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Chapter 1: Congratulations, You’re the SAS Administrator! Now What??
Why a starter-admin book?
What the book will and won’t cover:
Why a starter-admin book?
SAS administration can be complex, maybe even frustrating at times. It might drive you crazy, but once you know the drill and once you have the right head start, you will see that it can, in fact, be fun (this is not sarcastic, I am serious).
Increasingly, I came to realize that many SAS administrators do not have the luxury of getting training. Often, they, are on their own and must figure things out by themselves. Talking to many advanced SAS admins throughout the years, they found that the most challenging part of becoming an admin was actually knowing how, and where, to get started.
An admin needs to understand the entire SAS environment. If the software that is licensed is not set up and not used properly, it pretty much defeats the purpose.
Once you have finished this book, you will be ready to go!
What the book will and won’t cover:
Some specific topics this book covers (and does not cover) include:
- SAS 9.4 administration in a single- or multi-machine metadata server environment.
- SAS SAS Viya administration is not covered. You can read up on SAS Viya administration here:
SAS Viya 3.4 Administration: Orientation
https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=calcdc&cdcVersion=3.4&docsetId=calchkcfg&docsetTarget=n00004saschecklist0000config.htm&locale=en
- Other SAS 9 versions might be called out in between, but this book is about SAS 9.4.
- This book applies to Windows, Linux and UNIX platforms. Mainframe administration will not be covered.
- Product additions (SAS Grid, SAS Visual Analytics, etc.) and solutions (such as SAS Marketing Automation for example) are not part of this book. Even though additional products and solutions are not covered, here comes the kicker: even though you might have SAS solutions or, SAS Grid, or maybe SAS Visual Analytics, you still must know how to administer the underlying SAS system. So, no matter what, you are not getting around learning the basics of SAS administration.
Finally, there are a lot of useful links included in this book – not so useful if you have the print version! So all these links can be found in a pdf on my author page to save on typing!
And off we go ... Happy reading!
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Chapter 2: Let the Admin Fun Begin: SAS 9.4 Architecture
Introduction
SAS Configuration Directories
SASHome
Lev1/Levn
SAS Tiers: The three plus one SAS Tiers in a metadata-managed environment
SAS Server Tier
About the Workspace Server, Stored Process Server and all other SAS Servers
SAS Connection Profiles
SAS Web Application Server and SAS Web Server (http server)
Cache Locator
JMS Broker
SAS Environment Manager
Java Runtime Environment
SAS Client Tier
Data Tier
Summary
Introduction
The starting point for SAS administration is the architecture: what are the components of a SAS deployment, how does it look? With a good understanding of the SAS architecture, you’ll be able to tackle the responsibilities and tasks that come with SAS administration. Understanding the architecture means you know where to look if you need to make any changes, troubleshoot, and the like.
The best way to explain the SAS 9.4 environment architecture is an analogy to the architecture of a house. Envision the following:
You buy a piece of land (infrastructure/hardware). You want to build a new house (software) on your land. How do you build your house (install your software)? You need an architect (an admin). Sometimes there is one architect, sometimes there are more than one (one admin vs ...
