Working with IT Data Marts :: SAS(R) IT Resource Management 3.7: Administrator's Guide

Introduction to Working with IT Data Marts

You can create, delete, erase, modify, purge, and rename an IT data mart. For best results, perform these functions and others from the IT Data Marts tree.

Copy and Paste an IT Data Mart

Starting in SAS IT Resource Management 3.6, you can copy an IT data mart only from the IT Data Marts tree. (Use the following procedure to copy a single IT data mart. Copying multiple IT data marts at the same time is not supported.)

To copy and paste an IT data mart, perform the following steps:

Copy the IT data mart.

To do so, from the IT Data Marts tree, right-click the IT data mart that you want to copy and select Copy.

Property Dialog Box of an IT Data Mart
Paste the copied IT data mart.

Right-click in the white space of the IT Data Marts tree. The list of possible actions appears.

Paste IT Data Mart

Select Paste IT Data Mart to paste the copied IT data mart into the IT Data Marts tree. The progress indicator shows you when the IT data mart is pasted.

Create an IT Data Mart

To create an IT data mart, perform the following steps:

From the SAS IT Resource Management menu bar, select NewIT Resource Management. From the list that is displayed, select IT Data Mart. The New IT Data Mart wizard appears.
On the General information page of the wizard, specify the name, description, and location of the IT data mart.
- The name of the new data mart is required. The Name field can contain a maximum of 60 characters. The wizard does not permit you to enter invalid characters. The name must be unique within its parent folder. For best results, the name should be unique within the metadata server.
- A value is optional in the Description field. The Description field can contain a maximum of 200 characters.
- The Location field contains the default location for the IT data mart. A value is required in this field. This location is typically in the Shared Data\SAS IT Resource Management folder of the repository where you are logged on. You can modify this field to specify any location to which you have Write privileges. The wizard does not permit you to enter invalid characters.
  
  Note: Make sure that the folder where the IT data mart is stored is not in a directory that currently has other files that are unrelated to the IT data mart. For example, C:\ and C:\Windows are not acceptable locations on Windows for the IT data mart root path.
On the Application server information page, specify the default application server.

Application servers store and execute SAS code. The default application server that is specified with this wizard accesses metadata, DBMS tables, and external files on remote hosts. The application server does this so that it can build and support an IT data mart. A value is required in this field.

Select the default application server from the drop-down list of currently defined SAS Application servers. Then click Test Connection to make sure that you are connected to the server that you specified. If you are not connected at this time, you are prompted to enter your user ID and password in order to access the server.

Note: Application servers are defined when the SAS IT Resource Management software is installed and configured. Use SAS Management Console to modify this list of available servers.
On the Root path information page, specify the path that is used to form the default locations for any subsequent SAS libraries that are automatically created for this IT data mart. The path that you specify should be a fully qualified path; relative paths are not supported. A value is required in this field.

For directory-based systems, the wizard does not permit you to specify a path that already has content in it. This restriction does not apply to traditional z/OS systems.For more information, see Notes about the Default Root Path.

Note: On UNIX and on z/OS using zFS locations, you can specify paths that contain symbolic links. Using symbolic links is useful if you want to retain flexibility for changing the real physical location of libraries. For example, you could move all of the libraries in an IT data mart to another physical disk by simply redefining one symbolic link. See the UNIX ‘ln’ command for more information.

You can enter the path in the field. Alternatively, you can click Browse and select a root path from the Select a Directory dialog box that displays the directory structure on your file system. IT data marts with invalid root path are not created and an error message that explains the problem is displayed. This physical path is not validated. Make sure that each IT data mart uses a different path. The value for this field cannot contain the single quotation character (').

Browse is disabled when the selected application server is running on a machine that uses the z/OS operating system. When entering a z/OS path manually, you can use either a prefix for a traditional z/OS file system path (MY.DATAMART) or a root directory in the zFS hierarchical file system (/u/myname/datamart).

