Loading the system printers can slow down SAS server connections. You can avoid this by using the NOPRNGETLIST option.
https://support.sas.com/kb/33/562.html
https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/slow-initialization/td-p/245136#
https://communities.sas.com/t5/General-SAS-Programming/SAS-9-4-Very-slow-or-not-responding/td-p/425615/page/2
Granted, your locally registered SAS command should already be using the NOPRNGETLIST option. I recommend submitting the following code then checking the log to ensure the option is set to NOPRNGETLIST and not PRNGETLIST:
proc options option=NOPRNGETLIST;
run;
If it is not set to NOPRNGETLIST, I'd definitely update your locally registered SAS command or .cfg to use that option, since there is a known performance penalty without it.
If the option is already set to NOPRNGETLIST, then I'd try a local connection using the SAS Integration Technologies Configuration Wizard tool (C:\Program Files\SASHome\x86\Integration Technologies\ITConfig2.exe) (Test SAS Servers, Next, Next, change Connection Protocol to COM, click Test) and see how the time to make a connection from that tool compares with EG. If they are not roughly the same, it points to initialization code as a likely culprit.
I found the solution for another server initialization slowdown I encountered recently in this paper:
https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/sas-global-forum-proceedings/2018/2003-2018.pdf
In my specific case, it was the DNS resolution was taking a long time, which I confirmed and fixed with the steps in the section, "Addressing Issues with gethostbyaddress Calls in Virtual Machine Environments".
That paper has several other possible culprits to explore, so I recommend checking it out.
Casey
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