What’s New in SAS Grid Manager 9.3

Overview

SAS Grid Manager has the following new features and enhancements:

The capability for SAS Grid Manager to provide load balancing for stored process servers, OLAP servers, and pooled workspace servers has been added.
Support has been added in the SAS Add-In 4.3 for Microsoft Office to enable tasks to be processed on a grid.
Support has been added in SAS Enterprise Guide 5.1 and the SAS Add-In 5.1 for Microsoft Office to automatically run jobs on a grid.
New options have been added to SAS Grid Manager Client Utility, including the ability to stage files into and out of the grid.

Grid Support for SAS Servers

SAS Grid Manager can now be used to provide load balancing for the following types of servers (in addition to workspace servers) running in a grid:

stored process servers
OLAP servers
pooled workspace servers

This capability provides a robust way to enable load balancing for any clients that use these servers.

Grid Support for the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office

The SAS Add-In 4.3 for Microsoft Office provides the capability to process tasks on a grid. Options are provided to include the pre- and post-code required to submit tasks to the grid and to generate ODS macros.

Automatic Grid Processing for SAS Enterprise Guide and the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office

SAS Enterprise Guide 5.1 and the SAS Add-In 5.1 for Microsoft Office provide support for automatically running jobs on a grid. The Use grid if available option on the Project Properties window and the Task Properties window specify that the project or task automatically runs on an available grid.

New Options for SAS Grid Manager Client Utility

The following new options have been added to the SAS Grid Manager Client Utility (SASGSUB):

GRIDWAIT

specifies that the SAS Grid Manager Client Utility waits until the job has completed running, either successfully or with an error. If the job does not complete, it must be ended manually.

GRIDLRESTARTOK

specifies that a job can be restarted at a labeled section

GRIDRUNCMD

specifies a command (other than a SAS command) that is run on the grid

In addition to using a shared directory, you can use staging to move files into and out of the grid. The files to be moved to the grid are stored in a specified staging directory, and a specified transfer program moves the files into the grid. When processing is complete, the files are transferred back to the staging directory. Use the SAS Deployment Wizard during the installation process to specify whether your grid will use a shared directory or staging. If you use staging, you must specify a staging directory and transfer program.

The following new options have been added to SASGSUB to support staging:

GRDISTAGECMD

specifies the remote copy command used to stage files to the grid

GRIDSTAGEFILEHOST

specifies the name of the host that stores files that are staged into the grid

GRIDFORCECLEAN

specifies that the job directory on the grid is deleted, regardless of whether the job was successful or not

The Grid Manager Client Utility can now read license file information from metadata, rather than having to specify it on the -GRIDLICENSEFILE option.