Understanding the Batch Servers

Overview of SAS Batch Servers

Batch servers are a required part of the SAS Intelligence Platform's scheduling system. They are metadata objects that store information about how to execute a SAS command in batch mode. For example, when a SAS Data Integration Studio job is scheduled, the following things happen:

The name of the SAS program that represents the job is read from a deployment directory.
Information about the program that will execute the job is read from a SAS DATA Step Batch Server.

This information is passed to the scheduling server, which can then run the job at the appropriate time.

There are three types of batch servers:

SAS DATA Step Batch Server
SAS Java Batch Server
SAS Generic Batch Server

A SAS DATA Step Batch Server is used to locate a script that executes SAS programs in batch mode. Generally, these programs are jobs that are created in and deployed from SAS Data Integration Studio. If your deployment plan contained a scheduling component, then a SAS DATA Step Batch Server object will have been defined during the initial installation and configuration of your system. For more information about SAS DATA Step Batch Servers, see The SAS DATA Step Batch Server.

A SAS Java Batch Server points to a Java application that SAS supplies. Each Java Batch server has a subtype that refers to a particular application. If your deployment plan contains a product that uses reporting, such as SAS Web Report Studio, then the SAS Deployment Wizard automatically creates a SAS Java Batch Server for you. For more information about SAS Java Batch Servers, see The SAS Java Batch Server.

A SAS Generic Batch Server is not used frequently. It enables you to store the path to a stand-alone command or executable that is supplied by SAS, for use cases that do not pertain to the DATA step or Java batch servers.

Note: For a complete discussion of scheduling, see Scheduling in SAS. [cautionend]

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