Where is the log file for a background submitted job on SAS Viya?

[thewan]

Hello SAS users,

I background submitted a job but saw that the program had some errors and wanted to take a look at the log file. Where can I find this? I noticed that this page offered a solution but I could not find this directory path.

https://support.sas.com/kb/65/636.html

Thank you.

[gwootton]

The path listed in that SAS Note is where the compute server's logs are found (/opt/sas/viya/config/var/log/compsrv/default). If that path is not present you may need to check a different host (the host specified in inventory.ini under [Compute Server] during deployment).

[thewan]

Would this also apply under SAS Viya learners? This would be the web application. Thank you.

[gwootton · Accepted solution]

SAS Viya for Learners does not give access to the file system outside of your user home directory, so you would not be able to access that log path. Instead, you can access the log through the Jobs and Flows menu's (gear icon) monitoring tab in SAS Environment Manager (Menu -> Manage Environment -> Jobs and Flows), click the "Download" link next to your job in the Log column.

[thewan]

Thank you! This was exactly what I was looking for. I noticed that the program had timed out. Is there a time limit for programs submitted under the learners version? Thank you.

[gwootton]

I'm not aware of a time limit, how long was the job? I tried submitting a job with a sleep timer in it and it still completed successfully, but that delay was only about 6 minutes.

[thewan]

The log file says that it timed out. I ran the program from 1pm to 11pm yesterday.

[gwootton]

The authentication tokens Viya uses by default are valid for 10 hours, that may be a contributing factor.

[thewan]

Thank you for letting me know.

[thewan]

Just wondering if this can be changed or if this applies to all users even those with a license for SAS Viya? Thank you.

[gwootton]

This can be tuned administratively, so outside of Viya for Learners you could adjust the lifetime of the authentication token.

[thewan]

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you for letting me know.

[AllanBowe]

If your use case could involve a non-web client submitting background jobs, you might consider the SASjs CLI.

It's a tool my team have developed, that lets you:

* Submit a Job & Collect the logs

* Submit a Flow with multiple jobs & dependencies (and collect the logs)

* Create & Deploy Jobs

And much more.  Documentation is here:  https://cli.sasjs.io

[thewan]

This is a really nice tool! Thank you for the link.