Monday, February 2, 2009

User classes in Analyst

We all use contributor user classes for providing various permissions to users and for setting different access levels to different groups of users. But what if we even want selected users to access the analyst models?

Analyst also has such a feature by using which we can restrict unwanted users from accessing the analyst models and libraries.

Add user classes to analyst

Go to File > Administration > Maintain libraries and users
Select the tab User Classes





Here you have option to add new user classes. Before you add a user class to Analyst user classes, just make sure that you already have that user class in Access manager.

To add a user class, you should click on 'Add' button.

This will pop up a box



You can just select the user class, to which you want to provide the access. After moving the selected user classes to right panel, you should click OK.

The selected user classes appear to the list of user classes. Only those users which exist in these user classes are allowed to access the planning model.

Other options

Change namespace – If you have more than namespaces in your access manager, you may use this button for selecting different namespaces. Just click on this button and it will show the other namespaces that exist in the access manager. You can select some namespace and click OK. That will set that namespace and then… when you click on "Add" button the above form will load with those user classes which exist in the new namespace.

This option is handy when your default namespace has been changed and you want to specify new namespace as a source of your user classes.

Update access manager information – this button is used to compare the current analyst user classes with those of access manager, against which the access manager was given security permissions. If there are changes, they are enlisted.


User class details

To see the details of the user class, just select it and click on Properties button



System Administrators – If this user class should behave like system administrators, this option should be checked.

Manage only users – self explanatory

Restricted D-Cube access – self explanatory

Default Library – when you select a particular library from the drop down box, this library will be open as default from the next time that particular group logs in. There will be no box which lets you select the default library.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

What does this error means?

There are no system administrators set up on your system. The system will work this way but it is recommended that you select a user class to have system administrative rights on your system.



Problem
This error comes when you have specified custom security permissions (which can be seen from File > Administration > Maintain libraries and users > select User classes tab) in analyst but don't have any of the user classes as administrator i.e. No user class has been given admin privileges.

Solution
Select that user class for which you want to give administrator privileges. Click on Properties button. When the properties box pops up, select the first option 'System administrators'
This will make that user class as administrator and error will not come next time you log in.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Cognos Planning 8.4



Yesterday I got a chance to try my hands on Cognos Planning 8.4. In the next few posts I'll show you how to install and configure cognos enterprise planning 8.4 on local system, what are pre-requisites, how much time it takes and how to configure it, work on it and manage it.



Cognos planning 8 is a new software suite from IBM in an effort to providing everything from planning to analysis and reporting under one umbrella. It is a great product. There are few architectural changes, major one is that now it has client server architecture on WEB.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Planning Service Error


Cognos Planning – Contributor Administration Console



Planning Service Error - Unable to create 'EAdminDB_73.iDB'

Sometimes when you try to configure the Contributor an error pops up saying -

---------------------------------------
Remote communication test failed.

Unable to create 'EAdminDB_73.iDB' when trying to instantiate component using connect string 'localhost'. (or may be your computer name)

ActiveX component can't create object.
---------------------------------------

The reason behind this error is either 'Planning 73' COM+ components not being installed on the system or not running with the correct login credentials (not being sufficient privileges.

Test your COM+ components by going to
Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Component Services > Component Services > Computers > My computer > COM+ Applications > Planning73

Check whether component is there and is running (plus ball is moving)

If you don't find the components there, you should install them.