To all who attended our second SUGA virtual meeting, we thank you. My presentation covered a high-level overview of SAS 9.4 administration tasks. I answered some questions during the event, but wasn’t able to cover them all. So, I’ve provided the Q&A here for all those who attended. If you weren’t able to attend, or want to watch it again, you’ll find the archived link and slide deck here.
The SUGA team looks forward to “seeing” you again at their next event, currently in the planning stages.
Question
Is the SAS Administrator a separate module, or is it talking about people who have bought SAS 9.4 and how to administer SAS?
Answer
This is about tasks necessary to administer your SAS environment. You can find more info here:
Overview of Administration Tasks. It is not a separate module.
Question
For the database metadata, what is the type?
Where do you put the source details for oracle to be added as a source, is there a tnsnames.ora?
Answer
Database Metadata refers to the libraries you create in SAS Management Console. This documentation provides more information.
The document describes, amongst other things, connections between ORACLE and SAS.
If you refer to the Database we looked at in the Backup Manager in the SAS Environment Manager, this includes data collected from SAS products and has nothing to do with third party databases.
Question
What is the difference between daily back up and weekly back up?
How do we recover?
The backup data will restore filesystem backup, as well? If not, is there any tool that creates a backup of filesystem?
In SAS Backup Manager can you configure the number of backups (like you can in Management Console) you want to keep?
Are the backups complete backups or delta backups?
Is it possible to restore just one metadata folder from the backup instead of all the metadata being restored? For example I just want to restore the Sales folder from Monday but not Marketing.
Is there any option for selective restore of an object rather than full restore with M3 Release?
Answer
With a weekly backup, you do backup your entire environment, data and metadata, that have been created during the week. However, if you would run into a problem and a recovery would become necessary, you can only recover from an entire week. With a daily backup, your “margin” of data to recover is much smaller, easier, and safer. Having a daily backup might mean you’d lose only one day.
This information might also be helpful as it describes command for full and partial recovery.
Answers for all other backup questions, and details on Best Practices for Backup and Recovery can be found here:
Backup Information
Recovery Information
Question
Can backup/restore be used to bring up the SAS environment on another server?
Answer
A restore sets the Metadata Server in a PAUSE state. This means, that already running jobs are being put on hold, and “freshly” submitted jobs cannot be run until the Metadata Server resumes.
A paused Metadata Server effects all other SAS services.
Question
What do you mean by Reorganize option in metadata back up and why it is not enabled for every day's back up schedule
Answer
The reorg option allows you to reclaim unused disk space. Please see this document for more information. (For further details: page 170, Chapter 12, Best Practices for Backing Up and Restoring Your SAS Content.)
Question
Often we backup individual objects by exporting them manually out of SAS MC (SAS 9.2). We also backup all metadata, but in some cases we wouldn't want to restore the whole environment to a point in time. Any way to automate this type of export in 9.4?
Answer
You could schedule batch jobs that are available for Promotion (Export and Import of Metadata)
Please take a look at this documentation for more information.
Question
Regarding setting up users, could you discuss external identities and methods for synchronizing with active directory?
Answer
From page 11 of the SAS 9.4 Security Administration Guide:
To import identity information in bulk from an external user store (such as Active Directory) to the SAS metadata, write SAS code. See Appendix 2, “User Import Macros,” on page 213.
For further details about AD and SAS, and sample code, please see this document (page 227, “About the Sample Code for Active Director.)
Question
I am interested in logging and audit info.
Answer
Please take a look at Administering Logging for SAS Servers.
Question
I thought the metadata server also uses journaling so if it crashes it can use the latest info from disk, and use the journal to restore the last transactions. Can/will a restored filesystem backup do this as well?
Answer
In the initial configuration of the Metadata Server, the roll-forward journaling has been enabled.
The journaling file stores all transactions that have occurred since the most recent backup. The journal files allows you to do a roll-forward recovery of your metadata, where you can pick a specific time and date from when the last backup was taken.
See this document (page 178, Chapter 13, “Backing Up and Recovering the SAS Metadata Server.”)
