About Jobs

Most tasks that can be performed with the data preparation interface can be saved as a job. For example, when you start a SAS LASR Analytic Server instance, the data preparation interface opens a tab for the job. By default, the tab is named according to the action to perform (for example, Start server job) followed by a random number.

The General page on each tab is used to specify a name for the job, a metadata folder location, and a description. Jobs are saved by clicking . The job name field is limited to 60 characters.

Once a job is saved, you can edit the job and modify the task that the job performs. If your deployment includes SAS Data Integration Studio, you can deploy the jobs for scheduling.

For deployments that do not have SAS Data Integration Studio, it is still possible to export the code for the job. You can then use the Schedule Manager plug-in to SAS Management Console to deploy the code as a SAS DATA Step Program. For more information about deploying jobs, see Scheduling in SAS.

Once a job is stored in metadata, you can open the job to edit it. This might be necessary if you need to add or remove columns, change a row filter, or change the column expression in a calculated column. If a job is saved with another application that can edit jobs, such as SAS Data Integration Studio, then the data preparation interface can no longer edit the job. You can use other SAS applications to modify properties such as the description, but saving the job prevents it from opening in the data preparation interface.

When you save the job, if you change the job name or folder location, the existing job object is updated with the new values. However, you cannot delete job objects from metadata with the data preparation interface. If you need to delete objects from metadata (such as jobs, libraries, tables, or folders) use SAS Management Console.

When a job is saved in metadata, information about the deployment is saved with the job. For example, the host name of the SAS LASR Analytic Server, the path to the server descriptions files, and so on, are saved with the job. If the SAS Deployment Manager is used to reconfigure the deployment, the existing values for the related properties in saved jobs are not modified. If you edit a job and the properties have changed since the job was saved, then the new values for the properties replace the existing values when the job is saved. For a list of the related properties, see "SAS LASR Analytic Server Administration" in the SAS Visual Analytics: Administration Guide.