Connecting to SAS Servers :: SAS(R) 9.3 Intelligence Platform: Desktop Application Administration Guide

Overview of SAS Server Connections in SAS Data Integration Studio

SAS Data Integration Studio users connect to a SAS Metadata Server and a SAS Workspace Server. The SAS Workspace Server might be part of a load-balancing grid configuration.

Connect to a SAS Metadata Server

At initialization time, SAS Data Integration Studio users select a connection profile that connects the desktop application to a SAS Metadata Server. The administrator might need to help users create one or more connection profiles, as described in Administering Connection Profiles for Desktop Applications .

Connect to a Workspace Server

When you execute a job in SAS Data Integration Studio, the application submits generated SAS code to a SAS Workspace Server, which executes the code. Therefore, it is imperative that an object spawner is running and that SAS Data Integration Studio is able to use the spawner to start a SAS Workspace Server. To test a connection to a SAS Workspace Server, follow these steps:

Select ToolsOptions.
In the Options dialog box, select the Server tab.
Select from the list the name of the SAS Application Server to which the SAS Workspace Server belongs.
Click Test Connection. You might be prompted for a user name and password. If you are, enter credentials that allow you to be authenticated on the host where the SAS Workspace Server is running. If all goes well, you see an Information dialog box that says, “Connection to the server was successful”.

Set Grid Server Options

Grid computing is implemented in the separately licensed SAS Grid Manager software. SAS Grid Manager runs grid-enabled jobs on multiple servers. The grid configuration consists of a logical SAS grid server that distributes processing tasks. In addition, the configuration includes any number of SAS Workspace Servers that execute distributed tasks, a SAS Grid Monitor server, and a Grid Monitor plug-in for SAS Management Console. The distribution of tasks across the grid is determined by a grid workload specification that you create and register in SAS Management Console.

The following steps are performed on the global Options tab in SAS Data Integration Studio. Before you can perform these tasks, a SAS grid server and a grid workload specification must be registered in SAS Management Console. For more information about these tasks, see Grid Computing in SAS.

To select a SAS grid server and specify related options for SAS Data Integration Studio jobs, follow these steps:

In SAS Data Integration Studio, select ToolsOptions from the menu bar and select the SAS Server tab.
In the Grid workload specification box, select the specification that you want to apply to your grid jobs.
In the Signon options box, specify the options that you want to apply at the start of each grid computing session.
In the Number of signon entries box, enter the number of times you want to reconnect to the grid after errors. The default value is three.
Select the Code Generation tab.
Jobs executed on a grid are executed in parallel. SAS Data Integration Studio uses a set of macros to enable parallel processing. To enable parallel processing for all new jobs, select the Enable parallel processing macros check box.

Alternatively, you can enable these macros for individual jobs. You can select YES in the Enable parallel processing macros option on the Options tab of the properties window for an individual job. Also, simply including a Loop transformation in a job enables parallel processing for that job.
Consider setting options for concurrent processes based on the hosts that make up your grid.
Click OK to save your changes.