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hemi
Calcite | Level 5
Hi, hoping someone may be able to help here...

We have a VPN which allows users to log into our network remotely. This all sits behind a firewall which only allows access to certain ports. When I first tried EG, I couldn't log into the repository at all as the firewall was blocking the ports. Using 'netstat' in Win2K I found the port it was trying to connect to and had IT open port 8561 and 8591 (SAS/ACCESS).

Everything works fine until I run a large job and it seems to timeout - EG will sit there with a green icon in the project designer indicating that the component is running, however it seems to time out after a while and sit there like that even after the component has finished running on the server.

Someone out there must have had experience setting up EG behind a VPN, any ideas?
3 REPLIES 3
Doc_Duke
Rhodochrosite | Level 12
If you are running a "vanilla" VPN like Cisco's, EG is not behind the VPN, it's on the local desktop. But your SAS server is behind the VPN.

EG sends off the request to SAS and then waits for a response. During that time, it is not "talking" across the VPN and the VPN settings think that you have gone away and it times out. VPNs are often set to time out after 15 minutes of inactivity. Your IT group can probably tell you how it is set up.

You can do one of two things:
-- get IT to allow a longer timeout. They may even be able to set it for certain user IDs.
-- do something else (non EG) that "talks" across the network. Refresh your e-mail, do a directory listing. Depending on your definition of "long," this may not be realistic.
ChrisHemedinger
Community Manager
EG has two connections: one to a workspace server (processing your job) and one to a metadata server (sort of a directory service for how to find servers, data, etc).

The metadata server connects via port 8561, and the workspace server uses 8591 (by default, these can be changed by an admin).

While your job is running, there is little-to-no traffic to the metadata server. In EG 4.1, this can time-out depending on your firewall settings and cause problems. EG 4.1 doesn't recover very well when the metadata server connection is severed. This is much better in EG 4.2.

If EG is waiting for the workspace server to finish a job, even a long-running job, EG polls the workspace server every 5 seconds or so to gather any relevant SAS logs. This should be enough activity to keep the port open even if it's got a 15- or 30-minute timeout setting.

I recommend that you work with SAS tech support on this, and be prepared to provide details about your VPN and firewall settings.

Chris
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hemi
Calcite | Level 5
Thanks Chris / Doc - I suspect its a timeout issue as quick jobs run fine, it seems to be anything over 10 minutes that causes issues. I'll talk to IT and see what kind of timeout / firewall settings could be interfering and let you know how I get on.

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