Working with Metadata

About Metadata

Metadata is structured data that describes the location and structure of enterprise data. During the installation of SAS IT Resource Management, metadata is created and stored in the SAS Metadata Repository. The metadata for SAS IT Resource Management consists of the following information:

where SAS servers are deployed and how they are configured
the location of the physical SAS data and how to access it
the attributes of the data, such as types, formats, and dimensions of the tables that contain the data
the specifications for processes and jobs, such as ETL processes
security issues, such as credentials, user identities, groups, and roles

The metadata for SAS IT Resource Management is created, maintained, and used by the following applications:

SAS Management Console: creates and maintains metadata that describes the attributes of SAS servers that are used by SAS IT Resource Management. For example, it describes where the servers are deployed and how they are configured. The metadata also maintains lists of authorized users, their permissions, their account information, and more.
SAS IT Resource Management Client: creates and maintains metadata that describes the attributes of the data that is used by SAS IT Resource Management. For example, it describes the tables of staged or aggregated data, the definitions of the columns within those tables, the jobs, the libraries, and the transformations that make up the data management component of SAS IT Resource Management.
SAS Enterprise Guide: uses metadata that describes the servers, users, libraries, information maps, and information map filters for reporting with SAS Enterprise Guide.
SAS Web Report Studio: creates and maintains metadata for Web-based reports, and uses other metadata created and maintained by other SAS clients.

Supplied Metadata

In addition to the metadata that is described in the previous topic, SAS IT Resource Management also supplies other metadata. This supplied metadata consists of IT template tables for the supported adapters, IT formulas, and IT report definitions. The installation process for SAS IT Resource Management stores the metadata in the Folders tree.

The SAS IT Resource Management folder of the Products folder contains the metadata for the IT template tables of the supported adapters and the IT formulas. This metadata cannot be changed.
The SAS IT Resource Management folder of the Shared Data folder contains the metadata for the 3.2 IT report definitions, IT data marts, and the IT formulas. This metadata can be changed, although changing the IT report definitions is not recommended. (If you need to change an IT report definition, copy it first and change the copy, not the supplied definition.)

CAUTION:

Do not make changes to the original IT report definitions in the Shared Data folder.

For information about how to modify IT report definitions, see “Working with SAS Enterprise Guide Reports” in the SAS IT Resource Management: Reporting Guide.
The ITRM Transformations folder of the Transformations tree contains the aggregation, gallery, information map, staging, and user-written staging transformations. These transformations can be dragged and dropped onto the process flow diagram of a job and further specified as needed.

Note: SAS IT Resource Management also uses folders, jobs, libraries, staged tables, aggregation table, and information maps. These objects are created by transformations that the user specifies (either directly or by means of the Adapter Setup wizard), the jobs that the user creates and runs, or by wizards (such as the New Folder, New IT Data Mart, or New Job wizards) that are invoked from the SAS IT Resource Management menu bar.

System Authentication When Logging On to the SAS Metadata Repository

To enable users to log on from SAS IT Resource Management to the SAS Metadata Server that contains the ITRM metadata, perform the following steps:

Invoke SAS IT Resource Management.
If you are already connected, from the menu bar, select FileConnection Profile. A message box displays a message that your application will be discontinued from its metadata server. It asks whether you want to continue. Click Yes.
The Connection Profile dialog box appears. In this dialog box, you can create a new connection profile or you can open an existing connection profile and modify it. After you specify the metadata profile that you want to use, click OK.
In the Login dialog box that opens, enter your user ID and password, and click OK to access the server that contains the metadata repository.

Note: If you previously chose to save the user ID and password for the particular connection profile, you are connected without being prompted to enter them.

