SAS Administration from the Ground Up. Anja Fischer

      When interacting with folders, be sure to follow the best practices that are provided in the SAS 9.4 System Administration Guide.

      Best Practices for Managing SAS Folders

      (Resource: https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=bicdc&cdcVersion=9.4&docsetId=bisag&docsetTarget=p0sc8uk5ttcvhzn1gfcjhkacwpcu.htm&locale=en)

       Use personal folders for personal content and use shared folders for content that multiple users need to view.By default, users cannot view other users’ personal folders. Therefore, personal folders should be used for content that needs to be viewed and used only by the owning user. If the content needs to be viewed or used by other users, then it should be placed under the Shared Data folder or in a new folder structure that you create under SAS Folders.To ensure secure and efficient sharing of content, the system administrator should create a folder structure for shared data that meets the needs of the organization. The appropriate permissions can then be assigned to each folder.

       Use folders, instead of custom repositories, to organize content.In most cases, folders are the preferred method for organizing content. Custom repositories should be created only when there is an overriding reason to physically segregate repository data sets.

       It is recommended that you not delete or rename the User Folders folder, even if you have permission to do so.If you have a reason to delete or rename the User Folders folder, then you must change the metadata repository configuration to reflect the change.

       Do not delete or rename the home folder or personal folder (My Folder) of an active user, even if you have permission to do so.As a best practice, do not rename an active user’s home folder or personal folder. If you do so, a new (empty) personal folder will be created the next time the user refreshes or logs on to an application that requires the folder. In addition, the contents of the renamed folder will not be visible to the user.If you delete an active user’s home folder or personal folder, the user will lose any existing personal content, and a new (empty) personal folder will be created the next time the user refreshes or logs on to an application that requires the folder.

       Do not delete or rename the Products or System folders or their subfolders, even if you have permission to do so.Deleting or renaming the Products or System folders or their subfolders could cause erroneous or unexpected behavior in client applications or solutions.

       Use caution when renaming the Shared Data folder.Renaming the Shared Data folder can affect associations and references to objects that are stored in this folder or its subfolders.

      We will talk more about the SAS folders in Chapter 5.

Note: The Folders in SAS Management Console have nothing to do with operating system folders. The operating systems cannot see, nor understand, the folders in SAS Management Console. Same if you look at it the other way around. SAS Folders don’t know about the Operating System folders. These two are totally independent. You can create a SAS folder structure based on what you set up on the OS though.

      The Search tab

      The third tab on the SAS Management Console is the Search tab:

      Which is, well, self-explanatory. You can search for objects in your metadata. Check out Using Search for details and examples: Go to the menu, Help, Help on Search.

      SAS Management Console Debugging

      SAS Management Console writes a log file per default, which is called SASMCErrorLog.txt. The log file can be found at these locations:

      Windows:

      C:\Users\your-user-ID\AppData\Roaming\SAS\SASManagementConsole\9.x\ , or, depending on the Windows flavor you are running, at C:\Documents and Settings\user-ID\Application Data\SAS\SASManagementConsole\9.x\ or, C:\Users\sas\AppData\Roaming\SAS\SASManagementConsole\9.4

       UNIX and Linux:~user’s-home-dir/SAS/SASManagementConsole/9.x/

      If you did not accept the default during the SAS configuration, make sure you look for the right folder name.

      If the default logging information does not suffice for troubleshooting, you can enable debugging. To do so, follow these steps:

      1 On Windows, go to C:\Program Files\SAS\SASManagementConsole\9.x.; on Unix/Linux, go to SASHOME/SASManagementConsole/9.x

      2 Edit the file sasmc.ini

      3 Look for the entry MainClass=com.sas.console.visuals.MainConsole

      4 Add the following at the end of that line: -debug –serverlogThe entry should now look like: MainClass=com.sas.console.visuals.MainConsole -debug –serverlog

      5 Open SAS Management Console and then close it.

      The now created log file includes more detailed logging information. Should the log be empty, or, does not include any hints for the issue, contact SAS Technical Support for further troubleshooting.

      Redirecting Local Files

      If you want your SAS Management Console files (log files, application default files, and connection profiles) on the server rather than on your local client, you can redirect the files by following these steps:

      1. Close SAS Management Console on the local host.

      2. Create the path and directory for the client files on the server.

      3. Edit the file sasmc.ini and add the following Java argument:

      JavaArgs_xx=-Dsas.appdatapath=”new_path”

      xx is the next available Java argument number, and new_path is a fully qualified path to the new directory.

      4. The changes take effect when SAS Management Console is started.

      Here is an example of a redirection path. Let’s assume my machine name is Anja171. The path I would create on the server would be something like:

      JavaArgs_xx=-Dsas.appdatapath=”\\server\SASMCclientFiles\Anja171”

      The machine name at the end makes sense because if all admins, or users using SAS Management Console, write their files to the server, you want to make sure that everyone has their own dedicated folder, to make sure the files won’t overwrite each other.

      Why would you want to redirect SAS Management Console files?