Surface IBM Cognos content into your catalog and lineage. The Cognos connector creates catalog objects and lineage nodes for folders, reports, and report queries in Bigeye, and traces each report query back to the database columns it reads.

Lineage follows the structure in Cognos:

• A folder contains its reports.
• A report contains its report queries.
• Each report query is linked upstream to the database columns it reads.

The connector reads Cognos through the Content Manager service, using the IBM Cognos SDK client you provide. It only reads from Cognos; it never changes anything there.

User Configuration Summary

1. Create a dedicated Cognos user (e.g. bigeye_lineage_user) in the namespace Bigeye will log on to.
2. Grant the user Read and Traverse permissions on the folders, packages, and reports to include.
3. Copy axisCognosClient.jar from your Cognos installation to the host that runs the Agent CLI.
4. Add the connector with bigeye-agent add-connector -c cognos.

User Setup

The connector logs on in one of two ways:

Note: Multi-factor authentication isn't supported. Use a service account that can log on with a username and password alone.

1. Create a Cognos User

1. In the namespace (security provider) Bigeye should use, create or choose a service account, for example bigeye_lineage_user.
2. Note the namespace ID as configured in IBM Cognos Configuration (for example LDAP). The connector needs the namespace ID, not its display name.

2. Grant Permissions

Grant the user Read and Traverse permissions on:

• the folders that hold the packages and reports you want in Bigeye, including their parent folders so the user can reach them, and
• the packages those reports use.

3. Provide the IBM Cognos SDK Client

IBM doesn't allow the Cognos SDK client to be redistributed, so Bigeye can't include it. Copy axisCognosClient.jar from your Cognos installation (typically under sdk/java/lib) to the host that runs the Agent CLI. If you already run Cognos snapshots in MetaCenter, use the same jar.

Note: Use axisCognosClient.jar, not cognosClient.jar. cognosClient.jar is built on IBM's repackaged Axis libraries, which the connector can't load, and the Agent CLI rejects it.

4. Add the Connector

Run:

./bigeye-agent add-connector -c cognos

The Agent CLI asks for the path to axisCognosClient.jar, the Content Manager dispatcher URL, a server name, the authentication mode, and the credentials. Filters are under the advanced settings: for packages, choose all packages, package paths, or package store IDs, and the CLI shows an example of each format. In standard mode, the CLI logs on to Cognos before saving, so a wrong namespace, username, or password fails during setup instead of at the first run.

If you already run a Cognos snapshot in MetaCenter, import its properties file instead of re-entering it:

./bigeye-agent add-connector -c cognos --from-existing /path/to/cognos.properties

The existing snapshot.output, filters, and filtering mode are kept, so lineage keeps landing in the same repository.

Note: Cognos requires a Docker deployment of the Lineage Plus agent. Kubernetes deployments can't mount the SDK client yet, so add-connector stops with an error there.

Warning: Passwords containing &, < may be rejected by Cognos even when they're correct, because the connector sends credentials without escaping them. The Agent CLI warns when it sees one of these characters.

Configuration Parameters

General:

• cognos.sdk.gateway: Content Manager dispatcher URL, for example http://cognos-host:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch.
• cognos.sdk.servername: Name used to label this Cognos server in lineage. Together with the namespace, it names the Cognos source system.
• snapshot.output: Repository the snapshot is written to. Set by the Agent CLI, or kept from an imported properties file.

Authentication:

• cognos.auth.mode: standard (default) or anon.
• cognos.auth.namespace: Namespace ID. Standard mode only.
• cognos.auth.userid: Username. Standard mode only.
• cognos.auth.password: Password, stored encrypted or as a secrets manager reference. Standard mode only.

Filtering:

Leave a filter blank to include everything. Separate multiple values with commas. Paths start with / below Team Content (for example /Finance/Reports/*) and may use * wildcards; full Cognos search paths such as /content/folder[@name='Finance']/* also work.

• cognos.packagenames: Packages to include. Leave blank for all packages.
• cognos.packagenames.pathmatch: true to give cognos.packagenames as package paths, for example /content/folder[@name='Samples']/package[@name='great_outdoors_sales_en'] or /Samples/great_outdoors_sales_en.
• cognos.packagenames.idmatch: true to give cognos.packagenames as package store IDs, for example i0A1B2C3D4E5F60718293A4B5C6D7E8F9. Requires at least one ID.
• cognos.toplevelfoldernames: Package folders to include.
• cognos.excludefoldernames: Package folders to exclude.
• cognos.report.toplevelfoldernames: Report folders to include.
• cognos.report.excludefoldernames: Report folders to exclude. Must be exact paths; wildcards aren't supported.

What's next

• Browse other supported BI lineage connectors in BI Connectors.
• Contact Bigeye support or your Bigeye team if you need guidance for this connector before full documentation is published.