topic Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection in SAS Programming

Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

dennis_oz — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:47:14 GMT

Can anyone advice if it is possible to use to connect a SAS Dataset to Tableau using a ODBC connection . There are many queries on the internet with no definite answer .

Hence, thought to post the question here ?

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

Kurt_Bremser — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 10:45:10 GMT

ODBC is generic; if Tableau supplies a driver for it, ODBC-capable applications like SAS can use the connection.

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

Ksharp — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 10:47:01 GMT

Yes. I think so. Once you config a ODBC connection successfully in Data Source Component at Control Center of Windows OS . You could could import its tables.

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

AhmedAl_Attar — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 12:31:48 GMT

Hi @dennis_oz

If you are interested in utilizing SAS Datasets in your Tableau Reports, then you'll need to have

SAS/SHARE licensed (if it's not)
SAS Drivers for ODBC installed on the Tableau Windows machine/server
Have a SAS/SHARE server instance running
Define your SAS Data sources
Use Tableau's ODBC data source as input to your Report(s)

Hope this helps,

Ahmed

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

ballardw — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 14:29:01 GMT

Maybe you should describe which way you need the flow to go.

Do you want SAS to use Tableau data/ results?

Or do you want Tableau to use SAS data sets? Tableau supports SAS data sets as a data source directly the last time I looked.

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

AhmedAl_Attar — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 14:54:45 GMT

@ballardw

"Tableau supports SAS data sets as a data source directly the last time I looked", You are correct, only in the case where the *.sastbdat files exists on the same machine (Windows) as Tableau Desktop/Public. But if the SAS data is on a different platform/machine then SAS/SHARE & ODBC/JDBC (Tableau Server runs on Linux now) is the only way to access/open it within Tableau.

Hope this clarifies things,

Ahmed

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

dennis_oz — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 22:47:42 GMT

the flow is SAS datasets to Tableau and I want to connect through the ODBC option.

I am aware about the process of connecting through a Stastical file option in Tableau .... I am curious to know if the ODBC option is possible .

Thanks

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

ChrisNZ — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 22:58:52 GMT

Well, you have your answer, comprehensively described by @AhmedAl_Attar .

You want to connect to a SAS server, so you need to set up that server and to have the appropriate licences in place.

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

avinashginjupal — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 14:07:29 GMT

Hi Ahmed,

we are trying to connect to SAS Server from Tableau Desktop.

SAS Server is installed on LINUX X64 Machine and Tableau Desktop is on Windows X64 machine.

We have SAS/Share running on SAS Server and we have installed SAS ODBC Drivers locally and created connection to SAS Share server in ODBC using SAS ODBC Drivers, and tried calling the driver from Tableau Desktop to make connection to SAS Server.

But it throwed us below error:

Trying to connect to SAS from Tableau Desktop using the Other Databases (ODBC) connector, the following error occurs:

Unable to connect to the server. Check that the server is running and that you have access privileges to the requested database.
[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Driver's SQLSetConnectAttr failed
Generic ODBC requires additional configuration. The driver and DSN (data source name) must be installed and configured to match the connection.
Unable to connect to the server "SAS". Check that the server is running and that you have access privileges to the requested database.

if you have successful connection, please help me with steps and also version info of SAS and Tableau on your end.

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

SASKiwi — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 03:14:42 GMT

@avinashginjupal - I think your best bet would be to work with SAS Tech Support on this. My suspicion is that the ODBC data source needs to be defined on the SAS server. That will involve configuring the linux odbc.ini file. Calling @JBailey .

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

ChrisNZ — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 04:59:00 GMT

@avinashginjupal is your sas/share server running?

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

AhmedAl_Attar — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 08:45:12 GMT

Hi @avinashginjupal

Here is your check list

SAS ODBC Driver installed on the Windows machine (Desktop / Server) where Tableau is installed
SAS/SHARE Server up and running on a Server (Linux/Windows)
Ensure your SAS/SHARE server has the required SAS Libraries pre-assigned
A valid user credentials to sign-in to the SAS/SHARE Server --> You need a Linux User Credentials (user/pw) to login to the Linux box via ssh/telnet
Ensure this user credential has the required permissions to access the data sets, and it's holding directories
Follow the instructions in the link below to create ODBC Data Source definition/configuration pointing to the SAS/SHARE server, and tables/libraries
https://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=odbcdref&docsetTarget=p0cpyxc20b5ybin1o5sretxxv6au.htm&docsetVersion=9.4&locale=en
Test the functionality using Excel, Data Tab --> New Query --> From Other Sources --> From ODBC --> Select the ODBC DNS you just setup for SAS

This should get you going

Good luck

Re: Is it possible to connect SAS to Tableau using a ODBC connection

JBailey — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 13:06:19 GMT

Hi @avinashginjupal

I think you need to create a new post for this one. It doesn't make sense to piggy-back on a solved post.

Include my user id in the post so that I see it.

Best wishes,

Jeff