Hot fix Y39009

[agoldma]

Does SAS-EG version 7.13 include the hot fix Y39009 ?

Specifically, I'm interested in Problem Note 57840

I have version 7.13 and still experiencing this problem

[SASKiwi · Accepted solution]

The hot fix is for EG 7.12 only. It will not apply successfully to 7.13. I suggest you ask this question in a track to SAS Tech Support. They are best able to deal with this.

In my experience with EG, the longer you keep it open and the more you do in it the more memory it consumes. This is only natural as everything you do gets added to the process flow. You can clear the process flow from time to time to help reduce memory usage.

[agoldma]

SAS Tech Support said that SAS-EG version 7.13 includes the hot fix Y39009.

To release the memory used by SAS-EG, it's necessary to close the programs inside SAS-EG after using them.

I confirmed that when the programs are closed, the memory is released (in SAS-EG 7.13)

Returning to the process flow without closing prior programs and opening additional programs keeps all those programs in memory, which can eventually cause SAS-EG to crash in a 32-bit environment.

[SimonDawson]

The memory leak described in SAS note 57840 was addressed in SAS Enterprise Guide 6.1.

@SASKiwi is spot on. You should raise this with SAS Technical Support.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Note: when you run EG tasks that create large output and/or logs, this will be stored as part of the current project, and has to be kept in memory.

If the memory usage continues after you close the project, open a track with SAS TS.

Just did a test with EG 7.15.

After start-up, EG takes around 75M of memory. After opening a project, it's up to 82M. Opening and viewing just a few code nodes let it explode to 128M (!!), and after the project is closed, memory consumption stays there. I have no idea if that is because EG had to load some dynamic modules and keeps them in memory, or if that's from bad housekeeping / garbage collection.

How large is your EG's memory consumption?

[SimonDawson]

Its going to be GC that explains it not dropping.

[agoldma]

Kurt,

If I use my SAS-EG 7.13 slowly, it doesn't crash

It uses 300MB - 500MB of memory if I use it slowly

However, when I'm reviewing my work or searching for something in the project, I have to open many programs in SAS-EG quickly -- one after the other.

If I open many programs quickly, my SAS-EG crashes after about an hour -- grabbing 1.3 GB of memory

This happens to another person on my team even more than to me because he's faster.

The description of opening many programs quickly in Problem Note 57840 is exactly what happens in my case.

[Kurt_Bremser]

That's a clear case for SAS TS, then.

Keep in mind that the main problem here (IMO) is the use of .NET as the underlying framework. Coming from Microsoft, it means bad design, sloppy programming, and virtually no QC when a deadline looms. And that "philosophy" then seeps into software that is developed on the platform.

Once again, IMO.

[SASKiwi]

Curious to know if you are using 32-bit or 64-bit EG? We use 64-bit EG exclusively and I've never had such a problem. However I don't use project logs and I use the "Replace Results without Prompting" option and I have the "Maximum Datasets to Open" option set to 0  which should reduce memory usage and also improves performance.

BTW EG 8, I understand, will contain an option to turn off Project Flows completely if you exclusively work with SAS code. I suspect that will consume a lot less memory. I'm hoping we might see that in 2019...  

[MichelleHomes]

@SASKiwi you may like to see a preview of SAS Enterprise Guide 8 which shows no process flows as demonstrated at a SAS Global Forum 2018 Tech Talk https://video.sas.com/sasgf18/detail/video/5766313045001/future-of-sas-enterprise-guide No mention of a release date. 2019 hopefully - any thoughts @AmyP_sas? 

[AmyP_sas]

Thanks @MichelleHomes! Still don't have an official date to share but we are still shooting for 2019 to release Enterprise Guide 8.0.  As you mention, one of the features is you can decide to not have everything automatically added to a project - essentially work stand-alone and add to projects as you wish or not - as well as continue to work with auto-add to projects.   Whether this will be able to help save memory is a good question.  Large projects can consume more memory than smaller ones, but working with lots of items in a session without a project may as well.  I'll make sure our testing group pushes on this.  But the advice on this stream is what I'd also recommend.

[agoldma]

We use 32-bit EG, and I use Replace Results = "Replace without Prompting", but I couldn't find the option "Maximum Datasets to Open". The closest I could find is "Prompt before opening results larger than" and Maximum number of output data sets to add to the project". I almost never open datasets, and I don’t want the datasets to be in a tab attached to the program (to prevent accidental opening). I look only at the log and the results (both are plain text). My EG crashes only when I open many programs and logs quickly and repeatedly (when reviewing or searching, not when writing new programs)

[Kurt_Bremser]

Set "Maximum number of output data sets to add to the project" to zero, and in the same tab, deactivate the automatic opening of results.

[agoldma]

Kurt, thanks for clarifying that option "Maximum number of output data sets to add to the project"
... but that causes too much rework.
It creates a note called "Maximum Datasets Reached" -- which I can rename to the name of my dataset or replace it with a shortcut to that dataset.
However, when I run that program again, it creates another note.
If I run 20 programs on a process flow, I would have to delete 20 notes every time I rerun that process flow.
If I can avoid that note, I might try it.

[SASKiwi]

Yes, that is the option I'm using and I don't think you can avoid the note. Why does it cause rework? You can still open any datasets output in the Server List and ignore the Process Flow entirely.