One of our goals at SAS is to allow users to interact with SAS Viya in the way that makes the most sense to them. For data scientists using Python, that is often through our open-source packages, such as SWAT and sasctl. Thus, it is important that we continue development in our open source packages. In this blog, we will briefly discuss sasctl as well as introduce its integration with git.
First things first. What is sasctl?
Sasctl is an open-source package developed by SAS that allows Python data scientists to easily communicate with the model management capabilities of the SAS Viya platform. It gives you the ability to register models and modeling assets into SAS Model Manager directly from a Python IDE! Python Zip Model Management functionality, also known as PZMM, exists within the sasctl package. Sasctl supports a wide variety of Python model packages including fan-favorites sklearn and xgboost.
Introducing Integration for Git
Git is a free and open-source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Many organizations use git for tracking changes in files and collaborating on code. While data scientists may be leveraging git to develop models over time, it lacks the context that is necessary to truly manage models. SAS Model Manager adds a layer of governance, management, care, and control to these models. So, we are excited to further our integration with git to better support analytically needs across organizations!
To get started using our sasctl integrations git, check out this notebook or follow along with the steps below.
Get Started
To start leveraging sasctl with git, complete the following steps:
- Download and install git.
- Create a local repository in git that is accessible to your Python environment. (Note: to learn more about git, check out this book).
- Optional: Add remote origin to the local git repository.
- Install sasctl in your Python environment.
- Import sasctl in your Python code.
- Specify the path of your local repository.
- Start SAS Viya session through sasctl.
Now we are ready to start using sasctl with git. Our integrations include:
- Pulling a model from SAS Model Manager into a local git repository.
- Pulling a project from SAS Model Manager into a local git repository.
- Pushing a model from a local git repository into SAS Model Manager.
- Pulling changes from a remote git repository into a local git repository.
- Pushing changes from a local git repository into a remote git repository.
The following video walks through each of the steps with code:
Other Resources
Want to learn more about SAS Model Manager, sasctl, and git? Check out the following links!
