SAS Studio processes not terminating

[Nigel_Pain]

SAS 9.4M5 on Windows Server 2012R2, client access via EG 7.15 or SAS Studio 3.71 (mid-tier)

I've recently noticed old SAS processes remaining on our compute server and realised that this coincided with more people using SAS Studio. A bit of experimentation has got me thinking that this is because when users finish their sessions they are simply closing their browser session rather than logging off.

I can distribute a message asking people to remember to log off but chances are this will only be partly effective. Is there a way to ensure that these processes are terminated? I suppose I could run a daily search for SAS processes from earlier than the current day but that has the potential to kill bona fide long-running processes.

[gwootton]

In SAS Management Console's Server Manager plug-in, under the properties for the Workspace Server's Options tab is an Advanced Options button. It has a Launch Properties tab with an "Inactive client timeout" setting. This will trigger the Object Spawner to terminate a Workspace Server session that has been idle (not running code) for that many minutes.

SAS Studio also has a session timeout setting:

https://go.documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=webeditorag&docsetTarget=n09papwvwhx611n1kfzggdyze5ag.htm...

[Nigel_Pain]

Thanks @gwootton. How would these settings affect people who are signed in but just not doing anything? A lot of our users start up SAS at the beginning of the day and just leave it idle for most of the time. I'd rather not have them being kicked out

[gwootton]

Users who are not doing anything with their SAS session would have the session terminated. When they try to execute code, SAS Studio will try to start a new session. In my testing to confirm I logged in to SAS Studio which started two Workspace Server sessions. I terminated these with PROC IOMOPERATE's stop spawned server command and then tried to execute code and got a response. When I checked the spawned servers, two more had been started.

[Nigel_Pain]

I'm still reluctant to implement something like that. I can't be absolutely sure but I think there are users who will run things, go and do something else, and then come back and expect the contents of their WORK library still to be there. Although I suppose I could just make the change and then sit back and see how many yells of anguish I get!

Thanks for your suggestions anyway

[gwootton]

You might be interested in taking a look at this paper on the subject: https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/sas-global-forum-proceedings/2020/4764-2020.pdf
While it is geared towards a grid deployment, the program that reports on idle time by user might be helpful to address this with the users directly.

[Nigel_Pain]

Sounds interesting, I'll have to take a look when I have a moment.

Thanks so much for the suggestions.