Running SAS EG Project on a schedule and creating archived output by date

[JSJ]

Hi-

I tried using the Scheduler in SAS EG, but my project didn't run.  I can touch base with our IT area, but I was wondering if anyone has experience in this.

Also,  we have had up to 80 reports that we needed to run on one day.  Any suggestions on best practices using SAS EG?

Some of the projects will run multiple times...i.e. on May 5th, May 8th, etc.  Can we create file names with the date in them and store them in a "permanent" location?

I have heard that we have a product called Tivoli, but I don't  know if this is the best route to pursue.

Thanks!

Jo

[SASKiwi]

How important are these reports and hence what level of reliability do you need with scheduling? If these reports are anywhere near business-critical then I would recommend switching to SAS server-based scheduling which you can easily do via SAS Management Console. You will however have to export your EG projects to SAS programs to do this.

You should consult your SAS administrator for the best practices at your site.  

[Kurt_Bremser]

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@JSJ wrote:

Hi-

I tried using the Scheduler in SAS EG, but my project didn't run.  I can touch base with our IT area, but I was wondering if anyone has experience in this.

Also,  we have had up to 80 reports that we needed to run on one day.  Any suggestions on best practices using SAS EG?

---

Use EG for development, but then save your report code as a .sas file on the server, so you can use sasbatch.sh to have it run from the scheduling software available on your server. Check with your IT people what you have, and how to use it.

Some of the projects will run multiple times...i.e. on May 5th, May 8th, etc.  Can we create file names with the date in them and store them in a "permanent" location?

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Yes, you can. Set up a pre-assigned library for your application server (most likely SASApp), and use that as target. Either calculate a datestamp in your code, or have it supplied from the scheduler; use it in your code:

%let datestamp=%sysfunc(today(),yymmddn8.);

data permlib.dataset_&datestamp;
/* code */
run;

(example for automatically calculated in code)

[TomKari]

Without adding any technical details, I concur with the advice to switch away from EG-based scheduling if the reports are important.

There's nothing wrong with the EG side, the problem is that there are too many links in the chain; if any of them fails, your code won't run.

Some examples of interfering problems that I have seen that had nothing to do with SAS:

IT was updating the client PC at the time the code was supposed to run;

There were network problems, and there was no connection between the PC and the data;

Firewall changes had been made, blocking communication between the PC and the data.

IT tends to not worry about making changes that will interfere with PC to remote data communication during off-hours, because it's very rare for a user to need their PC functioning under those circumstances.

Tom

[SASKiwi]

@TomKari  - Great summary of the problems with PC-based scheduling.