There are Linux PAM modules like pam_oddjob_mkhomedir and the older pam_mkhomedir that do the job of automatically creating a home directory for a user that has not logged in before. This removes the requirement for administrators to manually create home directories for new Linux platform users. Unfortunately this does not work as expected with the SAS Object Spawner as it seems that the sasauth module does not trigger PAM session handling. There is a comment in the sasauth.conf file that confirms this (with respect to the use of Centrify): "Centrify requires that pam_setcred be called. sasauth traditionally has not done this, since there's no "session" like an interactive login." The Configuration Guide for SAS 9.4 Foundation for UNIX Environments also states that “Session and password modules are not supported”. In addition to SAS 9.2, 9.3, and 9.4, this also applies to the SAS Object Spawner used by SAS Studio 4.2 with SAS Viya 3.2   Whilst this no-session would be true for SAS Metadata Server authentication, it doesn't seem correct for the SAS Object Spawner, when launching standard SAS Workspace Servers as the requesting user, since that launch will fail if the user has no home directory.   Can we get the sasauth module enhanced to trigger PAM session handling and avoid the need for workarounds?    See the blog post and comments at https://platformadmin.com/blogs/paul/2017/04/sas-user-linux-home-dir-auto-creation/ for a discussion of why a workaround is necessary because of this.   Thanks Paul ... View more

&SYSRC holds the return code of the last external command executed. But it is not set when a filename pipe is used as input (and therefore runs the command included in the physical name if the fileref). See this: filename oscmd pipe "ls /garbage 2>&1"; %put &=sysrc.; data _null_; infile oscmd; input; put _infile_; run; %put &=sysrc.; x "ls /garbage 2>&1"; %put &=sysrc.; Log: 27 filename oscmd pipe "ls /garbage 2>&1"; 28 29 %put &=sysrc.; SYsrc=0 30 31 data _null_; 32 infile oscmd; 33 input; 34 put _infile_; 35 run; NOTE: The infile OSCMD is: Pipe-Kommando="ls /garbage 2>&1" ls: 0653-341 The file /garbage does not exist. NOTE: 1 record was read from the infile OSCMD. The minimum record length was 46. The maximum record length was 46. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.01 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds 36 37 %put &=sysrc.; SYsrc=0 38 39 x "ls /garbage 2>&1" 39 ! ; 40 41 %put &=sysrc.; SYsrc=2 I therefore suggest that SYSRC is also updated when external commands are run via the filename pipe mechanism, as it would enhance the communication with the host OS. ... View more

This post from @Kurt_Bremser triggered an idea I had for a while but I keep forgetting to share it. https://communities.sas.com/t5/Community-Matters/documentation-sas-com-inoperable/m-p/691501#M4399   It is not very often, although sometimes documentation.sas.com is offline or has hiccups. It is however often than documentation.sas.com might be blocked in certain scenarios, and it is often that this resource is critical in certain scenarios.   Would it be possible to create a procedure to generate a local mirror of documentation.sas.com?    - On one side, this was considered in the past, as SASWebDoc is an app to have documentation of SAS Base locally available. So the idea is not really new.   - On other side, I assume the collection of documentation.sas.com can be quite large and it has periodic updates. This is something to consider.   My idea is that it would be interesting to have the following functionality:   - Enable subsets of documentation.sas.com, based on products, solutions, etc - Have an updated list of those subsets, their sizes and the last update date - A procedure that would allow to create a mirror of selected updates, and to update them (only the diffs) per request   What do you think of this idea? Feasible? Other requirements to add? ... View more

When a certain expression is used to create a new variable: create table ouput2 as select put(Team,$Ffmt.) as Team_Category, count(*) as No_Customers and the same expression is used in the group by: group by put(Team,$Ffmt.) the SQL compiler should recognize this and act as if the new variable had been used instead: group by calculated Team_Category and avoid the (accidental) remerging with the original data ... View more

Recently it has come to my attention that the SAS UE VM can run out of space in /tmp permanently, as revealed here: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Analytics-U/How-to-clear-up-space-in-WORK-folder/m-p/337139/highlight/false#M5431 I am really surprised that SAS has not implemented a mechanism that cleans up any remnants of crashed previous workspace server sessions when the VM starts (which is basically a system boot, I think).   So I suggest that at least running the cleanwork utility is implemented at startup of the SA UE VM. ... View more

At the moment, it is possible to create a single connection to a single LDAP server and in that connection, 2 queries, a single query for users and a single query for the groups.   In the past, the User Bulk loading could allow an array of queries, for both the users and the groups, and also a certain pagination based on number of observations or based on alphanumeric order and you could split the queries.   It would be really nice and useful in SAS Viya, especially in SAS Visual Analytics environments, where it is expected a usage of thousands of users per organisation , the possibilities to:   Create multiple queries, for users and for groups, having different baseDNs and to split internally those queries in additional queries, based on number of observations and/or starting letter (alphanumerical)   ... View more

