topic Re: several questions about space in the work directory at SAS server in SAS Data Management

several questions about space in the work directory at SAS server

Jade_SAS — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 17:28:44 GMT

Hi All,

I have several questions about the space of work directory at SAS server:

1) how can I know the size of space in the work directory? Any SAS statements for this purpose?

2) How the space in the work directory is distributed between users at SAS server?

3)I f I know the size of the SAS table, how can I guess the work space that needed to process that SAS table?

Thank you!

Jade

Re: several questions about space in the work directory at SAS server

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 17:39:45 GMT

Unless a dataset is compressed, you'll need three times the size of your largest dataset as a rule of thumb (in a sort, original file/utility file/target file).

SAS will take all space it gets, there is no built-in limit. That is why I use quotas on the WORK, so one careless user can't wreck all the other's day.

I do have a script in my web servers cgi-bin that runs a df -k and creates web output from that. Very simple method to monitor disk usage.

Re: several questions about space in the work directory at SAS server

Jade_SAS — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 19:32:22 GMT

Thank you, KurtBremser!

If we have 3T work space on the SAS server, and we have 200 users. And if only one user is running SAS job, the avaliable work space to that user should around 3T. Am I right?

Thanks,

Jade

Re: several questions about space in the work directory at SAS server

TomKari — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 20:33:52 GMT

One small additional note. It is possible for SAS sessions to fail, in which case the WORK datasets aren't cleaned up. SAS has tools to clean up these "orphan" files, and you can also watch for them using the type of monitoring software that @Kurt_Bremser mentions.

Tom

Re: several questions about space in the work directory at SAS server

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 29 Jul 2017 04:08:50 GMT

@Jade_SAS wrote:

Thank you, KurtBremser!

If we have 3T work space on the SAS server, and we have 200 users. And if only one user is running SAS job, the avaliable work space to that user should around 3T. Am I right?

Thanks,

Jade

Yes. SAS itself sets no limits for individual users. But be aware that there may be limits set by the operating system. On AIX (as an example), every new user is created with a so-called "soft" limit of 1 GB per file.