topic How to switch users in a SAS session in SAS Programming

How to switch users in a SAS session

RaSha — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 02:13:51 GMT

Hi There, I would like to switch profiles (User id) to run parts of code in a single sas session on SAS EG. Any help. Many thanks.

Re: How to switch users in a SAS session

SASKiwi — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 04:15:47 GMT

That isn't possible as you are tied to the userid used in your EG profile to create your SAS session. Switching userids means switching EG profiles and starting a new SAS session.

Why do you want to switch userids?

Re: How to switch users in a SAS session

RaSha — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 07:27:03 GMT

Thanks for your reply, part of my code needs to be run from one id and do the processing. Later, output files of this code needs to be transferred to another server using the separate ID.

I am ok to switch profiles in an EG session as the output files from the first part of code will be permanently saved, do you know a way to switch profiles via code.

Many thanks

Re: How to switch users in a SAS session

ChrisNZ — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 08:43:14 GMT

The only option I can think of is to run the piece of code as a batch job on the server, something like:

call system('runas /user:domainname\username sas.exe -sysin pgm.sas');

call system('net use \\svr\shre /USER:usr pwd     &    \\svr\shre\saspgm.cmd');

Having a password in plain text is very bad practice however.

Re: How to switch users in a SAS session

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 14:13:48 GMT

You say that you need the separate ID for file transfer only. How do you transfer the files?

Re: How to switch users in a SAS session

RaSha — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 23:26:12 GMT

##- Please type your reply above this line. No attachments. -

Thanks for your reply..

We use sftp protocol and SSH keys for that

Re: How to switch users in a SAS session

Patrick — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 02:57:53 GMT

@RaSha - throwing ideas here. Not sure what will work.

Solution options

A If you Google with something like linux run command as another user then you'll get quite a few hits. You're user has most likely no elevated privileges which allow to issue sudo commands but from browsing through some of the discussions it appears an admin could allow your user to sudo a specific command or script so that you can execute as another user. You would need to talk to a linux admin at your site and explain what you need.

B "You" could add the script transferring the file to a scheduler which gets triggered whenever a file arrives in a specific folder. You then just execute your first step creating the file in EG and write the output to this folder. I would assume that that the schedule/batch user has elevated rights and can execute the transfer process under the user you need.

C If you need to go for something where you have user/pw in the code then you could at least have this in a secure compiled macro in the SAS mstore - and you then keep the source code in a safe place.

D Or ideally do what @Kurt_Bremser proposes if that's possible for your user

Re: How to switch users in a SAS session

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 04:04:19 GMT

@RaSha wrote:
##- Please type your reply above this line. No attachments. -

Thanks for your reply..

We use sftp protocol and SSH keys for that

Then you do not need to switch users before running the sftp command. In the ~/.ssh/config file, you can specify connection parameters for each target host, including which user-ID to use.