Cognos 8 cryptographic services use a specific .jar (Java Archive) file, named bcprov-jdknn-nnn.jar, that must be located in your Java Runtime Environment (JRE). This file provides additional encryption and decryption routines that are not supplied as part of a default JVM installation. To ensure security, the encryption file must be loaded by the JVM using the java extensions directory.

If you want to use your own JRE and have JAVA_HOME set to that location on Windows or if you are installing on UNIX, you may have to update the Java environment for the cryptographic services.

On Windows, you can set JAVA_HOME as a system variable or a user variable. If you set it as a system variable, it may be necessary to restart your computer for it to take effect. If you set it as a user variable, set it so that the environment in which Tomcat is running can access it.

If you do not have a JAVA_HOME variable already set on Windows or if JAVA_HOME points to a Java version that is not valid for Cognos 8, the JRE files provided with the installation will be used, and you do not have to update any files in your environment.