By Elwood Philbrick - Envisn, Inc.
The purpose of this article is to identify key metrics that administrators should monitor or pay attention to in terms of their production Cognos Content Store. Many of these can directly impact overall performance as well as user satisfaction.
- Size – Most administrators of large Cognos environments have no idea how large their Content Store is. It’s good to know, but by itself this may be the least important metric of those listed here since size alone really does not tell you much.
- # of objects by type - Knowing the mix of object types in your Content Store can be very useful. The relationship between the number of reports and queries relative to the number of packages or models can be helpful particularly as you begin to track these relationships over time. Instead of relying on one or two very large packages for everything, a better strategy is to create packages that are specific for an area or function such as sales, logistics, marketing, etc. Figure 1 shows an object count summary by type for a sample production Content Store.
- Saved output – In most mid size or large environments the amount of saved output is usually significantly larger in terms of file size than the number of objects in the Content Store. Users may be saving output from reports over time and many of these can be very large. If you don’t already have a policy in place for this you probably need to get one. Figure 2 is an example showing total saved output and the detail for Sales folder in a sample Cognos Connection.
- Rate of growth – You should be tracking the rate of growth in terms of the number of objects as well as saved output. This issue becomes more critical in environments that are large and/or are growing rapidly. Being able to monitor rates of growth in terms of the areas mentioned above can be a key indicator of real or potential problems in your CS. Tracking growth should be done no less frequently than on a monthly basis.
- Unused objects – Ideally you should be able to track usage of both content and users across your Cognos environment. If you have content that has not been used for a period of time, say 2 – 3 months or more, it likely is a candidate for being removal. Being able to purge public folders of unused content makes it easier for users to find the content they really need. Also, user licenses that are not being used can be reassigned to new users.
- Objects with broken lineage – Lineage breaks can occur because a package was modified and published without understanding the impact on reports or queries that are using it. Or because a data item(s) no longer exists. Being able to identify and fix objects with broken lineage before users even know there is a problem reduces calls to the help desk as well as the number of frustrated users. At any given time the number of objects with broken lineage in a typical production Cognos Content Store is somewhere between 10% and 15%.
- Missing objects – Like broken lineage, missing objects can result in a null response when users click on a report to run it or are waiting to receive a schedule report. An example might be where a user has created a view of a report but then that report somehow gets deleted. Or a distribution list mistakenly gets deleted and the recipients do not get their reports.
- Duplicate objects – Identifying two or more copies of the same object across the environment may indicate a need for better user training.
- Version Creep – Keeping versions of models, packages or other objects far beyond their needed time period can often result in poor performance over time. If you do not need versioning then do not turn it on.
- Excessive report creation – If you see an excessive number of reports being created it’s an indicator that users may not understand how to use bursting or prompts.
Summary:
Managing your Cognos Content Store starts with knowing what’s in it, how large it is, how fast it’s growing and where the growth is taking place. The metrics discussed here may not all be appropriate for your environment or even the right ones. But it’s a place to start and begin the process of getting your Content Store aligned with your BI strategy and plans.
© 2011 - Envisn, Inc. – All rights reserved
Image by tomas_fitnesscoach