Verifying SAS/Connect installation

[rwan1]

Dear all,

As mentioned in another thread a few days ago, I'm new to administering SAS on a Linux (Ubuntu) server, so apologies for the silly question.  It's a bit of a steep learning curve for me...

One of the reasons we've installed SAS is to allow user to connect remotely to our server via client-side SAS (I think running under Windows -- he bought his own license).  Is there a way I can test if SAS/Connect has been installed correctly on my side before I let the user test it?  (I can ask him now, but I guess I should do some basic checks or else many people will not be too pleased with me.)

I did come across this article (http://support.sas.com/kb/15/162.html), which lists the default ports used by SAS.  Clearly I would need to open up the firewall to these ports (i.e., 7551).  Anything else I need to be aware of?

I guess another reason why I'm asking is that *I* don't have a license for the client version of SAS.  If I had that, then I could test it myself by reading server-side error messages.  Or, is there a very reduced version of SAS client that I could download (i.e., for free) which I could use to test SAS/Connect on the server?

Thanks a lot for any advice!

Ray

[alexal]

@rwan1,

Sure, you can verify that you can establish a connection to the Connect Spawner. You can do that from SAS Management Console. Go to Server Manager -> right-click on the Connect Spawner -> Connect.

[SASKiwi]

Typically the SAS/Connect server also has to be up and running. Not sure how you check that on linux as we run Windows, maybe ps -ef.

[rwan1]

---

@SASKiwi wrote:

Typically the SAS/Connect server also has to be up and running. Not sure how you check that on linux as we run Windows, maybe ps -ef.

---

Thank you for your reply!  Sorry for the delay in responding, but I started off by looking into alexal's comment and that stumped me as I am unable to start the SAS Management Console.  I was stuck on that a little and then got distracted by a completely unrelated (i.e., non-SAS) problem.  I just got back to the SAS installation and still can't figure out what's wrong (some Java problem...) but maybe I'll post a new thread about it if I am unable to figure out what's wrong on my own.

Your post helped me realize that something has to be up and running.  Which pointed me in the right direction.  Indeed, it isn't, but I came across what it is called and, thus, the instructions on how to do it.  (i.e., the SAS/Connect Spawner, described here)  I'm working my way through those instructions now.

Thank you!

Ray

[doug_sas · Accepted solution]

1. Go to the machine that has the spawner running. It should have SAS and be licensed for SAS/CONNECT.
2. Start SAS
3. Run the following code:
   1. %let host=localhost 7551;
   2. signon host user='<your_user_id>' pwd='<your_pwd_on_host>';
   3. signoff;

This will start SAS and run it as a SAS/CONNECT client to the spawner on the same machine using the default CONNECT server port.

It that works provide the code to the user and replace 'localhost' with the fully-qualified host name of the spawner machine as the user would access it.

[rwan1]

@doug_sas wrote:

1. Go to the machine that has the spawner running. It should have SAS and be licensed for SAS/CONNECT.
2. Start SAS
3. Run the following code:
   1. %let host=localhost 7551;
   2. signon host user='<your_user_id>' pwd='<your_pwd_on_host>';
   3. signoff;

This will start SAS and run it as a SAS/CONNECT client to the spawner on the same machine using the default CONNECT server port.

---

Thank you for this, @doug_sas !  I know so little about SAS that I never would have figured out the above!

I gave it a try and I got the following error message:

ERROR: Invalid or unspecified remote session ID. Set OPTIONS REMOTE=session_id.

I looked around for help on the Internet and it seems a "options remote=test1234;" (for example) is needed.  After I added that as a line right after the "%let" line, it did seem to work.  I got "NOTE:  Remote signon to HOST commencing...".  

So, I guess it worked?  Requiring the "options remote..." is not something I need to worry about, is there?

Thanks a lot!  (I had to start the spawner manually; I'll need to figure out how to get it to start automatically as a service...but I have the test I needed, so I know what to look for now.)  As I said above, sorry for the delay in replying...other work got my attention the past few weeks.  Now, I'm back on it...

Ray

[doug_sas]

The remote session ID is 'host' but it is also a macro variable which SAS/CONNECT should be able to use to get the spawner host and the spawner port.

The format would be something like

%let <remote_session_id_variable>=<host_spawner_is_running_on> <port_spawner_is_listening_on>;

signon <remote_session_id_variable> username='<your_user_name>' password='<your_password>';

In the original case, the <remote_session_id_variable> was 'host'.

It could have easily been

1. %let myhostv=myHost.myDomain.com 7551;
2. signon myhostv user='<your_user_id>' pwd='<your_pwd_on_host>';
3. signoff;

Change myHost.myDomain.com to the host name where you have the spawner running.

Change 7551 to the port that the spawner is listening on.

[rwan1]

---

@doug_sas wrote:

The remote session ID is 'host' but it is also a macro variable which SAS/CONNECT should be able to use to get the spawner host and the spawner port.

The format would be something like

%let <remote_session_id_variable>=<host_spawner_is_running_on> <port_spawner_is_listening_on>;

signon <remote_session_id_variable> username='<your_user_name>' password='<your_password>';

In the original case, the <remote_session_id_variable> was 'host'.

...

I see!  Thank you for the explanation!

Then, did I do something wrong when I typed in your original code.  Why did I get the error:

ERROR: Invalid or unspecified remote session ID. Set OPTIONS REMOTE=session_id.

Did it think that "host" was an invalid session ID?

Does that mean why I did was set the session ID to host and then "options remote=session_id" does some kind of rename of the session id?

Thank you for your help!

Ray

[doug_sas]

Hard to say what the problem was.

Sometimes copy/paste from web to SAS does not translate the characters correctly.

Maybe it will work if you hand-type it instead of copy/paste.

[rwan1]

---

@doug_sas wrote:

Hard to say what the problem was.

Sometimes copy/paste from web to SAS does not translate the characters correctly.

Maybe it will work if you hand-type it instead of copy/paste.

---

Hmmmmm, that's quite possible!

Actually, I'm setting up this server for users who all know SAS better than me.  So, I guess none of them would ask a question like this to me; they should know what a session ID is.  Nevertheless, I'm the system administrator and have to make it look like I know something, in case they have problems connecting to the server.  That's why I'm a bit curious...  🙂 

I think nothing else I can do other than to open it to the users and see if it also works for them...

Thank you for your help!

Ray