several questions about space in the work directory at SAS server

[Jade_SAS]

Hi All,

    I have several questions about the space of work directory at SAS server:

    1) how can I know the size of space in the work directory? Any SAS statements for this purpose?

    2) How the space in the work directory is distributed between users at SAS server?

    3)I f I know the size of the SAS table, how can I guess the work space that needed to process that SAS table?

Thank you!

Jade

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

Unless a dataset is compressed, you'll need three times the size of your largest dataset as a rule of thumb (in a sort, original file/utility file/target file).

SAS will take all space it gets, there is no built-in limit. That is why I use quotas on the WORK, so one careless user can't wreck all the other's day.

I do have a script in my web servers cgi-bin that runs a df -k and creates web output from that. Very simple method to monitor disk usage.

[Jade_SAS]

Thank you, KurtBremser!

If we have 3T work space on the SAS server, and we have 200 users. And if only one user is running SAS job, the avaliable work space to that user should around 3T. Am I right?

Thanks,

Jade

[TomKari]

One small additional note. It is possible for SAS sessions to fail, in which case the WORK datasets aren't cleaned up. SAS has tools to clean up these "orphan" files, and you can also watch for them using the type of monitoring software that @Kurt_Bremser mentions.

Tom

[Kurt_Bremser]

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@Jade_SAS wrote:

Thank you, KurtBremser!

If we have 3T work space on the SAS server, and we have 200 users. And if only one user is running SAS job, the avaliable work space to that user should around 3T. Am I right?

Thanks,

Jade

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Yes. SAS itself sets no limits for individual users. But be aware that there may be limits set by the operating system. On AIX (as an example), every new user is created with a so-called "soft" limit of 1 GB per file.