What does a new SAS administrator need to know?

[Ishwarkumar]

i'm new to the job. And i want to know the kind of tasks that will be coming in platform admin.

[JuanS_OCS]

Hello @Ishwarkumar,

good question, that is very important information to get. I wonder if you did search a bit upfront on the SAS website, on this Community or even on Google. Your main references should be:

http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/Platform-Administration-Tasks.pdf

and 

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/bisag/68240/PDF/default/bisag.pdf

Besides this, please read:

http://blogs.sas.com/content/sgf/2014/01/01/sas-administrator-roles-and-responsibilities-a-recap/

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Checklist-of-SAS-Platform-Administration-Task...

Regards,

Juan

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

Understand the operating system SAS will be running on. I suggest up to the level of simple administration. More is better.

Shell scripting and editing XML files will be part of your work.

You will be responsible for installing and configuring the SAS system. This takes in-depth knowledge of how to find the relevant documentation, as noone will be able to keep all necessary information in memory.

You have to be an accomplished SAS programmer, as you will often have to adapt (SAS-provided) programs for administative tasks to your needs.

As you may be instrumental in helping setting up reporting, knowledge in HTML, CSS, Javascript and Java will come handy (for stored processes and webapps)

You will either be the one who administers users&groups, or you will be assisting your security admins in this. For SAS metadata, you have to design the security&access model (who belongs where, what data is accessible, ....)

You will have to keep an eye on the data. What is stored where, how long will data be retained online, what can be discarded, what needs to go to longtime archive storage. This means you must know how to handle your backup/archive system.

[JuanS_OCS]

Good summary @Kurt_Bremser !

Just a quick remark, with the intention to help @Ishwarkumar and others to get a better understanding of your important message, and do not make them feel overwhelmed:

- In one hand, basically a SAS Administrator will need a good knowledge on how SAS works, and that will require cross-knowledge on both technical and functional aspects. This also means the SAS Administrator will require coordination and good communication skills, to prevent confussion between different parties.

- On many companies a SAS Administrator might get all the roles well described by @Kurt_Bremser. Sometimes even more! But also, not in all companies you would require you to have installation knowledge/experience, or other skills such as in-depth OS knoledge, since that role might be assigned to other person/team, or even to other parties, such as SAS Consulting or other companies.

Altough, all of them are a nice-to-have and surely you will need to have a basic set of knowledge to trigger the requirement of an installation, coordinate and validate the installation.

- And advise: read well in your role profile what are going to be your tasks/responsibilities and even ask until the topic is closed.