Note: The documentation for SAS on z/OS has traditionally used the terms UNIX System Services (USS) and hierarchical file system (HFS) to refer to the UNIX file system on z/OS. The SAS 9.4 documentation uses the terms UNIX file system and zFS to refer to this file system. In addition to the original HFS implementation, the z/OS operating system also provides another UNIX file system known as the z/OS file system (zFS). zFS, which provides certain performance and manageability benefits, is functionally equivalent to HFS from the perspective of a SAS user.
On the Summary page, the wizard displays the specifications that are used to create the new IT data mart. If they are satisfactory, click Finish to create the new IT data mart.

Notes about the Default Root Path

On traditional z/OS systems, the path to the default root cannot contain more than 26 characters. On Windows, UNIX, and zFS hierarchical file system, the path to the default root cannot contain more than 126 characters.

If the path that you enter is flagged as an error, you can use Browse to locate the correct path. However, before you click Browse, erase the erroneous path.

Note: The following information applies to any directory-based file system, including Windows, UNIX, and zFS on z/OS. It does not apply to the use and specification of z/OS traditional file system paths.

For directory-based systems, you cannot specify a default root path for an IT data mart that refers to a physical location that already exists and contains files or subdirectories that are unrelated to this IT data mart. This restriction does not apply to traditional z/OS systems.

For example, suppose that a user creates an IT data mart named “Cluster XYZ”. On directory-based systems, the user might specify a default root path such as C:\datamarts\ClusterXYZ. A directory for miscellaneous content is automatically created as C:\datamarts\ClusterXYZ\admin as part of the IT data mart creation. If the user subsequently uses the Adapter Setup Wizard for this IT data mart, additional SAS libraries might be created as C:\datamarts\ClusterXYZ\staging, and so on.

When the user performs an operation such as erasing an IT data mart, a confirmation dialog box is displayed that lists the default root path of that IT data mart. If you click Yes in the dialog box, the physical directories and the metadata for the selected IT data mart are removed. Everything under the default root path is physically deleted. If there are files under that root path that do not pertain to the IT data mart, they are also deleted. In the previous example, if there already was a C:\datamarts\ClusterXYZ\documents directory that contained non-related content, that non-related content would also be deleted.

Delete an IT Data Mart

Deleting an IT data mart removes all the metadata that is associated with the IT data mart. It does not remove the physical tables. To delete an IT data mart and all its contents, perform the following steps:

On the IT Data Marts tree of SAS IT Resource Management, right-click the IT data mart that you want to delete. (Make sure that the jobs that are located in that IT data mart are not open in a Diagram tab of the Job Editor window.)

Note: You can also access the Delete function from the Folders tree of SAS IT Resource Management. However, performing tasks on the IT data mart from any tree other than the IT Data Marts tree is not recommended. (The metadata that is associated with the IT data mart might not be properly updated.)
Click Delete . A message box appears that asks you to confirm that you want to delete the objects from the selected IT data marts and all their contents.
To continue with the deletion, click Yes. To cancel the deletion, click No.

Erase an IT Data Mart

Erasing an IT data mart deletes both metadata and physical files for the IT data mart. It deletes all of the metadata contents of the metadata folder that are associated with the IT data mart. It also deletes all subfolders and items below that folder in the metadata folder hierarchy, such as SAS libraries, jobs, information maps, and other metadata content.

Erase also deletes the physical directory or file that is associated with each SAS library in the IT data mart. If the IT data mart uses a directory-based file system (such as Windows, UNIX, or zFS), the erase function deletes the physical root path that is specified for the IT data mart. In addition, it deletes all subdirectories and files below that root in the file system hierarchy.

Note: For directory-based systems (not traditional z/OS systems), if any content that is not related to your IT data mart is contained within the IT data mart root path, it is also deleted.

To erase an IT data mart and all its contents, perform the following steps:

On the IT Data Marts tree of SAS IT Resource Management, right-click the IT data mart that you want to erase. (Make sure that the jobs that are located in that IT data mart are not open in a Diagram tab of the Job Editor window.)