Add some ML to the back end so that when users, especially new users, post SAS code in their posting it is automatically detected and placed in a code block.   No offense, not sure why there is a "Insert SAS Code" and a "Insert Code" feature in the posting editor.  They appear to be the same.  Not sure why some code blocks appear as boxed with white background, slightly oversized font and syntax highlighting. ... View more

I think it is long overdue that SAS adds support for at least the .ods file format. Enterprise Guide for export and import SAS Studio the same PROC EXPORT and PROC IMPORT LIBNAME ODS (working like libname xlsx)   Since the core of the ods file format is compressed xml, just as in the modern Microsoft Office formats, this should not be very hard to achieve. ... View more

If SAS attempts to resolve a macro variable reference and cannot, it throws a helpful warning (assuming default option SERROR is on): 1 %put &nope ; WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference NOPE not resolved. &nope Unfortunately, if the the macro processor makes multiple passes of a token (because of multiple ampersands), it does NOT throw a warning when a macro reference cannot be resolved on one of the intermediate passes.  As an example, the following code mistakenly has three ampersands in front of VAR instead of two.  On the first pass, the first two ampersands resolve to  a single ampersand, and then SAS tries to resolve macro reference &var and it cannot.  At that point, I would like to see SAS throw a warning that symbolic reference VAR cannot be resolved.   %let var1=foo ; %let i=1 ; %put &&&var&i ; If you turn on symbolgen, it shows the resolution process, and shows that SAS tried to resolve VAR:   8 options symbolgen ; 9 10 %put &&&var&i ; SYMBOLGEN: && resolves to &. SYMBOLGEN: Unable to resolve the macro variable reference &var SYMBOLGEN: && resolves to &. SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable I resolves to 1 SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable VAR1 resolves to foo foo The WARNING is useful, and would be helpful to have it generated any time there is a failed resolution attempt.  I don't see any value to suppressing this warning when there are multiple resolution passes. ... View more

If the update host-name references option in SAS Deployment Manager can show following information it would be really helpful.   1) Count of files that will be updated. There could be a large number of log, perf log files which aren't required during this change. An estimate of the number of files can help to better plan and remove any unwanted files in advance.   2) Estimated time of completion. In-case of multi-tier large SAS deployments it could take some time for the process to complete. One way to check if the process is running fine is to verify the log. If the system can display a progress bar with the percentage complete & remaining it would be helpful. Currently it only shows which component it is updating but there is no progress in terms of percentage displayed. ... View more

For Z/OS system, I can create a physical file compressed with SMS.  The physical file store the SAS database. If i compress the file with Zedc feature (Zip compression code) i save more than 88% of disk space and lot of CPU because i remove SAS compression. My problem is the SAS database on this compressed physical file is not a recognized SAS structure file. To use this file, i have to code LIBNAME xxxx V9SEQ engin, so i have to change all SAS programs who use this SAS database. I believe, it is a good idea if you determine that the file is compressed with Zedc (very easy) you use automaticaly the good SAS Engine. Thanks ... View more

SAS Studio beginning in version 3.4 now allows to create visual  Process Flows, like SAS Enterprise Guide. The Process flows are stored into a *.CPF file based on Apache VTL (Velocity Template Language) - it seems. On the other hand, SAS EG flows are stored into a proprietary Zip archive called Project file (*.EGP file) internally using XML for flow description.   At this point, there is no automatic conversion tool available between SAS EG *.EGP format flows and SAS Studio *.CPF flows. It would be definitively useful to provide one to the users or to the admins. Even partial conversion would be fine, taking into account differences between the to clients. Re-creating manually SAS EG jobs into SAS Studio would be time-consuming, costly and error prone.   As a side note, SCAPROC Procedure (the engine running the SAS EG Code analyser feature) has no 'reverse' capacity enabling a SAS EG process flow to be converted back into some Universal and/or portable description code (XML, VTL etc.). It can ony convert user-written code into SAS EG Flows. SAS Studio Process flow designer has neither capacity, for the moment. ... View more

On hierarchical filesystems, a directory is just a file (albeit of a specific type), but nonetheless a file that has the same attributes any other file has: permissions, modification or other date(s), a size. The directory-specific functions DOPEN() et al are suited to mostly process the contents of the directory, but they miss out on the file-specific attributes of the directory file itself. I therefore propose to enable the FOPEN() and other functions to work with a directory file for the purely FILE aspects of it. ... View more

At the moment when a hash key isn't found in a data step using hash.find(), SAS returns a generic 'ERROR: Key not found.' Would aid debugging if a line:column number was returned, and what key caused the failure. ... View more

As discussed in this thread, it would be useful to have badges on the SAS Communities Forums. While an expert participant in the community need not be certified, badges recognize the background of community members. They also lend credibility to answers about certificaion levels and exams.   The existing community badges and ranks can encourage participation, but showing certification badges or ranks would be aligned with the professional recognition from SAS. ... View more

