Accessing Files previously Accessible via Local on a SAS Windows Server - Files/Directories Prompt

[David_Luttrell]

Hi,

Were currently looking at migrating a couple of enterprise guide projects to run on a SAS app server, which were previous run using a local server. (This is in order to ensure that we are not dealing with an underlying local project ecosystem which our team will have to support)

At the moment the projects are ran locally, and files for the project (.xls/.txt) are input from a network drive. These can be accessed locally but cannot be ran on the server.

When running the project users have a prompt where they enter the location of the files to be input.

I tried emulating this on the server by using UNC paths to no avail, which I thought should have worked as it is a hop server from an infrastructure point of view.

Does anybody have any ideas here as to the best way to access the required file?

Data Migration from the drive to the server is not an option due to the volume.

Kind Regards,

David

[JuanS_OCS]

Hello David,

understanding you work with a Windows Server (not Linux), I think that what you are missing is to register the SPNs for the SAS processes. An example:

setspn -A SAS/sasapp-alias-name.example.com:8591 sasapp-host-name
setspn -A SAS/sasapp-alias-name:8591 sasapp-host-name

I would let your System Admin to know, they understand the problem and will know what to do .

Of course, a second option, is that you have a problem of permissions. This one you can quickly check by logging to the server with your account with Remote Desktop connection, and try to open an Explorer window and access those UNC paths. If they worki here, and not in your SAS code, you need the SETSPN (and maybe kerberos delegation). If it does not work on the server with Explorer, it is probably permissions, or even host/alias not reachable by your server (firewall rules).

[David_Luttrell]

Thanks for your reply Juan,

I can see/access the Shares for these drives on the server, although, i do have a different network account to access servers vs. local so windows permissions are not the same.

I think you have a good grasp of the problem, that these shares are not visible when we run using the SAS app server.

Would mapping a virtual drive on the server remedy the issue in anyway.

Kind Regards,

David

[JuanS_OCS]

I think it would, yes. But then, be careful to not map the drive with a single account for all the SAS users on the servers, otherwise you will lose track of authorizations on your share.

[ChrisHemedinger]

You might need to introduce a Copy Files step in your flow.  This will copy the files you need from the local context (even a network location) to the SAS server context.

The Copy Files task is described here.  It's a custom task in all versions of EG until v7.13 (released last month), where it is built into the Tasks->Data menu.

[David_Luttrell]

Thanks Chris & a happy new year,

We are currently using a windows based process to copy in files as a workaround, will take a look at that process.

I think it is important to note due to the volume of data we are dealing with, they are scenario based simulations. That we do not intend on filling up our sas server with a significant volume of data.

Kind Regards,

David