topic Re: Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation in All Things Community

Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation

neetesh_2000 — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 05:46:34 GMT

I am using SAS 9.4 in a client server model.

The sas jobs execute on Unix server. There can be many users who can open a dataset for viewing.

Now, when some one opens it for even viewing , and forgets to close it, my job fails when it tries to update those datasets.

Is there any way we can force to update those datasets without the jobs failing ?

Also is there any way if we can know if a dataset is open on someone's workstation?

Re: Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 06:05:38 GMT

Method 1: Declare a time window for updating datasets and suspend workspace server operations during that time window.

Method 2: Use a trick that I do; I obtain the physical dataset filename from the library definition and the dataset name, and use one of the methods for system commands (X statement, call system() subroutine, %sysexec, filename pipe) to do a "rm -f filename". This works even when someone accesses the dataset. All users who have the dataset open will see the old version until they close and reopen.

Re: Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation

SASKiwi — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 07:32:13 GMT

A variation of @Kurt_Bremser's method 1 is to stop and re-start the SAS workspace server services before running any update jobs. This will drop all SAS sessions including any locks they have on SAS datasets.

Re: Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation

LinusH — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 13:24:23 GMT

@SASKiwi - you mean "SAS workspace server sessions" I guess...?

If you have lots of data, and import updates etc (like en enterprise wide DW) you should consider another storage format that handles concurrent read/update operations. In SAS, SPD Server offers that. And most external RDBMS does as well.

Re: Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation

SASKiwi — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 19:51:03 GMT

Actually @LinusH I was thinking of the Windows services that run to support a SAS Compute server. Stopping and restarting these drops all user sessions. I guess there is an equivalent under Unix but I'm not so familiar with that as I don't use it currently.

Re: Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation

LinusH — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 20:25:22 GMT

Maybe the hour is late, but I don't think stopping a service will take down workspace server sessions. Perhaps pooled ones, but not the regular ones.
I've used a simple script to kill all SAS (with some exceptions) sessions before the batch starts.

Re: Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 20:25:35 GMT

On UNIX systems, terminating the spawner will not affect client sessions. But one could write a script that finds all workspace server sessions through the peculiarities of their command line, and terminates them.

I prefer my method of deleting the files, as it is less "destructive" for users.

Re: Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation

SASKiwi — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 19:32:57 GMT

@LinusH - I think you are correct however I should have explained that shutting down metadata server services will do the trick.

Re: Program stops because a dataset is open on someone's workstation

BrunoSilva — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 17:45:53 GMT

Hello,

How about to use PROC IOMOPERATE to list and stop your SAS sessions avoidind the jobs to fail the execution.

Here some useful links:

http://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/2016/02/15/using-proc-iomoperate/

http://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/2016/02/20/proc-iomoperate-custom-task/

Best Regards