topic Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3 in Administration and Deployment

Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

jatin_singla — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 08:52:01 GMT

Hi All,

I intend to change the encoding from Wlatin1 to UTF-8. After a lot investifation , i came across a document that mentioned how same can be achieved:

https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/AddingAdditionalSASWorkspaceServerstoSupportMultipleEncodings.pdf

As i have a unix environment, i added the "export SAS_COMMAND= $SASROOT/bin/sas_u8" line in the file WorkspaceServer_usermods.sh and restart the spawner. Unfortunately, since then I am unable to connect to the workspace server. Can someone please suggest what might have gone wrong and how i can switch to UTF-8.

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

PaulHomes — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 09:23:14 GMT

What errors are you seeing in your SAS Object Spawner log file (e.g. /opt/sas93/config/Lev1/ObjectSpawner/Logs/ObjectSpawner_2017-07-11_hostname_NNNN.log)?

Does the sas_u8 file exist in your $SASROOT/bin directory? e.g. /opt/sas93/sashome/SASFoundation/9.3/bin/sas_u8

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

AnandVyas — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 09:33:10 GMT

Hi @jatin_singla

you can follow the steps here to create symlink to UTF-8 SAS.

http://support.sas.com/kb/51/586.html

Thanks,
AV

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

jatin_singla — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 11:59:14 GMT

The error is "Launch of server process failed with unknown status code (1)"

sas_u8 file does exist at the specified location.

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

jatin_singla — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 12:00:43 GMT

Hi Anand, thank you for your response.
I believe that the method specified in the link will change the encoding for all the workspace servers. I intend to change the encoding of one particular workspace server.

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

AnandVyas — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 16:26:55 GMT

Hi @jatin_singla

Just check there is no space in the declaration:

(As mentioned above by you)

export SAS_COMMAND= $SASROOT/bin/sas_u8

(No space)

export SAS_COMMAND=$SASROOT/bin/sas_u8

If it fails again then I would suggest to see if logging can be enabled for WS Server to get more details.

Thanks,
AV

Other tips:

you can follow the steps here to create symlink to UTF-8 SAS.

http://support.sas.com/kb/51/586.html

And from @PaulHomes:

I would suggest you log on to the server and attempt to run the sas_u8 command line, with all of the parameters as shown in the SAS Object Spawner log, as a user that it fails for, to see if you get any additional details are provided to explain the failure (make sure you omit any -noterminal parameter for an interactive test).

If that doesn't highlight the issue then I'd suggest the next course of action would be to contact SAS Technical Support.

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

PaulHomes — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 03:29:03 GMT

It looks like you are missing the unicode SAS launch script (and possibly wider unicode support) from your SAS Foundation installation. Are you missing the unicode directory too? e.g. /opt/sas93/sashome/SASFoundation/9.3/nls/u8/

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

jatin_singla — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 07:38:31 GMT

THanks for your response Paul.

The unicode directory is available at the location. Could you please suggest where I can find the unicode SAS launch script.

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

PaulHomes — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 09:31:43 GMT

It should have been created when SAS was installed. Has somebody deleted it? This is the diff between my SAS 9.3 sas_en and my sas_u8:

100c100
< SASCFGPATH="!SASROOT/sasv9.cfg, !SASROOT/nls/en/sasv9.cfg, !SASROOT/sasv9_local.cfg, $SASCFGPATH"
---
> SASCFGPATH="!SASROOT/sasv9.cfg, !SASROOT/nls/u8/sasv9.cfg, !SASROOT/sasv9_local.cfg, $SASCFGPATH"
102c102
< SASCFGPATH="!SASROOT/sasv9.cfg, !SASROOT/nls/en/sasv9.cfg, !SASROOT/sasv9_local.cfg"
---
> SASCFGPATH="!SASROOT/sasv9.cfg, !SASROOT/nls/u8/sasv9.cfg, !SASROOT/sasv9_local.cfg"

You should be able to use that the recreate a sas_u8 script from the sas_en script (if you don't have one available from a backup). Of course there may also be other things missing in which case I would contact your SAS installer and/or SAS tech support and look into re-installing any missing components.

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

jatin_singla — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 14:47:22 GMT

Hi Paul,

The sas_en and sas_u8 scripts are available in SASROOT/bin. I happen to check the 100 and 102 of both the scripts and it matches with your sas_en and sas_u8 files.

Re: Change encoding to UTF-8 in SAS 9.3

PaulHomes — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 00:02:15 GMT

In that case I would suggest you log on to the server and attempt to run the sas_u8 command line, with all of the parameters as shown in the SAS Object Spawner log, as a user that it fails for, to see if you get any additional details are provided to explain the failure (make sure you omit any -noterminal parameter for an interactive test).

If that doesn't highlight the issue then I'd suggest the next course of action would be to contact SAS Technical Support.