Cognos 7.4 Transformer on UNIX Version

Why Use Transformer on UNIX?
Transformer on UNIX offers additional capabilities to those available with Transformer on
Windows, including
• increased performance. Depending on the size of the server, Transformer on UNIX may be
able to generate models and cubes faster than local processing on a computer.
• easier integration of cube builds and data warehouse updates. It is easier to integrate these
processes if they both run under the same operating system.
• faster processing. If your database resides on the same UNIX server, processing performance
and build times may improve as a result of a reduction in network traffic.

The Client-Server Communications Process
When you use the Server menu to issue commands from Transformer on Windows to Transformer on UNIX, Transformer on Windows and Transformer on UNIX communicate according to the following process:
1. Using a Windows Sockets compliant TCP/IP connection, Transformer on Windows passes the
request to the network daemon (udanetd), the PowerGrid network daemon.
2. The network daemon receives the request, starts Transformer on UNIX (rsserver), and
connects it to Transformer on Windows. After that, Transformer on Windows and rsserver
communicate directly with each other via TCP/IP and library routines. The rsserver program
gets information in the form of Model Definition Language (MDL) verb statements from
Transformer on Windows. The rsserver program uses settings defined in the environment
where PowerGrid was started and searches for the Transformer preferences files (trnsfrmr.rc
and .trnsfrmr.rc) that provide additional operational settings.
3. Once started, Transformer on UNIX carries out the requests, such as generating categories for a model or creating cubes, on the server.
An important part of this communication process is synchronization.

Before you can create server models and cubes, you must ensure that
• both PowerGrid udanetd and Transformer on UNIX are installed and configured on the
computer where you will be creating server cubes.
• a local connection is defined on the Windows computer for the server where udanetd and
Transformer on UNIX are installed.
the server environment is set up so that Transformer on UNIX creates models and cubes
where and how you want them created.

Define a Client-Server Connection
Add a Connection Using NetInfo
NetInfo is a utility that enables you to add and test connections to PowerGrid on the server.

Steps to Create a Connection
1. Start NetInfo.
2. From the File menu, click Edit Connections.
3. Click New to add a new connection.
4. In the Network Type box, click Windows Sockets TCP/IP.
The entries shown depend on what is defined in your cogconnect.ini file. By default,
cogconnect.ini contains an entry for Windows Sockets. However, it may contain additional
entries if you are using other IBM Cognos products.
5. In the Host Name box, click or type the name of the server on which PowerGrid and
Transformer on UNIX are installed.
If NetInfo is able to find a Hosts file, it will provide you with a list of host names from that
file. If no Hosts file is found, you must type the name or the IP address of the server on which
PowerGrid and Transformer on UNIX are installed. If you don’t know the name of the server,
contact your network administrator.
6. In the Host Type box, click UNIX.
7. In the User Name box, type your login ID for the computer specified in the Host Name box.
Transformer uses this ID when connecting to the server.
Note: Under certain circumstances, you must click the Setup button to change the local
configuration for the connection you are creating. If the network port ID was not set to 1526
when PowerGrid was configured, you must change your local port setting to match the
network port ID. If it was set to 1526, you can skip steps 8 to 10 and proceed to step 11.
8. Click Setup.
9. Click Use Specific Port for This Connection, and type a number for the network port.
Your local port ID must match the network port. In the following example, the
cern/bin/netpgrc script on the server where PowerGrid is running shows the value 3125.
Therefore, you would type 3125 in the Use Specific Port for This Connection box.
# port number
NPNETD=3125
10. Click OK, and click Save.
11. In the Connection to be Saved box, type a name for your connection, click OK, and then click
Done.


Test a Connection Using NetInfo
Once you have defined a connection, and before you issue a command to Transformer on UNIX
for the first time, use NetInfo to test the connection. Using NetInfo is similar to using a ping utility when testing network connections; it verifies that messages are being sent to udanetd, and that udanetd is responding to them.
Steps to Test a Connection
1. Start NetInfo.
2. From the Network menu, click Test Connection.
3. In the Connection Name box, double-click the name of the connection you want to test.
NetInfo sends a test packet to udanetd via PowerGrid.
If the connection is working correctly, NetInfo shows a message that looks like this:
Network: Microsoft Windows Sockets Version n
The current address is ‘[142.80.66.251#0]’
---- Test ‘1’ ----
Reply received from udanetd owned by ‘root’ [PID=’818’]
If the connection is not working, verify that
• udanetd is running on the server
• the port number defined for your connection matches the one defined on the server


Transformer on UNIX Shell Scripts
When PowerGrid starts Transformer on UNIX, it does so using an entry in the cogconnect.ini file.
The entry looks like this:
[Service - Transformer Server]
NETWORK=rsserver.sh
PowerGrid udanetd uses the shell script rsserver.sh to start Transformer on UNIX when a request is issued from Transformer on Windows. Before you attempt to use Transformer on UNIX, ensure that the Transformer server service is defined in your cogconnect.ini file and that the shell script is in the search path when starting udanetd on the server. You can also edit your rsserver.sh file to set up environment variables, which Transformer on UNIX uses to generate models and create cubes.
Note: If the Transformer server service is not defined in the cogconnect.ini file, run the
Configuration Manager to apply Transformer configuration parameters.