If you have a simple Cognos Configuration change to make or if X Window GUIs are not an option, there is another way to make cogfiguration changes.  Instead of running Cognos Configuration through the GUI interface you can edit the cogstartup.xml file directly to change your Cognos Configuration settings.

There are some things you need to do before you edit your cogstartup.xml file.  The first is to stop the Cognos service.  This can be done with the Unix shell command “./cogconfig.sh -stop”  This shell script is found in your c10/bin directory.

Next, back up your cogstartup.xml file.  If you corrupt the cogstartup.xml file, Cognos services may not restart.  You need the backup in case you need to roll back your Cognos Configuration changes.

When you open your cogstartup.xml file, you will notice that some of the information in this file such as user names and passwords are encrypted.  You will not be able to retrieve the previous settings of these parameters using this method but you can successfully change them.  For best results, open and edit the file in a Unix editor – do not edit in Windows and import back to Unix.  The file needs to be encoded in UTF-8.

To change unencrypted parameters, simply modify their values in the xml file.

To change encrypted parameters, remove the encrypted string and type the new value in plain text.  Then change the encrypted value to false.

Original XML:

<crn:parameter name=”disp_sharedsecret”>
<crn:value xsi:type=”cfg:systemPassword” encrypted=”true”>HJdtycSUJ&*JFfda</crn:value>
</crn:parameter>

Changed XML:

<crn:parameter name=”disp_sharedsecret”>
<crn:value xsi:type=”cfg:systemPassword” encrypted=”false”>PasswordValue</crn:value>
</crn:parameter>

When you restart your Cognos Service, the value will be encrypted and the encrypted flag will be set to true.

To restart your Cognos Service, run the Unix shell command “./cogconfig.sh -s”  If you experience problems with the restart of your service, revert to your cogstartup.xml file backup and try again.  For more information on this topic, see the IBM article on it here.