If you use the SORT procedure with the host sort interface and the IBM DFSORT utility when the SAS system option SORTBLKMODE is enabled, an S878 system abend might occur. The following message occurs in the SYSOUT message file: The problem occurs because the DFSORT Performance Booster interface is allocating too much storage for its buffers and is leaving insufficient storage for DFSORT to work with.

To circumvent this problem, specify the SAS system option NOSORTBLKMODE to disable the Performance Booster interface.

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

The hot fix creates a new SAS system option that limits the amount of memory used by the buffers. The new option, SORTBLKMEM, is set to 0 by default. A non-zero specification represents the percentage of available memory to be used for the buffers created for use with the DFSORT Performance Booster interface.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	Product Release		SAS Release
			Reported	Fixed*	Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	Base SAS	z/OS	9.3_M2	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0

* For software releases that are not yet generally available, the Fixed Release is the software release in which the problem is planned to be fixed.

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A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.3_M2 is available at:

https://tshf.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/HF2/I22.html#49653

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System abend S878 can occur when using the DFSORT Performance Booster Interface which is enabled using the SAS system option SORTBLKMODE.

Type:	Problem Note
Priority:	high

Date Modified:	2013-06-03 11:41:58
Date Created:	2013-04-15 12:44:49