Cognos 8 includes a sample audit model in Framework Manager. The default location is c8_location/webcontent/samples/Models/Audit/Audit.cpf.

There also is an extension pack for the Audit packages and there are more detailed reports available.

There also are tools installed on the server, that can provide you with more detailed information:

c8_location/bin/logconsole.exe gives you the possibility to log more details of different services c8_location/bin/logviewV2.exe is a tool that is able to transform the cogserver.log files that are created when logging on the filesystem is enabled (by default in the ../logs/ directory) And of course you can use the default OS monitoring (like Windows task manager) or a open source variant like Nagios to see in what is happening on the server(s).

[edit]Cognos server settings Because the Cognos core is not changing every day, you can enable (IIS/Apache) caching. This can speed up the performance, because all images, javascripts etc. will be only retrieved after they're expired (for example: after a week). Scheduled reports that are too large, are rejected by a SMTP service. Cognos only sees that it cannot be send, and will try it again, every hour (!). This causes a lot of reads on the Content Store (if they're too large, they're a least 10MB), and causes a lot of disk I/O, because the JobService (of EventManagerService) created a temp file before sending the e-mail again. Cognos can create large temp files for intermediate results. On high loads, this can cause the disk to flood. Temp files of 2Gb have been seen, so monitor the temp directory and make sure there is enough space to write to. [edit]Cognos service settings Some service aren't used on a day-to-day bases (or aren't used at all). High loglevels have a negative influence on the performance. Full logging will nearly break a machine and is never advised on a production environment.

For every service the loglevel should be Basic or less: This will log all the errors, but has the least effect on performance. Some services don't need logging to be enabled at all.

In a distributed environment you can apply routing rules to guide users to different machines. You can assign different machines to different machine groups or assign a package to a package group. For example: interactive reporting on a given package will be routed to three machines, all other reporting will be done on two other machines. On the first three machines you can disable jobservice, eventmanagerservice, batchreportservice, metadataservice etc. By default, IBM Cognos 8 executes queries in a report sequentially. Depending on the server environment it might be possible to improve report run performance by enabling parallel query execution. This setting can be adjusted in the advanced server properties for the report service and the batch report service. When concurrent query execution is enabled, the report server determines which queries in the report can be run in parallel. There are a few parameters that can be adjusted to manage concurrency in Cognos 8: RSVP.CONCURRENTQUERY.NUMHELPERSPERPROCESS - number of helpers per report service (and batch report service) process. By default the parameter value is 0 (concurrency disabled). RSVP.CONCURRENTQUERY.MAXNUMHELPERSPERREPORT - maximum number of helpers per report. By default it is set to 1. Has no effect when the above parameter is set to 0. RSVP.CONCURRENTQUERY.ENABLEDFORINTERACTIVEOUTPUT - enables concurrent query execution when the report service is producing interactive output (disabled by default). [edit]Cognos Framework Manager settings Using (not-materialized) views in your packages makes it impossible for Cognos to retrieve metadata, because a view is dynamic. Using a view can be a good practice, but keep this in mind. Joins over different views can influence performance. On oracle, views very rarely cause a metadata problem in Framework Manager. Even with extremely complex views (20 or more pages of sql), Framework manager is able to resolve data types correctly. This may not be the case (as mentioned above) in other databases and may be driver dependent. For complex queries, views significantly improve report performance by pushing all of the data processing to the database. Even with Database only processing, the sql generated from the framework is, typically, not as performant as well tuned sql. The database, generally, processes the data, joins, and aggregations more efficiently. Generally, views, used as a performance optimization (not a default), can be a very effective strategy for improving framework performance. [edit]Cognos Report Studio settings If your database is strong enough and you want to let your queries be executed on the database, check these settings for your query

Processing: Database only Rollup Processing: Database Execution Optimization: All Rows Use Local Cache: No Use for Parameter Info: Yes or No (depends on your design) Execution Method: Concurrent (if available, see services) Disable Selection Based Interactivity (less HTML will be generated) In Report Studio, if you don't use detailed chart information, you can minimize the number of Hotspots in a chart to 0 (zero). This reduces the HTML that is been generated, especially with complex charts In Report Studio, menu Data > Drill Behavior > uncheck Allow this report to be package-based drill-through source In Report Studio, menu Data > Drill Behavior > uncheck Accept dynamic filters when this report is a drill-through target Validation Level is by default set to Warning. In the menu Tools > Validate Options > Validation level, this can be set to Information. This might give extra tips on joins, metadata or other "less than perfect" issues. [edit]Client settings A virusscanner can have a negative effect on the performance, because every http connection and every download is being scanned. See if you can add your intranet/extranet to a trusted site/trusted zone, so scanning is disabled.

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[edit]Sources Tools:

Cognos 8 Audit package information Cognos 8 Audit Extension

Server Administration Cognos 8 Tuning Scalability Planning http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/dw/dm/cognos/performance/cognos_s pecific/cognos_8_performance_tuning_settings.pdf http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/dw/dm/cognos/performance/cognos_s pecific/cognos_8_performance_tuning_cheat_sheet.pdf Services:

Concurrent Query Execution Report Settings:

Disable Selection Based Interactivity Maximum Number of Hotspots