Enterprise Guide performance over a slow network

[SASKiwi]

@Nigel_Pain - It could be worth comparing the latest version of EG which is 8.2 with 7.15. EG 8 is pretty much a complete re-write and this is the version I'm using over VPN. It's possible it might behave better in your environment. Watch out for the fact that EG 8.2 will automatically save 7.15 projects in 8.2 format which can't be read in EG 7.15.

[MCCL1250]

This was my thought, but getting my employer to upgrade is difficult at
best. We just upgraded to 7.15 less than a year ago. Is there any
documentation of this that I could point to that this would work faster? I
have already pushed for it several times and my manager is taking it to our
IT department on Tuesday.

[SASKiwi]

@Nigel_Pain - I suggest you check out this post: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Enterprise-Guide/Introducing-SAS-Enterprise-Guide-8-1/m-p/569293#...

Have a look at all of the comments, links and videos as that will give you a pretty good idea of the enhancements in EG 8.

I haven't specifically done a lot of comparing of 7.15 versus 8.2 regarding performance as we'd already switched prior to working over VPN. My perception is that 8.2 is similar to 7.15 with regard to network performance. There is one area where EG 8 is a clear winner though and that is the ability to work purely in coding mode with EG project overhead completely switched off. However it sounds like you mostly use EG projects so that is unlikely to be a huge benefit.  

[Nigel_Pain]

@SASKiwi An upgrade to 8.2 is planned as part of an overall upgrade of our environment, from M5 to M6. This is primarily to upgrade VA to 7.5 before Flash finally goes out of support. But we have a freeze on all system changes at the moment so it's not going to happen until that is lifted. And, in terms of the client packages, that also won't happen until people are back to working in the office, or are at least able to go to an office. This is because of the size of the deployed package: policy is only to allow this except on a wired ethernet connection.

I'm certainly interested in what EG 8.2 is like. It looks like there will be some functionality that my users will like. In particular, there was a (minor!) outcry when a previous upgrade removed the ability to have multiple items open in tiled windows: one outspoken user described it as a "car-crash of a version"! Can't say I agreed with him, but I can understand that a lot of experienced users will like having this ability again.

I will be doing a lot more reading up on 8.2 before we finally upgrade because I think users will need to be made aware of the way in which it differs from 7.15.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

[Nigel_Pain · Accepted solution]

Just marking this conversation as complete. There's no solution as such but there's been some useful advice.

[Quentin]

I know this thread is a couple months old, but just wondering how my speed connecting over VPN to a SAS server that is far, far away compares to others'.

Using EG 8.2 running on my local PC, if I submit the below data step, I get EG "run time" shown in submission status between 23 and 25 seconds:

data _null_ ;
  set sashelp.class ;
  put _all_ ;
run ;

Of course the actual execution time on the server is instantaneous.  The EG time is several seconds of "preparing the server", then "running", then "running the data step".   "Collecting" is shown only very briefly.  Interestingly, "running the data step" is shown for several seconds after the log has returned and shows the step completed.

23 seconds seems like a lot. Wondering how slow it is for others experiencing the covid VPN from home challenge.

Normally I work in EG on a remote terminal server next to the SAS server, so I don't have this delay.  But the terminal server doesn't have EG 8.2 yet, and I wanted to play with it.

If I could do something to decrease the latency while running EG locally, down to even 5 seconds, I might switch to local EG.  Because with the remote terminal server (far far away) the code runs fine and I get logs/results quick enough, but there is enough of a response delay when I type or click the mouse as to be annoying.

Maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to work on a SAS server located in my hemisphere. : )