Configuring IBM Cognos® to use Unica Authentication Provider

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

About this task

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

To configure Cognos® to use the Unica 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 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 Unica Authentication provider is configured correctly:
    • If you set the Cognos® authentication mode in the Unica configuration properties to authenticated, log in as the cognos_admin (report system) user.
    • If you set the authentication mode in the Unica configuration properties to authenticatedPerUser, log in as the asm_admin user.

    If 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, Unica expired the password. Log in to Unica 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 Cognos® BI by setting Allow anonymous access? to false.
  12. Save your changes.
  13. Stop and restart the Cognos® service.

    If the Cognos® service cannot communicate successfully with the authentication provider, it cannot start. If the 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 Unica. Additionally, the authentication namespace Unica now appears in the Cognos® user interface for logon and security administration tasks.