Month: January 2017

Finding Private User Folders for Deleted SAS Platform Users

“How do I find all the private user folders for SAS users that have been deleted so I know which folders can be removed?”

I was asked this question recently and thought that I should be able to build up a single line XMLSELECT style SAS® metadata query to answer it. I could then paste this query in our free Metacoda Metadata Explorer Plug-in and export the results as a CSV file.

If you’re reading this post because that’s something you need to do, and you want the answer quickly, then here is the query:

{{{ Tree[@PublicType='Folder'][not(AssociatedIdentity/Person)][ParentTree/Tree[@Name='User Folders']/SoftwareComponents/SoftwareComponent[@PublicType='RootFolder']] }}}

The 3 curly brackets at the beginning and end are only needed if you are using the Metacoda Metadata Explorer Plug-in as it’s a signal that it is not a simple text search but an advanced XMLSELECT style query. If you are plugging this into some SAS PROC METADATA code then strip off the curly brackets.

If you want to know how that query works Continue reading “Finding Private User Folders for Deleted SAS Platform Users”

SAS Platform Audit History: Options and Versions

Lately I have been looking at audit histories with the SAS® platform. This is to answer the “Who viewed/changed what and when?” type of question. The core support for this is provided by the SAS Logging Facility. Customizing logging for the many and varied SAS platform components across a distributed environment, collecting logs, processing them, and reporting from them is no simple task. So it was great when, with SAS 9.2, SAS Institute made available APM (SAS Audit, Performance and Measurement) that provided a customizable solution for this. Fast-forward to today, with SAS 9.4 M4, APM is now an integral part of SAS Environment Manager and it’s Service Architecture framework. Starting with SAS 9.4 M2, APM is now shipped and installed with SAS software so you no longer need to find it, download it, and install it. It just needs to be enabled if and when you want to use it. The old downloadable APM has since been deprecated and is no longer available as a separate download for SAS 9.2, 9.3 and early 9.4 maintenance releases (see SAS Usage Note 55248).

With all of that history, when dealing with different versions of the SAS platform, I often find myself wondering what are the APM options for this particular SAS version/maintenance combination. I’m writing this blog post to summarise what those options are for each of the common SAS versions I see. That way I don’t have to go and look it up each time :)

SAS Environment Manager Service Architecture: emi_init

Today, whilst trying to troubleshoot why a SAS Environment Manager Service Architecture configuration was no longer collecting and processing logs, I discovered a handy status option for the emi_init command. I’m posting the help output and status output here to remind me in future :)

Here’s the output from the emi_init help option showing all the other available options:

[sas@sas94m3lnx01 bin]$ ./emi_init.sh -h
usage: emi_init [options] [(--enable|--disable) ]
Initializes Service Architecture and/or enables components
Options:
 -d,--debug                     Enable debug output
    --disable <[APM,ACM,ALL]>   Components to disable (can't be used with
                                --enable)
    --enable <[APM,ACM,ALL]>    Components to enable (can't be used with
                                --disable)
 -f,--force                     Re-initialize and overwrite settings
 -h,--help                      Show usage information
 -i,--initialize                Initialize Service Architecture
 -k,--loadKits                  Load kits
    --resetDB                   Reset the Data Mart, purging all existing
                                ACM and APM data, non-recoverable
    --resetFlags                Resets all initialized and enabled flags
                                to false.
                                Note: This does not undo changes made
                                during initialization or component
                                enablement.
 -s,--status                    Show operational status
 -v,--verbose                   Enable verbose output
    --vafeed                Enable VA Feed
Exit status:
0  if OK
1  if minor issues are encountered
2  if an error is encountered
-1 for invalid usage

… and here’s some output from the emi_init status option:

[sas@sas94m3lnx01 bin]$ ./emi_init.sh -s
Service Architecture settings:
	Level Root Dir  : [/opt/sas94m3/config/Lev1]
	Base Dir        : [/opt/sas94m3/config/Lev1/Web/SASEnvironmentManager/emi-framework]
	Initialized     : [true]
	Enabled         : [true]
	APM Initialized : [true]
	ACM Initialized : [false]
	APM Enabled     : [true]
	ACM Enabled     : [false]
	VA Feed Enabled : [false]

You can find more information on emi_init and similar commands in the Performing Functions By Using a Command Line section of the SAS Environment Manager 2.5: User’s Guide