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alandool
Quartz | Level 8

Hi,

We are often running out of available user space within our SAS Grid environment.  Meaning space to store files.  This is due to the number of users, number of files, and size of files / datasets.  I am looking for "best practices" and tips information regarding managing users and files they create. This is to regain available storage space within our SAS Grid.  I've searched through the forums but not really found info specific to this.  

 

Alan

6 REPLIES 6
Kurt_Bremser
Super User

If you use workspace servers, so that every user is recognizable at the OS level, set up quotas for users. This way they run out of individual space before causing a showstopper for everybody else.

JuanS_OCS
Amethyst | Level 16

Hello @alandool,

 

I subscribe to what @Kurt_Bremser suggests.

 

Under a wider perspective, your SAS Grid environment is not different from any environment that creates data. A data (big data) environment is created to handle a certain amount of requirements (users, processes, data to be handled, etc), and, therefore, the more demanding environments also require higher specifications and sizing, and  to handle larger temporary data.

 

The first approach would be to separate the resources from the SAS services and batch processes (SAS Stored Process Server SAS Pooled Workspace Server and SAS Batch Server, at least) from the interactive users (SAS Workspace Server, as @Kurt_Bremser said). On this way, you can be totally in control of the batch and server session resources. This goes specially to SASWORK, SASUSER (normally not in use, but, still), MEMSIZE, SORTSIZE, etc.

 

As of the interactive sessions, those are the most uncontrollable ones, because it is harder to predict what the users will run, and the quality of their own processes (many users don't know much about SAS itself, or SQL, and are not trained to optimize the queries). Therefore you would want to separate their processes from the batch and the basic services, through the settings on the SAS Workspace Server (which applies to every SAS Solution, and most of the products).

 

Also for the interactive users, and as you have a SAS GRID environment, probably would make sense to create several SAS Application Servers (SASApps), for each of your business or functional units. Probably each of them will have their own budget to buy SAS GRID resources, and then you can set different resources (SASWORK, storage, RAM memory, etc), depending on their allocated budgets for the SAS environment. Then you can set different SAS Workspace Servers (interactive sessions), but also for the batch and server sessions. Of course, those new SASApps, probably you would like to set them up as Grid enabled, otherwise, by default are to run on a single server.

 

Speaking about documents, you can find many at:

http://support.sas.com/rnd/scalability/grid/gridpapers.html

and

http://support.sas.com/rnd/scalability/papers/

 

 

alandool
Quartz | Level 8

Thank you, KurtBremser  and 

 

 

 

 

Kurt_Bremser
Super User

Users will NEVER, EVER be good stewards of their data. Not even when hell freezes over so hard that the brimstone becomes superconducting.

The only thing that works is force. They will start to see it as their problem only when they are the only ones affected and nobody else has to care for them.

 

Spoken from decades as sysadmin.

alandool
Quartz | Level 8

@Kurt_Bremser

Thank you.  Direct and to the point.  I tend to believe you are correct.  Smiley Frustrated

 

 

SASKiwi
PROC Star

@alandool - As part of best practice your SAS admins should be running the SAS CLEANWORK utility across your Grid workspace, scheduled daily. Not sure if you are having problems with SAS temporary space as well but worth checking. 

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