In the alongside-the-database mode, the data are read in distributed form, minimizing data movement for best performance. Similarly, when you write output data sets and a high-performance analytical procedure executes in distributed mode, the data can be written in parallel into the database.

For example, in the following statements, the HPLOGISTIC procedure executes in distributed mode by using eight nodes on the appliance to perform the logistic regression on work.simData:

 
proc hplogistic data=simData; 
   class a b c; 
   model y = a b c x1 x2 x3; 
   id a; 
   output out=applianc.simData_out pred=p; 
   performance host="hpa.sas.com" nodes=8; 
run; 

The output data set applianc.simData_out is written in parallel into the database. Although the data are fed on eight nodes, the database might distribute the data on more nodes.

When a high-performance analytical procedure executes in single-machine mode, all output objects are created on the client. If the libref of the output data sets points to the appliance, the data are transferred to the database on the appliance. This can lead to considerable performance degradation compared to execution in distributed mode.

Many procedures in SAS software add the variables from the input data set when an observationwise output data set is created. The assumption of high-performance analytical procedures is that the input data sets can be large and contain many variables. For performance reasons, the output data set contains the following:

Including this information enables you to add to the output data set information necessary for subsequent SQL joins without copying the entire input data set to the output data set.