View in PDF format / View in Excel 2007 not working with Esri Maps for Cognos configured with SSL

Description

When IBM Cognos and Esri Maps for IBM Cognos are configured to use the SSL security protocol, viewing a map-enabled report in PDF or Excel 2007 formats displays an empty box instead of the map image. The map displays correctly when the report runs in HTML.

Cause

There is an incomplete or missing Chain of Trust for SSL within the IBM Cognos Keystore.

When viewing a map-enabled report in PDF or Excel 2007 format, the IBM Cognos Gateway is unable to access the map images on the web server because a chain of trust for SSL has not been established between the web server and IBM Cognos application-tier components.

Solution or Workaround

Note:
As noted in the IBM Cognos Installation and Configuration guide, this task must be performed on each computer that has IBM Cognos components installed, including Content Manager, Application Tier components, gateway, and modeling components.

1. Locate the required certificate authority (CA) certificates and intermediate certificates. This represents the Chain of Trust signed by the CA certificate.
2. Export the certificates to a location on the IBM Cognos server.
3. Import the certificate to the IBM Cognos CA keystore.
   
   a) On the IBM Cognos Server, open a command prompt.
   
   

   Note:
   It is highly recommended to create a backup of the IBM Cognos Content Store before running this command

   
   b) Type the following command to import the certificate, specifying the path and name of the certificate exported in the previous steps.
   
   

   Note:
   The order of the certificates is important. Begin with the root, then proceed through intermediate CA certificates.

   
   For Windows:
   
   

   <cognos_root>\bin\ThirdPartyCertificateTool.bat -java:local -T -i –r ca.cer -D ../configuration/signkeypair -p NoPassWordSet

   
   For Unix:
   
   

   Note:
   Ensure that the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set before running the command.

   
   
   

   <cognos_root>/bin/ThirdPartyCertificateTool.sh -T -i –r ca.cer -D ../configuration/signkeypair -p NoPassWordSet

   
   where:
   
   • ca.cer: is the path and file name of the exported certificate; for example, <cognos_root>\bin\ca.cer
   • NoPassWordSet: if a password was specified for the keystore certificate, replace this value with the password set. Otherwise, accept the default.
   
   c) Press Enter to execute the command.
   
   d) When the command is complete, close the command window.
4. Restart IBM Cognos services.
   
   Viewing map-enabled reports in PDF and Excel 2007 formats should now display the map image. It may be necessary to clear the browser cache for changes to take effect.