Installation roadmap

Use the installation roadmap to quickly find the information that you need to install Unica reports.

The reports installation process includes the following steps:

  • Install the reporting components.
  • Install and test IBM Cognos® BI.
  • Install the Unica integration components and report models on the Cognos® system.
  • Customize the reports.

The following tables provide high level overviews of the Unica reports installation process, with brief descriptions of the steps involved and information about where to find detailed instructions.

Table 1. Roadmap for installing the reporting components

This three-columned table provides the steps in the first column, the description in the second column, and information about where to find details in the third column.
Step Description Where to find details
Understand prerequisites. Understand system prerequisites that are required for installing reports.
Important: For Unica Deliver, you also need to understand the additional prerequisites for installing Unica Deliver reports.
 See Recommended Software Environments and Minimum System Requirements.

For Unica Deliver, also see Prerequisites for Unica Deliver Reports.
Install Unica products. Install the products that provide the data that is used in reports. See the individual product installation guides.
Set up a system user. Configure a user with access to the Settings > Configuration and Settings > Report SQL Generator pages. Log in as this user when you configure the reporting properties and generate the SQL that is used to create reporting schema. See Configuring a user with the ReportsSystem role.
Install the reporting schemas on the machine where the Unica Platform is installed. Place the master installer and the report pack installers in the same directory and launch the master installer. See Installing reporting schemas on the Unica system
Create JDBC data sources. In the application server where Unica Platform is deployed, create JDBC data source connections to the system table databases for the products you want to use for reporting. See Creating JDBC data sources.
Table 2. Roadmap for installing and testing Cognos® BI

This three-columned table provides the steps in the first column, the description in the second column, and information about where to find details in the third column.
Step Description Where to find details
Install IBM® Cognos® BI Use the Cognos® documentation to guide your installation, and then test the system. See Install and test IBM Cognos BI.
Table 3. Roadmap for installing the Unica integration components and report models on the Cognos® system

This three-columned table provides the steps in the first column, the description in the second column, and information about where to find details in the third column.
Step Description Where to find details
Obtain the JDBC driver used for the Unica Platform system tables. Copy the JDBC driver used for Unica Platform to the machine where the Cognos® Content Manager is installed. When authentication is implemented, Cognos® uses this when it obtains user information. See Obtaining the JDBC driver for the Unica Platform system tables.
Install the reporting models and integration component on the Cognos® system. Place the Unica master installer, Unica Platform installer, and product report pack installers in the same directory on the machine where the Cognos® Content Manager is installed. Then, launch the master installer. See Installing the reporting models and integration component on the Cognos system.
Create the Cognos® data sources for the Unica application databases. The Cognos® applications need to connect to the Unica application data sources for the reports. Use the Administration section of Cognos® Connection to create these data sources. See Creating Cognos data sources for Unica application databases.
Set up email notification. If you want to enable an option for sending a report as an email attachment, configure notification in Cognos® Configuration. See Optional: Setting up email notifications.
Configure the Cognos® firewall. In Cognos® Configuration, specify the Unica system as a valid domain or host. See Configuring IBM Cognos Application Firewall for Unica.
For Unica Deliver, run scripts to create staging tables, indexes, and stored procedures. Run the scripts that are necessary to create staging tables, indexes, and stored procedures for Unica Deliver reports. See For Unica Deliver only: Creating stored procedures, staging tables, and indexes
Load the templates for the Reports SQL Generator. To implement reporting for Unica Campaign, Unica Deliver, and Unica Interact, you create reporting views from which the reports extract reportable data. The reports packs contain templates that the Reports SQL Generator uses when generating SQL scripts for creating these views. In this step, you load these templates into the Unica Platform system table database. See Loading templates for the Reports SQL Generator.
Generate the view creation scripts. Set some required configuration properties, and then use the Report SQL Generator to produce the SQL for creating the reporting views. See Generating view creation scripts.
Create the reporting views. Create the views in the Unica product system table databases. See one of the following topics:
Import the reports folder for all products. In Cognos® Connection, import the compressed file for reports. See Importing the reports folder in Cognos Connection.
Configure and publish the data model. You must complete this step if the data source login that you used when you created the Cognos® data sources is not the owner of the Unica system tables. See Configuring and publishing the data model.
Enable internal links in the reports. The Unica reports have standard links. To enable them, you must configure the redirect URL in the Cognos® data model. See Enabling internal links in the reports.
Verify the data source names and publish. This step varies depending on whether you used the default data source names in Cognos® Connection. See Verifying data source names and publishing.
Configure the Cognos® reporting properties in Unica. Log in to Unica and set Cognos® reporting properties. See Configuring Cognos reporting properties in Unica Platform.
Configure report folder permissions. To give users permission to run reports from within Unica applications, assign the default ReportsUser role to the appropriate user groups or users. See Setting report folder permissions.
For Unica Deliver, run and schedule stored procedures. Unica Deliver reports use data that is contained in staging tables, which are populated by stored procedures that perform a delta refresh operation. The scheduling of the procedures depends on your database. Scheduling the procedures must be done by a database administrator who is familiar with your Unica Campaign and Unica Deliver environments and with your business requirements.
Note: You cannot see data in Unica Deliver reports until you run the stored procedures.
 See For Unica Deliver only: How to schedule and run stored procedures.
Stored procedures for the Interact Event Pattern report. The Interact Event Pattern report uses the data that is contained in staging tables, which are populated by stored procedures. The stored procedures perform a delta refresh operation.

The Interact ETL triggers the report data aggregation automatically so you do not need to configure database jobs to perform a delta refresh.

 See Stored procedures for the Unica Interact Event Pattern report.
Enable the stored procedures for the Interact Event Pattern report The Interact Event Pattern report uses the delta refresh process for data aggregation so that reports can render faster. See Enabling stored procedures for the Unica Interact Event Pattern report.
For the Interact Event Pattern report, change the degree of parallel executions Increase the degree of parallel execution for the Interact Event Pattern report aggregation process to increase speed and improve performance. See Changing the degree of parallel execution for the Interact Event Pattern report.
Test the configuration without authentication enabled. After the reports are installed and configured, but before you enable authentication, test the setup by running some reports. See Testing your configuration before you enable authentication.
Configure Cognos® to use Unica authentication. The Unica Authentication Provider enables the Cognos® applications to use Unica authentication to communicate with Unica Platform as if it were another application in the suite. See How to configure IBM Cognos to use Unica authentication.
Test your configuration with authentication configured. After you configure Cognos® to use Unica authentication, test the system again. See Testing your configuration with authentication configured.
Table 4. Roadmap for customizing the reports

This three-columned table provides the steps in the first column, the description in the second column, and information about where to find details in the third column.
Step Description Where to find details
Complete customization steps. At this point, reporting works properly and the example reports are in their default state. You might need to customize the reports or reporting schemas for Unica Campaign, Unica Interact, or Unica Plan. See How to customize reporting schemas.