When SAS IT Resource Management is installed, two groups of users are defined by default: IT Resource Management Administrators and IT Resource Management Users. Data administrators define additional users and groups as part of the setup tasks for SAS IT Resource Management. The metadata for all the logins for each user and group includes an authentication domain. Each user must have a login for the authentication domain that is associated with the relevant server definition. The user ID and password in that login must correspond to an account that has been established with the repository. In addition, this account must correspond to a valid account on the server. In other words, the user must already have an account on the target machine. Otherwise, the user will not be able to access any existing metadata. For more information about defining login metadata for users, see the SAS Intelligence Platform: Security Administration Guide. This document can be found in the Administration Documentation section of the SAS Intelligence Platform documentation that is available at: http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/intellplatform/index.html.

Note: The permissions that govern access to the metadata can be set in the Access Control Template table in the Authorization Manager component of SAS Management Console. For more information, see the SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide and the SAS Intelligence Platform: Security Administration Guide.

Backing Up and Restoring the SAS Metadata Repository

For recommendations about backing up and refreshing the SAS Metadata Repository, see the SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide. When you back up the metadata server, it is important to also back up the data that is associated with the metadata objects that are contained in the repositories. The metadata cannot be used without the associated data. If you need to recover from a failure, the metadata that you restore must be synchronized correctly with the associated data.

Migrating from an Earlier Version of SAS IT Resource Management

If you worked with SAS IT Resource Management 3.1.1, then after you install and configure the current version of the software, your metadata will have been migrated using the SAS 9.1.3 to 9.2 Migration process. For information, see the SAS Intelligence Platform: 9.1.3 to 9.2 Migration Guide.

If you created your own projects with SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 or 4.2, you can use the Migration Wizard for SAS Enterprise Guide and the SAS Add-in for Microsoft Office to convert all your projects at the same time to SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3. The migration wizard can change the paths in your SAS Enterprise Guide projects from the application server that was used with SAS 9.1.3 (SASMain) to the application server that is used with SAS 9.2 (SASITRM). If the paths were used in the SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 or 3.2 projects, the wizard can update the paths to the information maps. For information about the migration wizard, see Migrating SAS Enterprise Guide Projects to Work with SAS IT Resource Management 3.2 .

Tools for Exploring SAS IT Resource Management Metadata

How to Access the SAS IT Resource Management Metadata

You can access the SAS IT Resource Management metadata in the SAS Metadata Repository by using the following methods:

Explore the metadata repository from the SAS IT Resource Management Client. This method is the preferred way to access the SAS IT Resource Management metadata.
Explore the metadata repository from the Folders tab of SAS Management Console.
Browse the metadata repository from a Base SAS session. This method should be used only under the direction of SAS Technical Support.

Explore the Metadata Repository from the SAS IT Resource Management Client

The SAS IT Resource Management Client uses the data accessing and manipulation functions of SAS Data Integration Studio in order to populate its tables with data and to prepare that data for reporting.

Main Window of the SAS IT Resource Management Client

Main Window of SAS IT Resource Management

The objects that SAS IT Resource Management uses are contained in folders in the Folders, IT Data Marts, and Transformations trees. For more detailed information about the many options and functions that are available within the SAS IT Resource Management client, see Features of the SAS IT Resource Management Client .

Browse the Repository from a Base SAS Session

Under the direction of SAS Technical Support, you can browse the repository from a Base SAS session. To do so, perform the following steps:

Enter metabrowse on the command line. The Metadata Server Configuration dialog box appears.

Log On to the Metadata Server
Specify the appropriate logon information for the server that you want to access. Enter Server Name, Port Number, Protocol, User Name, and Password. Under Windows, the User Name can be domain qualified. For example, you might need to use domainname\username, where domainname is your domain name and username is your user ID.

Click OK to open the Metadata Browser.
To navigate through the metadata on this site, follow the directions of SAS Technical Support.

Metadata Server Memory Issues

Memory Issues with the SAS IT Resource Management Metadata Server

As the process size increases, the data administrator should delete from the SAS Metadata Repository any objects that are no longer needed or that have been marked for deletion by other processes. For best results, follow the recommendations for managing and maintaining your metadata server that are described in the SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide. This documentation is available at http://support.sas.com/documentation/index.html in the Administration Documentation section of that Web site.