Cryptographic Key Error

Part of Cognos configuration is the length of time the encryption key will stay valid. If the encryption key expires, the Cognos administrator needs to regenerate the key in EVERY instance/installation. The setting can be found here:

To regenerate the encryption keys, follow these instructions, which can be found from this link as well:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21383421

Steps to Regenerate Cryptographic Keys
1. Stop the Cognos services.
2. On the Content Manager computer, back up the existing cryptographic keys by saving the
following directories to an alternate location that is secure:
● c10_location/configuration/csk
● c10_location/configuration/encryptkeypair
● c10_location/configuration/signkeypair
3. Open Cognos Configuration, go to the File menu and select Export As, click yes at the prompt and save the file as backup.xml in the c10_location/configuration folder.
4. Delete the csk, encryptkeypair, and signkeypair directories.
5. In the c10_location/configuration folder, rename the existing cogstartup.xml to cogstartup.old
6. In the c10_location/configuration folder, rename backup.xml to cogstartup.xml.
7. Open Cognos Configuration, save the configuration and restart the services.
8. Repeat steps 1 to 7 on all computers that have Cognos components installed.

I however encountered an error when I was about to export the file (step #3). Fortunately, Cognos periodically saves cogstartup.xml file in \configuration
I renamed (backup) the current cogstartup.xml, and replaced with the latest cogstartup that Cognos saved. The error that I encountered in step #3 went away.

Some configuration settings however changed. Fortunately, I was able to save a screenshot of all the configuration values while the server was still up and running. That is also a very good tip, the moment you get access to Cognos server configuration, take a screen shot of all the values.