Configuring HCL Cognos to use HCL Marketing Software Authentication Provider

You must use the Cognos® Configuration and Cognos Connection applications to configure the HCL® Cognos BI applications to use the HCL® Marketing Software Authentication Provider.

About this task

For distributed systems only: If your HCL Cognos system has backup Content Managers configured for failover support, complete this task on each server where Content Manager is installed.

To configure HCL Cognos to use the HCL Marketing Software Authentication Provider, complete the following step.

Procedure

  1. On the computer where the Cognos Content Manager is running, open Cognos Configuration.
  2. Select Local Configuration > Security > Authentication.
  3. Right-click Authentication and select New resource > Namespace.
  4. Complete the fields as follows, and then click OK:
    1. Name: Unica
    2. Type: Custom Java Provider
  5. On the Resource Properties page, complete the fields as follows and then save your changes:
    1. NamespaceID: Unica
    2. Java class name: com.unica.report.adapter.UnicaAuthenticationProvider
  6. Stop and restart the HCL Cognos BI service.

    On a Windows™ system, sometimes the Cognos interface indicates that the service is stopped when it is not. To ensure that the service has really stopped, use the Windows Administrative tools to stop the service.

  7. Under Local Configuration > Security > Authentication, right-click Unica and select Test.

    If Cognos Connection displays an error, examine the cogserver.log file in the logs directory of your Cognos installation to determine the problem.

  8. Log in to Cognos Connection as follows to verify that the HCL Marketing Software Authentication provider is configured correctly:
    • If you set the Cognos authentication mode in the HCL Marketing Software configuration properties to authenticated, log in as the cognos_admin (report system) user.
    • If you set the authentication mode in the HCL Marketing Software configuration properties to authenticatedPerUser, log in as the asm_admin user.

    If HCL Cognos displays the following error, expand the error message.

    The third-party provider returned an unrecoverable exception.

    If the expanded message states invalid credentials, you made an error entering your user credentials. Try to log in again.

    If the expanded message states password expired, HCL Marketing Software expired the password. Log in to HCL Marketing Software application as the reporting system user and reset the password. Then, try logging in to Cognos Connection again.

    If you still cannot log in to Cognos Connection, examine the cogserver.log file in the logs directory of your Cognos installation.

  9. When you successfully log in to Cognos Connection, open Cognos Configuration.
  10. Select Local Configuration > Security > Authentication > Cognos.
  11. Disable anonymous access to HCL Cognos BI by setting Allow anonymous access? to false.
  12. Save your changes.
  13. Stop and restart the HCL Cognos service.

    If the HCL Cognos service cannot communicate successfully with the authentication provider, it cannot start. If the HCL Cognos service fails to start, verify your configuration by retracing the steps in this procedure.

Results

Now, anyone who logs in to an application on the Cognos system is authenticated by HCL Marketing Software. Additionally, the authentication namespace Unica now appears in the HCL Cognos user interface for logon and security administration tasks.