Understand the LIBNAME Engine

The LIBNAME engine for DataFlux Federation Server provides a bridge from legacy SAS data access services to the data access technology that is provided by the DataFlux Federation Server. From a Base SAS session, the LIBNAME engine enables a SAS application such as a SAS procedure or a SAS DATA step to process data using the DataFlux Federation Server data access technology. For example, using the LIBNAME engine, you can process data sources such as a SAS data set, and the third-party databases that are supported by the DataFlux Federation Server.

The DataFlux Federation Server is a data server that provides scalable, threaded, multi-user, standards-based data access technology in order to process and seamlessly integrate data from multiple data sources. The server acts as a hub that provides clients with data by accessing, managing, and sharing SAS data as well as data from several third-party databases.

The DataFlux Federation Server provides access to several types of data. The initial release of the LIBNAME engine for DataFlux Federation Server supports SAS data sets, and third-party relational databases, including DB2, Greenplum, MySQL, Oracle, Teradata, and ODBC databases (such as dBASE, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft SQL Server).

Structured Query Language (SQL) is the data access language for the server. Clients typically connect to the DataFlux Federation Server and submit requests in the form of DataFlux FedSQL statements. The DataFlux FedSQL language is the implementation of SQL used by the DataFlux Federation Server to access relational databases. FedSQL provides a subset of the ANSI SQL standard SQL:1999 core compliant syntax as well as extra extensions. For applications, FedSQL provides a common SQL syntax across all data sources.

For complete information about the DataFlux Federation Server and its data access services, see the DataFlux Federation Server Administrator’s Guide.