Understanding SAS Grid Servers

The Initial Configuration of the SAS Grid Server

Overview of the Initial Configuration of the SAS Grid Server

When you build a SAS compute grid, you configure a logical grid server on the grid-control machine and on each grid node. When you configure a logical grid server on the grid-control machine, two actions occur:

A metadata object is created to represent the logical grid server. It is a server component that belongs to your SAS Application Server. For more information about this object, see The Logical Grid Server Metadata Object.
A GridServer directory is created in the configuration directory on that machine. This directory contains files and directories that are used in the operation and management of the grid. For more information about the GridServer directory, see Logical Grid Server Configuration Files.

When you configure a logical grid server on a grid node, only the GridServer directory and its contents are created. Only one metadata object is needed per environment. However, the files in the GridServer directory are needed on each grid node.

For more detailed information about how to set up a grid, see Planning and Configuring a Grid Environment in Grid Computing in SAS.

The Logical Grid Server Metadata Object

When you configure a logical grid server on a grid node, metadata objects are created that represent the grid server and the associated connection. The grid server belongs to a logical grid server, which in turn belongs to your application server. To display the icon for the grid server in SAS Management Console navigation tree, expand the Server Manager icon. Then, expand the application server icon, and expand the Logical Grid Server icon.

[Server Manager plug-in grid server tree structure]

You can display the properties of the grid server by right-clicking its icon and selecting Properties from the pop-up menu. To see the connection object (in the right pane), select the grid server icon. You can view the properties of the connection by opening its properties dialog box.

The SAS Deployment Wizard populates the logical grid server properties with user input that is supplied during the SAS 9.2 installation. For more information about these properties, see Grid Computing in SAS.

Logical Grid Server Configuration Files

When you configure a logical grid server on a grid node, a GridServer directory is created on the machine. This directory contains the following two items:

the script sasgrid.extension. This is the script that Platform LSF calls to start a SAS/CONNECT server on that machine.
a logs directory. By default, no program writes a log file to this directory. However, you can change the command that is used to start the SAS/CONNECT server so that the server writes a log file to this directory.

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