What's New

What's New in System Administration for the SAS 9.2 Intelligence Platform

The SAS Intelligence Platform includes new and enhanced system administration tools, new features for server logging and management, new server components, changes to metadata repositories, and new documentation for administrators. The enhancements and changes include the following:

New Logging Facility for SAS Servers

A new standard logging facility is provided for SAS servers. The facility supports problem diagnosis and resolution, performance and capacity management, and auditing and regulatory compliance. The logging facility provides the following capabilities for servers:

Log events can be directed to multiple destinations, including files, operating system facilities, and client applications.
For each log destination, you can configure the message layout, including the contents, the format, the order of information, and literal text.
For each log destination, you can configure a filter to include or exclude events based on levels and message contents.
For the metadata server, security-related events are captured, including authentication events, client connections, changes to user and group information, and permission changes.
You can generate performance-related log events in a format that can be processed by an Application Response Measurement (ARM) 4.0 server.
You can adjust logging levels dynamically by using the Server Management features of SAS Management Console.
You can use SAS Management Console and third--party monitoring tools to view the contents of logs.

New Server Management and Monitoring Features

The following new features are provided to help you manage and monitor your SAS server components, including the SAS Metadata Server, SAS OLAP Server, SAS Stored Process Server, SAS Workspace Server, SAS Pooled Workspace Server, SAS object spawner, and SAS Table Server:

You can use the new Server Manager features of SAS Management Console to perform the following tasks:
- quiesce, stop, pause, resume, and validate servers
- test connections to servers
- view information about current connections and processes
- view performance counters that provide statistics about activity that has occurred since a server was last started
- view server logs
- change logging levels dynamically
- refresh servers, so that metadata changes take effect without the need to restart
Server monitoring can also be performed using third-party enterprise systems management products.
On UNIX and z/OS systems, you can use the new sas.servers script to start, stop, or restart all of your SAS servers in the correct order with a single command. You can also use the script to display the status of servers and to create a UNIX boot script that is tailored to your platform.

New SAS Server Components

The initial configuration of your system includes these new server components:

a server context for the metadata server called SASMeta. In multiple-machine installations, this server context includes a workspace server and other servers that are needed to run metadata utilities, including the Replication Wizard and the Backup Wizard.
a SAS Pooled Workspace Server, which is configured to use server-side pooling. In this new configuration,the SAS object spawner maintains a collection of workspace server processes that are available for clients. This server configuration is intended for use by query and reporting tools such as SAS Information Map Studio, SAS Web Report Studio, and the SAS Information Delivery Portal.
a SAS Deployment Tester Server, which processes validation tasks that are requested either by the SAS Deployment Tester plug-in or by a SAS Deployment Tester batch client.

Depending on which SAS offerings you have installed, your configuration might also include the following new server components:

a SAS Content Server, which is included with some offerings. This server stores digital content (such as documents, reports, and images) that is created and used by SAS Web applications. For example, the SAS Content Server stores report definitions that are created by users of SAS Web Report Studio, as well as images and other elements that are used in reports. In addition, the SAS Content Server stores documents and other files that are to be displayed in the SAS Information Delivery Portal or in SAS solutions.

To interact with the SAS Content Server, client applications use WebDAV-based protocols for access, versioning, collaboration, security, and searching. Administrative users can use the browser-based SAS Web Management Console to create, delete, and manage permissions for folders on the SAS Content Server.
a SAS Table Server, which is used by the SAS Shared Services component of the middle tier.
a DataFlux Integration Server, which executes DataFlux jobs and real-time services that cleanse data or analyze data quality. The jobs and services are created using DataFlux applications (dfPower Architect and dfPower Profile) and are executed on the server through job flows that are created in SAS Data Integration Studio.
a SAS In-Process Server, which provides the ability to schedule jobs from certain Web-based SAS applications without using a separate scheduling server. The scheduling functions run as a process within the application.

Enhancements and Changes Pertaining to Metadata Server Administration

The following enhancements and changes pertain to administration of the SAS Metadata Server:

Users can be assigned to administrator roles that enable them to have unrestricted access to metadata, act as metadata server operators, or perform user administration tasks.
The metadata server can be paused to an Administration state, enabling unrestricted users (but not other users) to continue to perform tasks that require access to the server.
The Backup and Restore Wizard in SAS Management Console enables you to create backup and restore jobs and execute them or deploy them for scheduling. In addition, SAS now provides customized backup and restore programs that you can launch from the command line. Metadata server configuration files are included in backups.
Metadata server journaling is turned on by default.
New options for internal user authentication have been added to the metadata server configuration file omaconfig.xml.

Enhancements and Changes Pertaining to Metadata Administration

The following enhancements pertain to the administration of metadata and metadata repositories:

Content is stored in a hierarchy of SAS folders that are visible in the Folders tab of SAS Management Console and in other client applications, as applicable. The folders segregate system information from business information, provide personal folders for individual users, and provide an area for shared data.
BI Manager import and export wizards have been replaced with the Export SAS Package and Import SAS Package wizards. The wizards have been expanded to handle a larger number of object types. In addition, new batch tools enable you to export and import folders, objects, or groups of folders and objects from an operating system command line or from a batch script.
In the second maintenance release for SAS 9.2, the ExportCubes and ImportCubes batch tools are new. These tools provide a simplified method of promoting OLAP cubes from SAS 9.1.3 to SAS 9.2.
Custom repositories are supported by all applications.
It is not necessary to define dependencies between repositories. If a repository dependency was defined in SAS 9.1.3, then the dependency relationship is eliminated during the SAS 9.1.3 to SAS 9.2 migration process. However, the existing associations between metadata objects still remain in effect.

The October 2010 release includes these features:

The new BI Lineage plug-in for SAS Management Console identifies connections between BI objects in the SAS Folders tree. The lineage information is stored in a repository called the BILineage repository.
The Export SAS Package and Import SAS Package wizards can be used to promote dashboard objects (including dashboards, indicators, indicator data, ranges, indicator configurations, and dashboard components). For important details, see "Promoting SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 Content" in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Web Application Administration Guide.
The new content promotion tool for the SAS Information Delivery Portal 4.3 can be used to promote portal pages, page templates, portlet instances, and the portal's application and user permissions trees. See "Promoting Portal Content" in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Web Application Administration Guide.

The following features have been removed:

The Replication Wizard in SAS Management Console has been deprecated. This wizard includes the functions of the Replication Wizard and the Promotion Wizard that were available in SAS 9.1.3. The documentation for this feature was removed effective with the November 2010 edition of the SAS 9.2 Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide. For more information, see SAS Note 40834 or contact SAS Technical Support.
The use of third-party database management systems to store the repository manager and metadata repositories is no longer supported.
The repository auditing feature provided in previous releases has been removed.

New Configuration Management Tool

The new SAS Software Deployment Manager enables you to remove configuration information (including metadata definitions, configuration files, and Windows services) for one or more components of your installation. You can use this feature to remove a component that you will no longer be using, or to move a component from one machine to another. You can also use the SAS Software Deployment Manager to rebuild SAS Web applications and to update a service account password that is included only in metadata.

In the October 2009 release, the SAS Deployment Manager includes a new option to renew software licenses for some SAS solutions that depend on a SAS middle tier.

In the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2, the SAS Deployment Manager includes a new option to change the host names (including the network domains to which they belong) of server machines in your deployment.

New Documentation for Administrators

SAS 9.2 includes these changes to system administration documentation:

All information about scheduling has been moved to Scheduling in SAS.
Detailed information about configuring logging for SAS servers is now available in the SAS Logging: Configuration and Programming Reference.