Contents
Summary
Based on our experience, install the “Application Request Routing” (ARR) module manually via the “IExpress” vs. WPI method.
If using a VM, it’s recommended to do a snapshot before uninstalling or updating.
In more depth…
IBM Cognos Analytics 11 (ICA 11) requires url rewrite and reverse proxy features when configured with a Gateway with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). This requires the “Application Request Routing” (AAR) module to be installed.
Installing or upgrading has several options
For ICA 11 an error occurs with the version released on Jan 25, 2018 – 3.0.1988 (HTTP 500.50 error – URL rewrite error), which does not occur with the previous version 3.0.1952
Recent versions of ARR requires 2 other additional components to be installed:
- Microsoft External Cache
- IIS URL Rewrite Module 2
- Microsoft Application Request Routing 3.0
Microsoft’s primary way of installing AAR is via the following page, which uses Web Platform Installer (WPI), which can be found here: Application Request Routing
It’s fairly clear that the intent of the WPI to provide a way to ensure platform components are always up to date. Unfortunately, uninstalling via the WPI is not available. It also it tends to distribute information about components installed with WPI across quite a number of WPI related configuration files.
While some have stated that uninstalling one of the ARR components (e.g. 3.0.1988) and re-installing (e.g. 3.0.1952) is possible (to correct the issues in 3.0.1988), it’s not clear what impact these manual actions will have on future ARR updates.
Fortunately, there is a non-WPI mechanism to install the ARR IExpress x64 installation, which currently contains (as of 20 Feb 2018), the 3.0.1952 version – which works with IBM Cognos Analytics 11.0.9. This consists of a .exe file which contains the 3 ARR components as individual installs, plus an executable to install all 3 at the same time.