Remote Library Services (RLS) LIBNAME assignments can be misassigned if the value for the HOSTNAME= option has the same first eight characters as the previous RLS LIBNAME assignment. For example, if you submit the following LIBNAME statements, the libref DOG might be assigned to the same server as that for libref CAT:

The second assignment in this example will only work if the libref DOG is assigned to the server on host '12.34.56.78'. However, that means the statements are executed without a failure, not that they necessarily work correctly. These LIBNAME assignments also can fail for a number of other reasons, such as a situation where the second LIBNAME statement specifies a SERVER= value that is not in use on the first host, or a situation where a specified pathname cannot be found by the first host server.

Prior to SAS^®9, the syntax for RLS LIBNAME assignments was the following:

In cases where host-name exceeded eight characters, you could use macro-symbol table lookup to avoid such a problem, as shown here:

The HOSTNAME= option was added for the LIBNAME statement in SAS^®9 to provide more flexibility in RLS LIBNAME assignments. You cannot include the %LET macro statements in SAS^® 9.1 Management Console when you are building LIBNAME statements, so the HOSTNAME= option was created be used directly in a LIBNAME statement and to perform the same task as the %LET statements.

As a workaround for the problem that occurs with the HOSTNAME= option, you can still use the macro-symbol table lookup solution.

Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for SAS 9.2 (TS1M0) for this issue is available at: