you're really better off
putting some ETL and management in place. This is
meant to be end user ad hoc.
Q: Can an external data source have a scheduled
refresh in Cognos?
A: We don't believe so, as it’s meant to be end user ad
hoc, but this may change in the future.

Q: What is the difference between charts and
visualizations? Are visualizations just more options for
displaying data?
A: Typically, the term "visualization" is used when
referring to a RAVE component, only to distinguish
between RAVE and the standard Cognos chart engines.
Q: Can you only use My Data Sets using the DB2
database?
A: Today it's the incorporated version of DB2 only. This
may change in a subsequent release.

10-2-2/
www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: With the upgrade from 10.2.1 to 10.2.2, is it a new
installation or an upgrade of the current version?
A: This is a new install, but fairly painless. Backup your
config files and content store. Then, install 10.2.2, open
your exported config file, point the content manager at
a backup of your existing content database, start the
services. It will then configure, start and migrate the
content store.
Q: Can the built in DB2 engine shipped with 10.2.2 be
used as the content store? If so, does that replace the
Apache database used in the previous versions?
A: Yes to both questions.

Q: How can I do more than one Excel file that I need
to join?
A: It doesn't look like it's supported. This really requires
something in the way of a proper ETL process.
Q: Do we have any size limits on the local files?
A: We haven't read of any, though DB2 instance is
probably limited. It's still gigabytes though. A single file
should not be that big. It's better to use a proper ETL
technology if your data volume is big.

Q: Does My Data Sets have to be uploaded to its own
DB2 database? Is that separate from the content store?
A: It would be a separate schema from the content
store.
Q: Is self-analytic support connecting to DB through
Cognos data sources?
A: Ultimately, yes, but it's integrated with Cognos,
rather than looking like a database of your own (Oracle,
DB2, SQL Server, etc.).

Q: Is it possible to upload multiple spreadsheets and
then perform "joins" as in Framework Studio?
A: Not currently. Usually, you would want to
institutionalize this, with proper ETL and management
controls. This is meant to be very ad hoc.
Q: Can we include this option as part of existing
package like external data?
A: This is not available in the new release.

10-2-2/
www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: Can I join the uploaded table (new package) to an
existing package?
Q: Do you need separate licensing for DB2 server
installed with Cognos 10.2.2?
A: No, it's bundled from a technology as well as licensing
perspective.
Q: Will that affect the current database behind Cognos
(i.e. Oracle)?
A: No, not at all.

Q: Can you access other packages with My Data Sets?
Q: What version of DB2 is the My Data Sets using?
A: We believe it's 10.5, as BLU is supported.
Q: What's the maximum size for a data set?
A: It's been successfully tested with up to 600,000 rows
of data internally.

Q: What's the difference between My Data Sets and
external data source in this version?
A: External data is linking an ODBC source to an existing
package, and joining the data. My Data Sets is a stand-
alone file, stored in DB2.
Q: Is each import a different package?
A: Yes.
Q: Is Cognos 10.2.2 certified on IE 11?
A: Yes, in compatibility mode, same as 10.2.1.

Q: Do we have to import RAVE visualizations into
Cognos, or do they come with a Cognos License?
A: All the visualizations on AnalyticsZone are available
at no additional charge.

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Copyright 2014 by Senturus, Inc.
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Questions Log: What’s New in Cognos BI Version 10.2.2

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