For Cognos 8, the only service that accesses the query database (also known as reporting database) is the reporting engine that runs reports.
To set up database connectivity for the reporting database:
Ensure that you install the database API software for your reporting sources on each Cognos 8 server computer.
On Windows, the report server supports either native database connectivity or ODBC. On UNIX and Linux, the report server supports the native database connectivity.
On UNIX, for Microsoft SQL Server only, the report server supports the Data Direct ODBC driver. This driver is available from Data Direct.
Cognos 8 requires TCP/IP connectivity with the Microsoft SQL Server.