There can be a need to provide multiple administrators with the ability to manage your software. The rationale will span from separation of roles and responsibilities (for example, installer and configuration manager) to changing job responsibilities or even just providing coverage while the primary administrator is on vacation. To meet that need, it’s tempting to share the logon credentials of your SAS installer account, but doing so can potentially compromise your security and fail a corporate audit.
The SAS Installer user ID on a UNIX (or Linux) system is typically named something generic, such as "sas" or "sasinst." That account, like others associated with SAS and other software services, is often not tied to any single person in the enterprise. The role of SAS Administrator could be a job function of one or several people – over time or at any point in time – as professionals follow their careers.
This paper focuses on a basic IT practice and utility to help you diligently manage the administration of your SAS software, while properly ensuring that access is secured and auditability is maintained.
