Troubleshooting :: SAS(R) Enterprise Miner(TM) 7.1: Administration and Configuration, Second Edition

Overview

When you are troubleshooting unexpected application behavior, it is important to isolate and describe the problem and the context in which it occurs. The following are the general classes of information that can expedite resolution of a technical problem:

operating system environmental and configuration information
detailed problem description
sample test data
log files
client message logs
other files or screen shots

Operating System Environmental and Configuration Information

If you are going to request help from SAS Technical Support, providing the following information about your installation on each machine involved can expedite the processing of your report:

your hardware platform
your operating system name, version, word size, and service level
the overall system load, including the amount of physical memory available and processor utilization
the amount of disk space available and the location of the SAS Work folder and the SAS Enterprise Miner project root folder
the number of processors
the approximate number of SAS users
the Java Development Kit version
the Java Runtime Environment version
the SAS version and SAS service pack or patch level, including any hotfixes
the SAS Enterprise Miner version number and patch level
your server language and locale
whether a firewall exists between the client and server that regulates configuration information, port availability, and communication direction

Note: You need to provide the preceding information only once, unless it has changed since previous reports.

Problem Description

In order to get the best help, provide a scenario description that includes as much information as possible on how to reproduce the problem. Include a description of the general task that you are trying to accomplish, your role and permissions, and the state of your session before the problem is observed. It is also helpful to provide the complete process flow diagram, model package, or EM Batch code that was used when the problem was encountered.

Provide details such as the following:

Is this a client/server environment or a single machine?
If client/server, are you connecting to the server via Java Web Start through the Internet browser?
Are you working with new data or updating existing data?
Have you tried different data?
What browser and version are you using?
Is the problem locale-specific? If so, which locales are having problems?

Sample Test Data

Since problems can often only be reproduced with specific data, a small sample of the data is often critical to diagnosing the problem.

Log Files

There are logs kept for the project, the diagram, and each node in the flow. Additional logging can be turned on by defining the macro variable EM_DEBUG. See the SAS Enterprise Miner Help for more information.

The following logs are available in SAS Enterprise Miner:

For the project log, select ViewProject Log.
For the diagram log, select the Log tab at the bottom of the diagram.
For a node’s log, right-click the node and select Results. In the Results window, select ViewSAS ResultsLog.

When SAS Enterprise Miner Server catches and logs problems, it attempts to log as much information as it can under the circumstances. The log often captures detailed exception information that you can send to SAS Technical Support.

Note: It is helpful to send the complete text of the Java stack trace that surfaced on the application error page. SAS Technical Support prefers that you do not send a screen shot of this information because often the screen shots do not include the full text of the trace.

SAS Enterprise Miner Client Message Logging

When reporting a problem to SAS Technical Support, you need to enable the Java Console in order to get the maximum information available from the SAS Enterprise Miner Client. The Java Console is enabled from the Java Control Panel.

To open the Java Control Panel in Windows, open the Windows Control Panel and select Java. In the Java Control Panel select the Advanced tab, expand the Java console item, select Show console, and click Apply.

You can get more information about the Java Console and its capabilities from the Java Console documentation available at http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/deployment/deployment-guide/console.html.