Cognos Planning: Model Design consideration

Model Design consideration

While working with Cognos Planning I have the error : "Out of memory" too many times and learned some tips and knowledge from handling these errors. But still server spec. and resources are very important to study before implement your model and GTP. Following is some considerations I learned while working with Planning:
(I will update this article as can as possible)

1. D-List and D-Cube in Analyst sizing and tips:

• Use only one item in the E-List in Analyst
• If the cube size is to big (more than 2.5 million cells) open a selection with smaller size to view the cube from because Analyst has limitation in memory usage.
• Divide and conquer: Divide the D-Cube to more smaller D-Cube and create a top level summary one with D-Links among them
• Arrange the D-Cube dimensions as following: 1- Calculation dimension(measure dimension), 2- E-List dimension, 3- D-Lists with aggregations rather than "Versions" D-List, 4- "Versions" D-List, 5- Time scale D-List.
• If your dimensions are list of items with one simple sum (A, B, C,...,Z, Total=[A+B+...+Z]) add one new item with simple calculation (Total A = +A) and exclude it from the application later with access table. This approach reduce memory usage by a factor more than 10.
• Don't use Analyst to Contributor D-Link if you have big cubes, You can use Administration link from CAC 

  That is enough for today I will work in this later.   

Cognos and Arabic support

Cognos and Arabic Support

I was work with a new project that has Arabic data. The server work with windows server 2003, Cognos was installed but the windows wasn't configured to support Arabic. After adding Arabic to windows, Cognos give me error and still can't present Arabic in Planning Anlayst or in CAC and in Cognos connection goes worth because the Home link and Content were not working giving me blank pages. You may use any other Application to open the package and it will open and Arabic will appear.

After searching and trials I found that you must install Arabic in windows before Cognos installation