Server Configuration, Data Retrieval, and Risk

About This Chapter

This chapter explains how SAS servers retrieve SAS data for requesting users. For higher security environments, especially sites that need to provide secure access to SAS tables (data sets), this is essential information.

The central point of the chapter is that different servers retrieve SAS files from the operating system under different host identities. If you understand the underlying factors and relationships, you can make informed choices about data retrieval and risk. The discussion is organized as follows:

Identity Passing introduces the concept of preservation of user identity and outlines the behavior of each type of server.
Launch Credentials explains how a server's host identity is specified and how you can assign a different account to a server.
Host Access to SAS Tables explains the risk of direct access that bypasses metadata controls and the concept of mediated access.
Choices in Workspace Server Pooling describes benefits and risks of server configurations that are used when relational information maps are processed.

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