The data preparation
interface enables an administrator to prepare data by performing joins,
adding calculated columns, subsetting data, and sorting. Once the
data preparation operations are entered, administrators can load tables
to the SAS LASR Analytic Server.
In addition, for large data sets, the prepared data can be transferred
to the machines in the grid and stored in the Hadoop Distributed File
System (HDFS). HDFS enables the SAS LASR Analytic Server
to read large data sets in parallel to memory and it also provides
data redundancy.
The data preparation
interface is also used to start and stop server instances, as well
as to load and unload tables from the server instances. Once a server
is started, administrators can view information about the server instance.
This includes the user account that was used to start the server and
the tables that are resident in memory. The information about tables
includes the number of rows and columns for an at-a-glance evaluation
of the number of server instances and tables available for use.
Navigating files in
HDFS is also available from the data preparation interface. The HDFS
content explorer enables administrators to browse the tables that
were prepared and added to HDFS. Tables that are already prepared
for analytics can be added to HDFS directly. Once stored in HDFS,
tables can be loaded into memory in a server instance from the HDFS
content explorer. Because SAS uses a special file format for the data
that is stored in HDFS, the HDFS content explorer also provides information
about the columns and row count for the prepared data.
Resource and process
monitors are provided so that administrators can view real-time statistics
and visualizations of resource use like central processing unit (CPU)
utilization, memory utilization, and input/output (
I/O) rates. A line
plot of resource utilization against time is provided. In addition,
the grid view creates a visualization for each blade that is used
in the grid and each CPU on a blade. If resource utilization exceeds
a configured threshold, the icon for the CPU or blade can draw the
attention of the administrator by lighting up in yellow or red.
Controlling access by
mobile devices to data is enabled with the mobile device administration
user interface. This enables administrators to easily manage access
to data through SAS Visual Analytics applications by mobile devices.
Information about the mobile devices in your organization is available
to administrators. The information includes user ID, device information,
and timestamp of last access.