Question
Use roles to restrict access to certain plugins?
Answer
Please take a look at the Metadata Server Roles in the SAS 9.4 Metadata Security Guide:
Question
How does the metadata login get connected to OS accounts?
Answer
Please take a look at the Authentication mechanisms used in SAS (Authentication to the Metadata Server).
Question
Is SAS Environment manager in 9.4 a replacement of SAS RTM?
Answer
The Environment Manager 2.5 includes a GRID plug-in that provides some RTM functionality.
Question
Is SAS Environment Manager a separate license?
Is SAS environment manager a separate install or part of SAS management console installation?
Answer
No, the SAS Environment Manager comes with the middle-tier.
Question
What is the impact of Environment Manager on platform performance, resource consumption (processors and memory)?
Answer
There is not much impact, and the resource consumption is minimal.
Question
Where can you configure the home directory shown in SAS Environment Manager.
Answer
The SASHOME directory is automatically configured and “laid down” during the installation of your SAS products. SASHOME holds all your clients, such as SAS Enterprise Guide, SAS Management Console etc.
Question
Is EM backward compatible with SAS 9.3 and 9.2?
Answer
The newest version of EMiner coming with 9.4 is not backwards compatible. It is not supported.
Question
I've tried sharing projects, but users are not able to see the actual project files?"
Answer
This is hard to answer as there could be a few factors that play a role here:
Are these individual users or groups?
Are you using Direct Access Controls or Access Control Templates
Are you using the default SHARED FOLDER in the FOLDERS tab in SAS Management Console?
There could be several reasons. Maybe addressing this with Technical Support would be the best first step.
Question
How do you reorg for clustered metadata?
Answer
If you run a reorg, the reorg is running against the node that is “master” at that point in time.
All of your nodes have the same content at any point in time, so a reorg “acts” like running against a single Metadata Server.
Question
Future sessions - will there be a grid installation/administration as well? Are there webex recording already related to grid administration
Answer
This is a great suggestion. We will definitely add that as a future topic for our virtual meetings.
Question
RTM used an old version of PHP which was a security risk. Does EM eliminate that, or does EM use PHP?
Answer
Are you referring to EM or EV? Assuming you are referring to Environment Manager, it does not use PHP.
Question
For future topics, I would like to see something for getting started in SAS Environment Manager. I haven't gotten mine configured, and I would like to get info on how I could get started on that.
Answer
Environment Manager is definitely on the list of topics we are planning to present in the near future.
Question
Which is more preferable for Admin activities, SAS Management Console or Environment Manager?
Answer
This is based on preference. Right now, either tool can be used.
Question
What's the best way to study for the platform administration certification?
Answer
The Platform Admin certification requires the following knowledge:
Exam Content
Learning options: Platform Administration Training
Becoming familiar with the exam content knowledge, and learning from the following administration resources would prepare you the best:
Administration Documentation
Question
Does Environment Manager contain a repair tool for vacuuming and repairing the Postgres database?
Answer
No, Environment Manager does not include repair tools.
Question
Is there a way I can monitor performance of running parallel queries (say up to 20) through a data builder tool? Like for example Oracle has Oracle Enterprise Manager
Answer
Please see Monitoring Platforms, Servers, and Services (page 15).
Question
What about the security of Environment Manager because it is web based tool? SMC is client tool we have more secured.
Answer
SAS Environment Manager provides you with the same security as SAS Management Console. It is secure and safe to use.
Question
Environment manager is available in only 9.4 or also available in 9.3? If it available in 9.3, how can I find the URL?
Answer
Environment Manager became officially available in SAS 9.4. The newest release of EV is 2.5, which comes with SAS 9.4 M3
Question
Is Environment Manager dependent on a certain LSF version in a SAS Grid environment?
Answer
No, not at all.
Question
I see Environment Manager service running....how do I start the dashboard?
Answer
The Dashboard is the main “entry” page when starting Environment Manager. To start the Environment Manager, go to http://<localhost>:7080, where localhost is your machine name where the Environment Manager is installed (mid-tier machine)
