Cognos copying between servers

Is it possible to copy objects (cubes, reports, setup) from one cognos 8 installation to another? For instance if a software consultancy company were to develop a cognos solution for a client then would the consultancy need to do everything on the client's servers directly, or can th开发者_C百科ey develop it on their own server and send everything to the client when it's finished?

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I believe your question has 2 answers. One answer for content, one answer for server configuration:

1) In regards to content (reports, models), as an administrator you can export content from your Cognos 8 installation. You can do this at the folder, package level or even the entire content store. The export function creates an archive file that can then be imported on the target installation. Documentation for this can be found in the Administration and Security Guide (Part 5).

2) In regards to setup/configuration, most server configuration is handled by the Cognos Configuration application which you run from the server. This is your server configuration tool and controls things such as URI's for the different C8 server components, pointers to the content store, email notification setup, etc. The Cognos Configuration contains an option under the File menu to Export the configuration as an XML file, which can then be used on the target installation.

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In most organizations, you'll have a set of Cognos environments, for example :

• Development (this is where BI content authors create models, reports, etc)
• QA (this is were testers validate that the BI content is accurate)
• Production (where real end users consume the BI content)

A BI Lifecycle Management tool like MotioCI can make promoting content between multiple Cognos environments far easier (and repeatable / traceable). For example, here's a short video which demonstrates the process :

http://www.motio.com/products/ci/video/labelingAndPromotingBiContent.do