sas eg 7.15 - compatibility question

[tparvaiz]

Good day,

we want to implement sas solution to automate our reporting schedule... reports will be storing data in excel/pdf format, plus, we will be sending out emails with the attachment.

here is what we are planning to use and request your opinion if they are compatible

• sas enterprise guide version 7.15 (believe this is a latest one)
• windows 2012
• will be using SMTP server to send out emails
• Assuming it will be compatible with all MS office environments (excel), we will just buy one of the cheaper products

Please advise if you see any issues

Plus, is there a way I can download sas eg 7.15 and go through the proof of concept phase before purchasing a license.

[Kurt_Bremser]

If you already have a SAS server license that supports EG, getting the latest version is included in that, as soon as the package is available for your server platform.

Regarding automation: I would NOT use EG as a part of that. EG is a nice development tool, but not (IMO) suited for automation/scheduling. Develop your SAS reporting jobs into .sas codes, and run that in batch on the server. Servers are permanently online, reliable in software and hardware, are included in backup and failover scenarios, etc. All that is not available on your desktop.

email notifcation can be done from the scheduler, or from within SAS batch jobs with minimal configuration.

[tparvaiz]

other option for us is to have a dedicated environment, using Server 2012

so here are the specs that we would like to implement

• Server 2012
• Enterprise Guide 7.15 
• Office 2016 Standard edition to save output data in excel format
• SMTP server to send emails

by using a dedicated server we will always be online and probably this way we can now use EG for job scheduling. plesase advise

Thanks

[Kurt_Bremser]

EG is a client tool. It is NOT a tool for reliable and easy scheduling. Use .sas files in batch mode. 

[tparvaiz]

Excellent!

so here are my options that I will take it back to the team

A) use EG for scheduling (not recommended by the experts as they are not reliable)

EG 7.15

Server 2012

Office 2016 Standard

B) use SAS desktop for scheduling (recommended by the experts as the scheduling is more reliable)

SAS 9.4

Server 2012

Office 2016 Standard

[Kurt_Bremser]

You don't need Office on the server. SAS 9.4 can write/read the "open" formats (namely xlsx) on any platform, without a need for any MS-supplied software.

What you will need is a way to access the files created by SAS from your desktops. So you should have a network share either on the SAS server or on a file server accessible by SAS and your desktops.

[LinusH]

Well desktop per se is not reliable for scheduling.
Do I understand you correctly that you don't have a central server SAS installation?