Create a New Job:

A job is a group of executable entries, such as reports, that are executed as a batch. They share the same schedule settings. When the job executes, all of the entries in the job execute.

This option saves you valuable time when you want to modify the schedule of several reports.

For example, suppose you created 10 report views that are set to execute every day at 10 A.M. Because they take a lot of time to execute, you want to change the execute time to 7 P.M., when fewer users are on the system. To do this, you can modify the schedule for each Report View separately. However, if you create a job and add the reports to it, you can modify the schedule once.

Here’s how to create a new job:

1. From the toolbar, click New Job. The Specify A Name And Description screen of the

New Job Wizard displays, as shown in the illustration on the opposite page.

2. In the Name box, enter a name for the entry.

3. Optionally, you can enter a Description of the entry that will display in Details View.

4. Optionally, you can also enter a Screen Tip that will display when the pointer is moved over the job icon.

5. Optionally, to change folder locations, in the Location group, click either the Select Another Location link or the Select My Folders link.

6. Click Next. The Select The Steps screen displays.

7. Click the Add link. The Select Entries (Navigate) screen displays:

8. Optional: To navigate to another location, click the applicable folder name link on the breadcrumb trail.

9. In the left pane, select the checkboxes of the entries that you want to add to the job. Then click the add arrow to move the entries to the right pane, and click OK. The Select The Steps screen displays again, with the entries you selected:

10. Select the checkboxes for the entries that you want to include as steps in the job and the options to use when the entry executes.

11. Determine how steps should be sequenced in the job by making selections under

Submission of Steps: All At Once or In Sequence. When All At Once is selected, if a step fails, the other steps still execute and the job has a Failed status. When In Sequence is selected, a step is executed only after the previous step executes successfully.

12. Click Next. The Select An Action screen displays:

13. Select an action (Save And Run Once, Save And Schedule, or Save Only), and then click Finish.

• If the Save And Run Once action is selected, the Run With Options screen displays:

Select when you want the job to execute and then click Run. Click OK. The new job displays in the entries list. Optionally, you can select the View The Details Of This Job After Closing This Dialog checkbox and then click OK to view the job details.

• If the Save And Schedule action was selected, the Schedule screen displays:

To disable the schedule temporarily, select the Disable The Schedule checkbox. The schedule will be disabled without losing the scheduling information.

The Priority is set to 3 by default, specifying the order that the entry will execute.

Priority values are from 1 to 5. The lower the number, the higher the priority is. If more than one entry contains the same priority setting, the entry that arrives in the queue first executes first. Priority can only be set by users with permissions to manage the queue.

In the Frequency group, click the applicable link to set the frequency of the schedule (for example, to execute by week on every Monday and Thursday) and then select the applicable options.

In the Start and End text boxes, set the start and end dates and times for the schedule to start and finish and then click OK.

The schedule is created for the job and the report will execute at the next scheduled date and time.

• If the Save Only Action was selected, the schedule for the job is saved without scheduling or executing.

TIP: The Calendar Wizard can be used to select the date easily.

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Schedule Reports: You can schedule the entries in Cognos Connection to run at a specific time or a recurring date and time (for example, by day, week, month, year, or trigger). You can use the default values, or specify your own options by using the Schedule action. For example, you may have a large report that takes several hours to run. By scheduling the report or modifying the schedule of the report, you can run the report during non-working hours to utilize faster performance times. You can also remove the schedule.

NOTE: Each entry in Cognos Connection can have only one schedule.

1. Click Schedule, as shown next.

2. The Schedule screen displays:
The settings on this screen include the following:
• Disable The Schedule Disables the entry without losing the scheduling information.
• Priority The default value is 3. If more than one entry contains the same priority setting, the entry placed in the queue first runs first. As a consumer, you will not be able to edit this setting. Users responsible for managing the Cognos queue will be able to modify the priority.
• Frequency Sets the frequency of the schedule (for example, to run by week on every Monday and Thursday).
• Start / End Sets the dates and times for the schedule to start and finish. The Calendar wizard can be used to select the date.
3. Specify your applicable settings and then click OK. The schedule is created and the report will run at the next scheduled date and time.
Here’s how to modify or remove the report schedule: Click the More link for the entry you want to edit. The Perform An Action Screen displays. Then do the following:
• To remove the schedule, click the Remove The Schedule link and then click OK. The schedule is removed for the report.
• To modify the schedule, click the Modify The Schedule link. The Schedule screen displays, as shown earlier. Repeat the steps used to schedule a report, as discussed earlier.

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Time Dimension:
When a dimension is tagged as "TIME", we get additional functions like Dynamic time series and also it "TIME" dimension enables several accounts dimensions properties. Select a dimension and select "TIME DIMENSION TYPE" button. Only one dimension in the outline can be tagged as time.

Dynamic Time Series:
Analytic services provide 8 pre-defined dynamic time series members.
H-T-D History-to-date
Y-T-D Year-to-date
S-T-D Season-to-date
P-T-D Period-to-date
Q-T-D Quarter-to-date
M-T-D Month-to-date
W-T-D Week-to-date
D-T-D Day-to-date

Dynamic time series members are not displayed as members in the database outline. Instead, analytic services lists the currently active Dynamic Time Series Members in a Comment on the time dimension.

To activate any of the dynamic time series members, right click on TIME dimension click dynamic time series. Another window appears. Select the required dynamic time series function, enter generation number under Gen column. Select Enable check box.

For y-t-d, select generation number for year, i.e. 2. For q-t-d, select generation number for quarter, i.e. 3. In order to retrieve the dynamic time series information, enter level zero member in brackets next to function Ex;y-t-d(jan2007) where jan2007 is level zero member.

