No disk space is available for the write operation on SAS University Edition

[ZhibinHuang]

Hello,

I have a file of 9GB size. I tried to sort it on SAS U Edition. But it said "No disk space is available for the write operation." On the other hand, when I tried a smaller file, it run perfectly.

My computer is Mac OS 10.13.6 (17G3025), I have 150GB available space on my disk. I also set enough space on VM.

I don't know how to solve this problem and I also don't know is it true that the SAS U Edition only allow 5GB space for user.

Part of the code:

/* hg is my database name */

83 proc sort data=hg.hg01merged out=hg.newmh reverse;

84 by party_id company country shipment tel;

85 run;

ERROR: No disk space is available for the write operation. Filename =

/tmp/SAS_util000100000978_localhost.localdomain/ut0978000005.utl.

ERROR: Failure while attempting to write page 693 of sorted run 8.

ERROR: Failure while attempting to write page 44968 to utility file 1.

ERROR: Failure encountered while creating initial set of sorted runs.

ERROR: Failure encountered during external sort.

ERROR: Sort execution failure.

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

NOTE: There were 7943553 observations read from the data set HG.HG01MERGED.

WARNING: The data set HG.NEWMH may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there were 0 observations and 31 variables.

NOTE: PROCEDURE SORT used (Total process time):

real time 53.72 seconds

cpu time 44.25 seconds

Thanks.

[Reeza]

Where do you set the VM to a particular size? I recall settings for RAM and COREs but not for size, so curious as to how you : "set enough space on VM"?

Here's some instructions on working around the size limitations in SAS UE. This is in draft so let me know if something is wrong or not working.

https://github.com/statgeek/SAS-Tutorials/blob/master/SAS%20UE%20-%20How%20to%20work%20with%20big%20...

[ZhibinHuang]

Sorry for confusing. I set RAM as 10240MB and core 2 CPUs.

[Reeza]

RAM isn't usually SAS limitation but you need three times the file size to sort, which would be 18GB so you need to redirect your work library. At least it's worth the try. Make sure to change your libname references in your code as well.

[ZhibinHuang]

I already created my own library by the code below, but it still doesn't work.

libname HG '/folders/myfolders/';
options user = HG;

even I create a new share folder called "newfolder" and redo it. Nothing different.

libname HB '/folders/myshortcuts/newfolder/';
options user = HB;

[Reeza]

If you've had SAS terminate due to large file sizes you often need to either manually find all the leftover files and clean it up - hard with the lockdown setup or re-install the VM itself. I haven't had anyone say this approach doesn't work, so if it doesn't, I'd be very curious to know that.

[ChrisNZ]

To have more disk space in a VM, you need to either add virtual disks or point to a shared folder sitting on the host OS.

I don't have UE so I am unsure if this is possible.

As @Kurt_Bremser mentionned, UE is not meant to process real-world data, so SAS may well have limited it.

[Reeza]

@ChrisNZ you can point to a folder on the OS, but you cannot change the size/setup of VM besides RAM (machine limited) and # of cores (max=2).

[Kurt_Bremser]

Use a smaller file. UE is for learning only, and you don't need large data for learning.

[ZhibinHuang]

Thanks. But where can I get the normal edition of SAS? I can't find it on the web.

[Reeza]

It's a paid product, and not cheap. If you're a student you can usually get a version from your University at a steep discount, which means somewhere between $0 to $100 usually.

[ZhibinHuang]

Got it, thanks.

[SASKiwi]

@ZhibinHuang - You won't find it on the web. To get the "normal" version of SAS you need to contact your SAS account manager, purchase a SAS licence, then a SAS software order will be emailed to you from which you can download the software. 

[ZhibinHuang]

Yes I am a student. Thank you so much.