Note: You can also access the Delete function from the Folders tree of SAS IT Resource Management. However, performing tasks on the IT data mart from any tree other than the IT Data Marts tree is not recommended. (The metadata that is associated with the IT data mart might not be properly updated.)
Click Erase. A message box appears that asks you to confirm that you want to erase the objects from the selected IT data marts and all their contents. The message box shows the root path of the IT data mart.
To continue the process of erasing the IT data mart, click Yes. To cancel the erase action, click No.

Modify an IT Data Mart

You can modify some of the properties of an IT data mart.

To do so, perform the following steps:

On the IT Data Marts tree of SAS IT Resource Management, right-click the IT data mart that you want to modify. Select Properties. (Make sure that the jobs that are located in that IT data mart are not open in a Diagram tab of the Job Editor window.)
- Select the General tab to view and modify the Name, Description, and Location fields.
  
  Note: If you rename an IT data mart to the same name as an existing IT data mart within the same application server, the following message is displayed: “IT Data Mart folder with this name already exists in the selected folder location. Change the name or select a different folder location.”
- Select the Extended Attributes tab to view and modify the fields on this tab.
  
  In general, you should not change or delete any supplied fields on this tab. If you need to work with a user-supplied field, do so by using the New and Delete buttons to add and delete fields, respectively.
  
  Note: For paths on directory-based systems (not a traditional z/OS file system path), if you change the default root path to a path that already exists and has existing content, a warning message is displayed. If the existing content is associated with the IT data mart that you are working with, the warning can be ignored. However, if the existing content is not associated with the IT data mart that you are working with, you should specify a different path. This best practice protects your existing content from accidental deletions.
- Select the Advanced tab to view metadata for the IT data mart. In general, modifying these fields can cause processing errors. However, you can modify the Name and Description fields.
Click OK to save your changes.

Note: If you change the name or the location of an IT data mart, you should redeploy all the jobs that are contained in the IT data mart. If you add or delete tables or columns, change the locations of tables, or change a parameter on a transformation, you should redeploy the .

Purge the Tables of an IT Data Mart

Purging an IT data mart removes the contents of the tables in that IT data mart. It does not remove the metadata or the physical tables. To purge the tables of an IT data mart, perform the following steps:

On the IT Data Marts tree of SAS IT Resource Management, right-click the IT data mart whose table you want to purge.
From the drop-down menu that is displayed, click Purge.
Review the list of tables that are displayed in the confirmation dialog box. Click Yes to delete the tables. Otherwise, click No.

Rename an IT Data Mart

Note: If the renaming of the IT data mart includes moving it to another folder, perform the Move to Folder task in the Folders tree. Then, perform the renaming task in the IT Data Marts tree.

To rename an IT data mart, perform the following steps:

On the IT Data Marts tree of SAS IT Resource Management, right-click the IT data mart that you want to rename. (Make sure that the jobs that are located in that IT data mart are not open in the Diagram tab of the Job Editor window.)
From the drop-down menu, click Rename. The name of the IT data mart is highlighted.
Enter the new name of IT data mart in the highlighted area.

Note: If you rename an IT data mart to the same name as an existing IT data mart within the same application server, the following message is displayed: “IT Data Mart folder with this name already exists in the selected folder location. Change the name or select a different folder location.”

Alternatively, you can rename the IT data mart by right-clicking the IT data mart and selecting Properties. Select the General tab. Enter the new name of the IT data mart in the Name field. If you rename an IT data mart to the same name as an existing IT data mart, a message is displayed. It warns you that the new name is already in use for another IT data mart.

Note: In any job, if you explicitly specified the path to an IT data mart, and you subsequently rename that IT data mart, then you should change the name of the IT data mart in that explicitly specified path. In addition, if you change any other folder name that is used in an explicit path reference, you should ensure that the explicitly specified path uses the changed folder name.

CAUTION:

Redeploy the jobs that are contained in the IT data mart.

Redeploying jobs is necessary because renaming an IT data mart changes the metadata path of anything that is associated with that IT data mart.