SAS 9.4 Metadata Bound Libraries capability in Viya 4?

[EyalGonen]

Is there an equivalent capability for SAS 9.4's Metadata Bound Libraries in SAS Viya 4?

[Patrick]

In Viya there is the SAS Content (folders) where things are no more directly stored on the file system but in a database that you only can access via the SAS security layer. Doesn't this make metadata bound libraries functionally unnecessary? 

[EyalGonen]

The Metadata Bound Library is a like a BASE library for storing SAS datasets but with metadata access controls and on-disk encryption.

I do not see how SAS Content is a replacement for that maybe I did not understand your answer. As far as I understand the SAS Content is not a place to store SAS datasets.

I need to know how to migrate SAS 9.4 which heavily uses Metadata Bound Library to SAS Viya 4 - with both aspects: metadata access controls and on-disk encryption for SAS datasets.

[Patrick]

I believe with SAS Viya you can use this area as if it were a normal file system - but it isn't and only accessible via SAS and the SAS security layer.

[EyalGonen]

1. I am surprised and curious by what you wrote... how does SAS "know" that /public is in SAS Content and not on the server's file system? I could have a /public mount point as well mounted to the Compute Server pod?  How does it differentiate between OS mounted folders and SAS Content folders?

2. We are migrating a SAS Grid environment with Terabytes of SAS datasets. I am not sure that uploading Terabytes of data to SAS Content is recommended and also whether it allows parallel concurrent access to the same data from multiple server (I am referring to table level locking). Today they use Linux GFS to allow this clustered file system. I doubt SAS Content is a replacement for that.

[Patrick]

@EyalGonen Actually.... I believe you're right and SAS Content is not really suitable for storing .sas7bdat file (for accessing them via a libname statement).  Sorry! I'm still getting up-to-speed with Viya so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. 

I'll try to figure out next week if and which migration path there is for metadata bound libraries or which alternative approach could be used to functionally replace it. Would like to know myself.

[EyalGonen]

Thanks @Patrick  waiting for your findings

Maybe other have experience with Metadata Bound Libraries migration to Viya and can chime in.

By the way, I am still puzzled by the simple SAS code you wrote.. 

libname test "/public/folder";

How did SAS know that this is a SAS Content folder and not an OS on-disk file system???

What happens if I have a /public SAS Content folder and also a /public filesystem mounted to the Compute Server pod?

How does it differentiate between them? How does it know whether to access the file system or SAS Content?

@Patrick did you actually run the code you sent above: https://communities.sas.com/t5/Moving-to-SAS-Viya/SAS-9-4-Metadata-Bound-Libraries-capability-in-Viy... and it ran fine???

[Patrick]

@EyalGonen 

Your question how SAS figures out that this is a path under SAS Content made me realize that what I wrote about a libname can't be true. 

I did run the code with the libname statement but got an error stating that I'm not allowed to execute it when the environment is under lockdown. This error "masked" that SAS was anyway not searching under SAS Content.

The filename statement got a new FILESRVC Access Method for SAS content but there the use of this engine defines that it's under SAS Content.

[EyalGonen]

That makes much more sense 🙂

So now I am returning to my original question: is there a migration path for Metadata Bound Libraries from SAS 9.4 to SAS Viya 4?

I guess not but wondering if anyone has challenged this before and can share experience

[SASKiwi]

My understanding is that there is no metadata server in SAS Viya. So by definition you can't have metadata-bound libraries. So the question I have is what features of metadata-bound libraries would you want in Viya? Is it the locked down data access or is it the data encryption or is it some other feature? 

[EyalGonen]

Hi @SASKiwi 

Thanks for the reply.

I am interested in both locked down data access and data encryption at-rest.

[LinusH]

Without knowing your requirements in depth, my recommendation is to consider moving your data to an external data base.

If you don't already have a prefferred one at your site, Singlestore could be of interest since SAS is working a little more tight with them in integrating Viya push down functionality.

[Patrick]

@EyalGonen From what I could find out it looks to me that there is no direct functional equivalent under Viya. I guess encryption at rest can be addressed by cloud offerings that encrypt the data but for the rest it's likely more in the direction of what @LinusH proposed.