topic Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG? in SAS Enterprise Guide

submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

kschott — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 16:25:46 GMT

Hi SAS EG community,

I've been primarily a SAS Windows user and am accustom to both "environment" and "batch submit" processing. Now I am also working in EG and I could use some pointers toward documentation, references, etc. about submitting code for batch processing in EG, if it is even possible 🙂.

Thank you!

Kevin

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

jebjur — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 17:31:28 GMT

The easiest way is to simply schedule an Enterprise Guide project. Here is a SAS note that explains further:

56648 - Tips for scheduling a SAS® Enterprise Guide® project

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

kschott — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 17:48:01 GMT

Thank you! Quite a bit more than right click. Maybe not so bad once the framework is setup.

-K

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

Tom — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 17:57:13 GMT

Are you using Enterprise Guide to connect to SAS running on your PC?

Or some remote server?

Either way you could use EG as an editor and save the program file to an actual text file and run it using SAS directly If you only have SAS running remotely you will need to save it to that machine and issue the command to run it on that machine.

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

Quentin — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 18:01:35 GMT

Sadly, EG never got the batch submit button I was hoping for:

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SASware-Ballot-Ideas/Add-BATCH-SUBMIT-button-to-EG/idi-p/219640

If you're interested in Studio, I think it does have more batch submit-like features built in.

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

ChrisHemedinger — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 18:21:54 GMT

The "schedule project" feature actually does two things: generates an automation script, and allows you to add to Windows Scheduler. However, for "batch" you don't need to schedule (unless you want to), and you can just craft your own scripts. See this article:

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

kschott — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 20:30:43 GMT

@Tom

>Are you using Enterprise Guide to connect to SAS running on your PC?

>Or some remote server?

I am a non-admin user on a shared Windows server. I use EG by RDPing to the Windows server. In EG, I am connected to one server in my "Servers" tree. I'm not clear whether the SAS server runs on the same Windows server or another box.

@Quentin

>If you're interested in Studio, I think it does have more batch submit-like features built in.

Yes, I was hoping for something like Windows or Studio ease of running background SAS programs.

@ChrisHemedinger

I'll check out the ref. Nice BASUG presentation.

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

SASKiwi — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 21:12:28 GMT

@kschott - Also if you are interested in a more robust server-based scheduling and batch job running tool, then consider installing SAS Management Console on your PC. This gives you a GUI to schedule and run on demand SAS batch jobs. EG projects have to be exported first to SAS programs though. Your SAS administrator should be able to help with getting you set up.

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

kschott — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 16:08:32 GMT

Thank you all for your help. This really is a rabbit hole I was not prepared to go down. I may come back to it, but for the moment, it is just too much. I was hoping for the ease plopping a program in the background and going about my business working on other programs. Maybe plugins and such will get me there. When something seemingly this straightforward is complicated to achieve, it makes me think I'm not understanding/using the tool quite right. I'll take another run at this when I have more experience with EG.

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

SASKiwi — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 19:00:43 GMT

OK, if going to server-based scheduling is beyond your requirements, then @ChrisHemedinger 's link to doing more with EG is a good option.

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

Sajid01 — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 00:54:20 GMT

Hello @kschott
One needs to be an admin user / member of admin group to be able to schedule the job either on the PC/Laptop/Server.
In most corporate environment SAS programmers do not have admin access.

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 08:05:23 GMT

@kschott wrote:

Thank you all for your help. This really is a rabbit hole I was not prepared to go down. I may come back to it, but for the moment, it is just too much. I was hoping for the ease plopping a program in the background and going about my business working on other programs. Maybe plugins and such will get me there. When something seemingly this straightforward is complicated to achieve, it makes me think I'm not understanding/using the tool quite right. I'll take another run at this when I have more experience with EG.

You can always submit a project in one EG session and work on another project in another EG session. By default, the SAS BI server does not place a limit on workspace server sessions for users. But be diligent in the number of parallel sessions you create, or you'll sooner or later get into trouble with your SAS admin(s).

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

kschott — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 12:54:41 GMT

Thanks Kurt - the thing I don't know (yet -- easy enough to experiment though) is how separate each EG instance is. My primary concern is that I don't want to share the work library, and background jobs are an easy way to the programs separate. I bet they are separate. I'll get there as I use/explore EG more!

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

kschott — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 12:57:40 GMT

Thank you -- that's very likely my situation. We'll see!

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

AlanC — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:05:26 GMT

Let me share some info to help you understand the limitations. As a consultant, I have seen SAS installations from 1 person to over 2500 EG users. Recently, I was at a site with over 500 SAS/EG users and 1 or 2 admins. They also had constrained computing platforms. Hence, the admins had no idea what was happening in the dozens of depts across the company.

If an EG user could just schedule jobs, the system would become quickly overloaded. If that person left, the job would continue indefinitely because it would be scheduled at the server.

As I have mentioned to people before, you don't have to be constrained by any UI application's functionality. Use an RPA tool such as AutoHotKey and just do your manual tasks using a simulated user.

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

AhmedAl_Attar — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:25:34 GMT

@kschott,
Quick ways to figure out What's your SAS Server (Windows/Linux) , Submit the following in a Program Entry
1. %put _all_; *<-- Prints your SAS server automatic macro variables;
2. %put %sysfunc (pathname(WORK)); *<-- Prints the WORK library physical folder location

Look through these outputs and you should be able to figure out the nature of your SAS server.

Re: submitting SAS code as a batch job in EG?

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:53:24 GMT

Separate workspace servers from separate EG sessions will share SASUSER and all libraries defined with the same physical path. WORK is always individual for any session.