Gah, not again - Installation of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence has failed.

As if by magic, here it is again: -

ERROR: Error during "install" phase:

Installation of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence has failed.

Return code : -1

Building upon previous posts: -

Here we go again - ERROR: Installation of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence has failed.

Installation of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence has failed. Return code : 1

Foiled Again - Installation of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence has failed. Return code : 1 

This time I was seeing: -

<entry num='171' time='1409082967257' elapsed='00:50.44' level='ERROR' thread='Thread-23'>
 <logger>global</logger>
 <class>com.ibm.cognos.exec.Install</class>
 <method>exec</method>
 <message>com.ibm.cognos.exec.Install
Command: [Ljava.lang.String;@67a467a4
Return code : -1
StdOut :
StdErr : Cannot run program "/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/CognosImage/linuxi38664h/issetupnx": java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory</message>
</entry>

in: -

/home/wasadmin/var/ibm/InstallationManager/logs/20140826_2055.xml

The ERROR: Error during "install" phase exception was a recurring theme for ~2 hours.

The first time out of the gate, I also saw: -

WARNING: Current system has detected a lower level of ulimit open files setting than the recommended value of 8192. Increase the ulimit open files value to minimum value of 8192 and re-start the installation.

Shutdown your installer. If you are a root user open a command prompt and issue ulimit -n 8192 and then restart the installer. If you are a non-root user, work with your system administrator to increase your ulimit -n 8192 and then restart the installer.

which was a new one on me, but a herring rouge.

I fixed that particular problem by checking the installing user's ulimits: -

ulimit -n

1024

/etc/security/limits.conf

Already has: -

# - nofile - max number of open files
root soft nofile 65536
root hard nofile 65536

*BUT*

/etc/security/limits.d/90-nproc.conf

needed: -

# - nofile - max number of open files
wasadmin   soft    nofile  65536
wasadmin   hard    nofile  65536

as it overrides limits.conf in RHEL6.

This gives me: -

ulimit -n

65536

but, as I say, it was a herring rouge.

I eventually found the solution by expanding

/tmp/Repo/BAM855/repository/COGNOS_64/native/cognos-linuxia64_10.2.1.zip

into a temporary directory: -

/tmp/foobar/

and then tested the failing binary - issetupnx : -

chmod +x issetupnx
./issetupnx

bash: ./issetupnx: /lib/ld-linux.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory

ld issetupnx

ld: i386 architecture of input file `issetupnx' is incompatible with i386:x86-64 output

After much faffing about, I worked out that I was missing certain RPMs, including GLIBC and GCC.

I ended up installing the following list: -

glibc-2.12-1.107.el6.i686.rpm

libXp-1.0.0-15.1.el6.x86_64.rpm

openmotif-2.3.3-4.el6.i686.rpm
glibc-2.12-1.47.el6.i686.rpm

nss-softokn-freebl-3.12.9-11.el6.i686.rpm

openmotif-2.3.3-4.el6.x86_64.rpm
libgcc-4.4.7-3.el6.i686.rpm

openmotif22-2.2.3-19.el6.x86_64.rpm

although I have highlighted those that I believe to be actually relevant :-)

I now get: -

./issetupnx

Licensed Materials - Property of IBM, BI and PM: is,
(C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2004, 2013. US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
UNIX IBM Cognos InstallStream Version 10.2.1


The executable "issetupnx" may only be run in unattended mode, Please use the "-s" option and try again. 

which makes more sense.

As you can imagine, when I re-ran the installation process: -

/opt/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse/tools/imcl -input installCognos.rsp -acceptLicense

it worked like a dram: -

Installed com.ibm.ws.cognos.v1021.linuxia64_10.2.1.20140530_2310 to the /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer directory.