Linux SAS connection to Tableau

[PKumar]

Hello,

From Linux SAS we are trying to connect Tableau. We have ODBC license addition to that do we need SAS/Share? If we get SAS/share can we connect directly from Tableau Windows server to Linux SAS? 

Thanks.

[LinusH]

It's not clear from which direction you want to go. Is it to connect to SAS from Tableau?

Then your SAS/ACCESS licence can't be used for this.

As you already suggested, you need a SAS/SHARE and a SAS/SHARE*NET licence.

Or, if you are lucky to have SPD Server as your primary storage engine (it comes with a ODBC/JDBC server).

[PKumar]

Hi LinusH,

Thanks for the reply. We want to connect from tableau to SAS. Other than SAS/Share any other option to connect from tablueau to SAS?

[LinusH]

If you got SAS Integration Technologies OLEDB can be used. But I think it requires more configuration.
What are your options?
If this is a batch like process you could always export your SAS data as csv.

[JuanS_OCS]

Hello @PKumar,

Let me refresh: you want to connect from Tableau to SAS (SAS tables). Right? not the other way around.

In that case, you will only need the ODBC drivers for SAS. Once you get the ODBC driver and the connection working to your SAS tables, you only need to connect Tableau (or any other software) to the ODBC connections:

- Documentation: http://support.sas.com/software/products/odbc/

- Download: https://support.sas.com/downloads/browse.htm?cat=40

he SAS Drivers for ODBC are implementations of the ODBC interface standard that enable you to access, manipulate, and update SAS data sources from applications that are ODBC compliant. The SAS Drivers for ODBC connect from an ODBC-compliant application to SAS/SHARE servers, SAS Scalable Performance Data (SPD) Servers, or a local instance of a SAS ODBC server.
The SAS Drivers for ODBC are often used with productivity suites such as Microsoft Office. However, they can be used with any application that uses ODBC version 3.5 Core interface level functions.
Another ODBC-related product by SAS is SAS/ACCESS® Interface to ODBC. This SAS/ACCESS product enables SAS to act as an ODBC client and access data from third-party databases. For more information, see SAS/ACCESS software.

An alternative for the downloads: on your SAS Depot you will find the drivers as well. Actually they should be already installed in your SAS Servers. 

[Tom]

Tableau can read SAS datasets. Just write them on a drive that the Tableau software can read from.

[JuanS_OCS]

Many thanks @Tom for filling a gap of my knowledge about Tableau 🙂 I learnt something good today!

[PKumar]

Hi Tom,

Yeah,  Tableau can read SAS tables. But we are looking for direct connection from Tableau to SAS. As we don't have SAS/Share, OLEDB options we are looking to use ODBC drivers.

Thanks.

[Kurt_Bremser]

You either need SAS/SHARE or SAS SPDS (Scalable Performance Data Server) for access with the SAS ODBC driver.

As @JuanS_OCS already mentioned in his post, it's also in the SAS ODBC documentation: http://support.sas.com/software/products/odbc/

[LinusH · Accepted solution]

@PKumar try to read @Tom with a bit creativeness. What does direct mean to you?
If you don't want to copy SAS data to another location you would might be able to share the original location to the Tableau process/user.

[PKumar]

Thanks for the suggestion @LinusH.