As promised, this is my last idea for documentation.sas.com (and or other places, such as the portals or the communities.sas.com).   It is not really a new idea ( see https://communities.sas.com/t5/SASware-Ballot-Ideas/Resources-for-SAS-Architect-in-Azure/idi-p/692475 ) , and definitely not originally mine as others are identifying this new requirement.   I keep observing the implementation of SAS in the clouds (Azure, AWS, Oracle, Google, even Alibaba) is becoming the new common. However, the information on this subject is a little bit spread. Some are doing their best, such as Margaret Crevar, to whom we all are in a lifetime debt. Still, important updates tend to be lost, like a needle in hay. An example I recently found, the AZURE options to support Azure storage systems: https://documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.5&docsetId=basewn&docsetTarget=p1wn6lfpcrhatrn1fsjsscuhiu0q.htm&locale=en   I think that, the same that in the past there is a compilation of documentation (papers, SAS documentation, scripts, etc) for major integration and product subjects, such as Grid, for High availability, in the SAS Focus Area, there should be something similar for the each of the clouds. I can see the SAS for Containers, but not the different Clouds that are surrently under official support.   Thank you for your consideration! Ps. @SimonMcGrother , tagging you here as well, just in case. ... View more

I saw a huge improvement in the SAS documentation, and the Libraries here in the Communities. Massive kudos and thanks to everyone involved.   Now with the SAS partnership with Microsoft:   Would it be possible to create a portal focused on this partnership? The content can be where it already is, the point would be offering a view/portal where the resources can be found and prioritized in one go. As I realize it is not being obvious to many, I thought it could be useful.   The idea would be to collect those amazing resources and create subsets by matter of interest:   - SAS Administrator/Architect: architecture, requirements, deployment, quick starts, kubernetes, containers etc - Programming/Analytics: where some topics might be linked to above, i.e DevOps, SAS Model Manager, etc - At the top, a handful of resources, the most important ones as main guidelines; then below the full list, which are important, but depend on area of interest.   I.e, my personal top 4 / starting point are:   Important Performance Considerations When Moving SAS® to a Public Cloud (M. Crevar, update APR-2020): https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/sas-global-forum-proceedings/2020/4312-2020.pdf (Video available as well)   Best Practices for Using Microsoft Azure with SAS® (M. Crevar, update AUG-2020): https://communities.sas.com/t5/Administration-and-Deployment/Best-Practices-for-Using-Microsoft-Azure-with-SAS/td-p/676833   Azure Storage for SAS Architects (E. Riva). Part 1 (update FEB-2020): https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Azure-Storage-for-SAS-Architects/ta-p/681162 Part2 (update SEP-2020): https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Azure-Storage-for-SAS-Architects-Do-You-Want-to-Share/ta-p/687864   Perhaps a single SAS Communities Library article would do for starters, but with all the content being shared, it might not be enough.   ... View more

Hello, I am going to post this "idea" on behalve of multiple customers including @bheinsius, @JuanS_OCS and I ran into it myself once or twice too:   At Linux crash, existing pid or lock files prevent sas services to start. When a Linux server containing SAS 9.4 processes (M0 - M4), and pid files or lock files (exmaples below) are not being deleted, the sas services might be prevented from starting in the following case: When the pid file contains a proces number of a process that is running (with a different service): For example when my /opt/sas/config/Lev1/SASMeta/MetadataServer/server.sas.pid file has pid 4964, and my server crashes, and the server restart, having a process like /usr/sbin/crond (system service) running on the proces id 4964 (the old metadataserver pid), then my metadataserver will not start, until I manually remove the .pid file;   A list of pid files that make the basic sas installations to crash are: - /opt/sas/config/Lev1/ConnectSpawner/server.sas.pid - /opt/sas/config/Lev1/ObjectSpawner/server.sas.pid - /opt/sas/config/Lev1/SASApp/OLAPServer/server.sas.pid - /opt/sas/config/Lev1/SASMeta/MetadataServer/server.sas.pid   The SASWebApplication Services will not start when .lck files in the log folder are present, like: - /opt/sas/config/Lev1/Web/WebAppServer/SASServer1_1/logs/tmlog.lck   The customer(s) think(s) when a server is stopped, or when a server is started, these pid files and lck files should be taken care of in a more graceful way than SAS services not starting. I.E. Adding it to the SAS startup script or the Linux OS boot services. ... View more

Similar to Internet Explorer, an 'x' should be placed on bottom tabs in PC SAS so that the user can easily close a window.    Currently the user must open the window and click on the top 'x', or use the menu /File/Close again when opened,  or right click on the tab and select Close | Cntrl+F4.    Placing an 'x' on the tab would be much quicker, especially helpful when viewing many programs or SAS datasets ... View more