How do I learn Cognos by myself without data to work on?

Question

I have done a course in data warehousing and data mining , and I am interested in going the Cognos business intelligence way. However, I need to practice on data which I cannot find. How do I get myself aquainted better with Cognos? I need sample data to work on. Where do I find it ?

Answer 1

Try http://www.data.gov . They have tons of large datasets of all shapes and sizes.

There's also the Stack Overflow torrent ...

Answer 2

Microsoft has a great set of reusable sample data for SQL Server. It's much better than the sample gobbledygook that comes with Cognos.

http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/

You can use one of the free versions of SQL Server with Cognos.

Answer 3

I'm assumming you have access to the product. The absolute best way to learn the product is to leverage the Cognos Examples that are an optional component to install(Comes with Cognos).

The examples not only install the GoSalesDb which is their sample data but the examples also have best practices Framework Models/Cubes/Dashboards/Reports built on this data so you can see how the tool is meant to function.

Everything Cognos/IBM trains on almost for power users/content will use this same sample engine for the most part to teach from.

The examples use to be a joke in early releases but now they are seriously polished and make it easy to not only learn the product but see techniques and approaches that have taken people years to learn.

When the examples are installed you will see in the Cognos Web Portal all this content (Packages/Reports/Cubes/Dashboards/Metric Reprots/Alerts) everything all pre-built and ready for you to run/review and study how it was done and you have the GoSales datasource to use as your playground.

Answer 4

Look in the samples directory of the Webcontent folder. Or have your Cognos administrator set it up.

Answer 5

Why not just use the sample databases that come WITH Cognos 8? If you have access to a Cognos 8 BI installation, you can install the Great Outdoor sample databases which also come with Framework Manager (FM) models and packages for Cognos 8 deployment.

Instructions on installing the samples can be found on the IBM site: Install the IBM Cognos 8 Samples .