topic Re: Track changes in SAS metadata in Administration and Deployment

Track changes in SAS metadata

ANLYNG — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 13:37:20 GMT

Do you have an example/code for reading alle changes for all objects in metadata?? I would like to have all informations , whats has been changes , when og by who? Is it possible on SAS 9.4 M& out of the box and with SAS code?

I know there is build-in macros as %MDUEXTR and %mdsecds and the following snippet (se below) but I want more variables eg. user, timestamp etc.

data All_Metadata_Object_types (keep=id name PublicType ApplicablePermissions desc);

length id $20 name PublicType $70 _uri ApplicablePermissions desc $256 ;

_nobj=1;

_n=1;

call missing(id, _uri, name, PublicType, ApplicablePermissions ,desc);

do while(_n le _nobj);

_nobj=metadata_getnobj(“omsobj:TypeDefinition?@Id contains ‘.'”,_n,_uri);

_rc=metadata_getattr(_uri,“Id”,id);

_rc=metadata_getattr(_uri,“Name”,name);

_rc=metadata_getattr(_uri,“PublicType”,PublicType);

_rc=metadata_getattr(_uri,“ApplicablePermissions”,ApplicablePermissions);

_rc=metadata_getattr(_uri,“Desc”,Desc);

output;

_n=_n+1;

end;

run;

Re: Track changes in SAS metadata

SASKiwi — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 21:04:20 GMT

@ANLYNG - The first thing to realise is that your current metadata repository only includes current data - there is no history kept. To get history you would have to read repository backups. For example if you read yesterdays backup and compared it to today's then you would know what has changed since yesterday only.

The second thing to realise is the metadata repository data model is horribly complicated and consists of variable level data hierarchies depending on the attributes you are trying to read.

So to track metadata changes you would have to read the daily metadata backups for the period you want to track changes then try and line up the data between the versions. So unless there is a tool or utility for doing this already (and I'm not aware of any) then this would be extremely complicated and very time-consuming. IMO it is a cure worse than the disease...

Re: Track changes in SAS metadata

ronan — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 13:25:41 GMT

There is no such thing as a (re-usable) audit trail of metadata changes over time. However, you can enable such a change capture database - at least for high level objects (ACE, ACT, User, Group) with SAS Environment Manager Service Framework Architecture reports. See for instance the Audit Reports (log forensic) :

https://support.sas.com/rnd/emi/SASEnvMgr/EVSAF/SAS_Environment_Manager_Service_Architecture_Quickstart_9.4M5.pdf

https://support.sas.com/rnd/emi/SASEnvMgr/EVSAF/Report_Center_Report_Listings.pdf

This summary list is not 100% up to date with latest M6 release.

Betreff: Track changes in SAS metadata

DanielKaiser — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 13:47:52 GMT

We did something similar.
We create a "snapshot" each Weekend and compare it with the "snapshot" of the last week.
Pretty easy via a cronjob.

We use the Batch interface of the Metacoda Security Plugin.

The plugin creates a report, that lists every (wished) difference.
For example Objects, that got a new ACT, new Users, deleted Users, Capabilities per User that are gone or new,...

Looks like this:

#	Test	Reason
1	ACTs/ACT('Server ACT - TS Server')/PermissionPattern/Group('BI Web Services Users')/permissions	Mismatched permission pattern found. Expected <"MCM unspecified"> but got <"+MCM">.
2	ACTs/ACT('Private User Folder ACT')/Objects/complete	The test specifies a COMPLETE set of protected objects for the Access Control Template (ACT) 'Private User Folder ACT'. The test has failed because the ACT was actually found to be applied to an additional 3 unspecified objects. Additional test failures will occur for each unspecified object.

I am pretty sure @PaulHomes or @MichelleHomes can help you.

Betreff: Track changes in SAS metadata

MichelleHomes — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 21:01:20 GMT

Thanks @DanielKaiser for describing how the Metacoda Security Plug-ins with the Metacoda Metadata Testing Framework helps to ensure the integrity of your SAS security implementation.

@ANLYNG if you are wanting to monitor SAS metadata security over time the Metacoda Metadata Testing Framework may also help you. Please read @PaulHomes' blog post which references his SAS Global Forum paper on the topic https://platformadmin.com/blogs/paul/2014/03/sas-metadata-security-testing/ We also provide 30 day free evaluations where you can try it out in your own environment.

As @ronan mentioned you may also want to look at the Audit reports within Environment Manager.

Kind Regards,

Michelle