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Optimization: Dimension building won't take much time. We need to optimize loading data and calculation process and retrieval process. Rules for the optimization:

• We need to choose sparse and dense dimensions carefully.
• We need to arrange the sparse and dense dimensions in hour glass model. That is most dense dimensions in the top and less dense dimensions, less sparse in the middle and most sparse in the last.
• The block size must be between 8k and 100k

Optimizing Data Loading:

Apart from the above, we need to follow the below steps to optimize the performance.

• Arrange the source data in the same order of sparse dimensions as mentioned in the outline, because the index is arranged in the same order as they appear in the sparse dimensions.
• Group all sparse members together, so that the data related to a block will be together. We can use order by clause in the select statement.

Optimizing Calculations:

Apart from the above, we need to follow the below steps to optimize the calculations.

• Use intelligence calculation.
• Use label only whenever the parent member don't need any calculations.
• Use parallel calculations when possible.
• Use Dynamic calculations on some members, if we further want to reduce the calc time. But use dynamic calculations limitedly.

Optimizing data retrieval:

• Limit the usage of dynamic calc i.e. We have to always balance calculation and time. More dynamic calculations will slow down the retieval performance.
• Increase the retrieval buffer size, by default it is set to 10 kb. We can set this up to 100 KB

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Welcome to Cognos Demos

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Please click on the following links to access Cognos Online Demos

Cognos Controller Demo
Cognos Performance Challenge Demo
Cognos Risk Management Solution Demo
Cognos Planning Demo
Cognos Series 8 Demo
Cognos Report Studio Demo
Cognos Query Studio Demo
Cognos Analysis Studio Demo
Cognos Scorecarding Demo
Cognos Dashboarding Demo
Cognos ReportNet Demo

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Data Storage properties in Essbase:

There are six storage properties available in Essbase Database.
1. Store Data
2. Dynamic calc
3. Dynamic calc and store
4. Label only
5. Shared members
6. Never share

Store Data:
By default the storage type of any member is store data. That means data is stored for that member combinations. If it is a parent member, the member is calculated from its children and gets stored in database (i.e. in page file).

Dynamic calc:
When we tag a parent member as Dynamic calc, the member gets calculated during retrieval time and Analytic services don’t reserve the storage space for the member combinations. During default calculations, the member won’t get calculated.

Advantage: Storage space and default calculation time will get reduced.

Disadvantage: Retrieval time may increase now.

Note: we can’t tag Dynamic calc on level 0 members which are not having formulas.

Dynamic calc and store:
When we tag a parent member as dynamic calc and store, the member gets calculated during retrieval time and analytic services don’t reserve the storage space for the member combinations. During default calculations, the ember won’t get calculated. Instead it will get calculated during first retrieval only and it writes the data into Essbase database. Only first user may face some issues with retrieval time. For subsequent users, it is same as store data only.

Advantage: Default calculation time will get reduced.
Disadvantage: Retrieval time may increase now for the first user only.
If two many concurrent users are there, it will take more time to calculate.
Label Only:
We can tag label only on non level 0 members only. When we tag a parent member as label only, the parent will not get calculated from its child and there is no storage space reserved for the parent member also. We can save some time during default calculations and we can also save some storage space. Label only eases navigation in a report. It’s a dummy parent which is used to group together some members.

Note:
When we saw the report in excel the label only member will shows its first child value. It won’t occupy any storage space it just displays the first child value.

Shared members:
A shared member is used to create alternate hierarchies. The data for shared members come from the original member. There is no storage space reserved for the shared members.
The below rules must be followed for shared members.
1. A shared member name must be same as the original number name.
2. The shared member must come after the original number.
3. The shared member and the original member must belong to the same dimension.
4. We can create any number of shared members in an outline.
5. The shared member cannot have formula, UDA, attribute attached to it.
6. The shared member can have an alias.
7. The shared members cannot have child members.

Never share:
Tag the parent member, never share, when you don’t want the value of child to be implicitly shared with the parent member. We can add formula to the Never share member.

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Types of Dimensions:

Basically dimensions are two types.
1. Standard Dimensions
2. Attribute Dimensions

These are further classified into sparse and dense dimensions.
Standard dimensions may be sparse or dense but attribute dimensions are always dense in nature.

Sparse Dimensions:
The selection of sparse dimensions depends upon the business. If data is not available for majority of the member combinations that dimension will keep as sparse dimension. For every unique member combination an index will get formed and a block will get formed for the same combination. That means every sparse dimension maintains one index file and one page file (having data).
Number of indexes = Number of blocks = Multiply the number of members from one sparse with the number of members from the other sparse dimension and so on.

Ex: Take 2 sparse dimensions
Products (sparse) - 3 members
Market (sparse) - 4 members
No of indexes=3*4 =12 = no of blocks

Disadvantage of Sparse dimension:
When all dimensions are sparse, for every sparse combination it will create indexes. So it will take more time to search the index itself. So don’t go for all dimensions are sparse.

Dense Dimensions:
Data exists for majority of the member combinations that dimension will be dense. Dense dimensions affect the size of the block,
Number of cells = multiply the number of members from one dense dimension with number of members from the other dense dimension.
Block size = Number of cells * 8
Ex: Time (dense) - 4 members
Measures (dense) - 3 members
No of cells = 4*3 =12
Block size = 12* = 96

Note:
1. Ideal block size 8k to 100k
2. If the block size is between ideal block sizes we can make that dimension as sparse.
3. With sparse and dense dimensions we can reduce the load and calculation times.

Attribute dimensions:
Generally attribute dimensions are sparse in nature. Attribute dimensions are just like as shared members. Once we create the attribute dimension the member will not having any consolidation operator. The attribute dimension must be at the end of the outline. The attribute dimension can be associated to only base dimension. Not for other dimensions.

NOTE: For one base dimension we can have any number of attribute dimensions.

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