Category: General

Remote SAS Management Console using WSL2

SAS Management Console 9.4 for Linux running in WSL2

A recent SAS Communities post got me thinking about running SAS Management Console using WSL2. In that post, the questioner was asking about how to manage multiple SAS environments with different SAS 9.4 maintenance levels (M5 and M8) from a single client device. I posted that one of the ways to do it was to run SAS Management Console remotely, as each SAS environment will have the corresponding SAS Management Console version installed. One of the ways to do this, when the SAS server is on Linux, is to use X-Windows software for Windows (like MobaXterm). Behind the scenes an SSH session is used to connect to the server and run SAS Management Console using X11 forwarding so that the app appears locally on the Windows workstation. I regularly encounter SAS customers using MobaXterm to do this and I occasionally use it myself when on Windows (my primary desktop is Linux so I normally just use SSH with X11 Forwarding without any additional software). It also occurred to me that, with recent enhancements to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you can now do this with native Windows features and don’t need any additional software. I set out to try it for myself. Continue reading “Remote SAS Management Console using WSL2”

Checking a SAS Setinit/License in Metadata

When I apply a new SAS license (setinit) each year, sometime I forget to also update it in metadata. I might not even remember until I get an email from the SAS platform itself:

From: SAS Platform
Subject: SAS Product Expiration Notification
To: Me
Your license for SAS product name on sas.example.com has expired. Please contact your on-site SAS support personnel to obtain your updated setinit information.

“on-site SAS support personnel” … hey that’s me! I feel embarrassed that I forgot … again!

So, what if you want to be a bit more proactive and double-check whether you have an up to date SAS setinit in metadata? Continue reading “Checking a SAS Setinit/License in Metadata”

Java Look & Feel with SAS Management Console on Linux

As someone who specialises in SAS® metadata security, I spend a lot of time using the Authorization tab in SAS Management Console. I also use Linux a great deal. When I run SAS Management Console on Linux, I’ve noticed that the check box background colours on the Authorization tab don’t render correctly (for me at least). I only ever see white background check boxes when I expect to also see green and gray ones: green indicating an ACT; white indicating an ACE; and gray indicating indirect. These colours are important indicators for the source of access controls so not being able to see them is a problem!

It occurred to me that I might be able to resolve this by specifying a Java System Property in the sasmc.ini file to change the Java Look & Feel.

I first tried changing the default look & feel (using ‑Dswing.defaultlaf) but that didn’t work. What did work is changing the default system look & feel (with ‑Dswing.systemlaf). Continue reading “Java Look & Feel with SAS Management Console on Linux”

Finding SAS Visual Analytics Reports that use a Table

“How do I list all of the SAS® Visual Analytics reports that use a particular SAS table?”

I was asked this question today and thought of at least 2 ways to answer it. The first is to build a query to use in the Metacoda Metadata Explorer Plug-in and the second is to use the SAS 9.4 Relationship Reporting tools. In this post I’ll show example for both techniques. Continue reading “Finding SAS Visual Analytics Reports that use a Table”

Suppressing SAS Workspace Server MVA_DSIO.OPEN_CLOSE and _DISARM Messages

This is just a very quick post to jot down the location of a SAS reference that I keep losing! I have the SAS Audit, Performance and Measurement (APM) package installed in my older SAS 9.4 M0 dev/test environment. The APM package is now deprecated as the functionality has moved into SAS Environment Manager (from 2.4). One of the effects of having APM installed is that my SAS Workspace Server logs have a huge number of lines that look like this: 

NOTE: MVA_DSIO.OPEN_CLOSE| _DISARM|         STOP| _DISARM| 2016-07-31T15:44:27,279+10:00| _DISARM| WorkspaceServer| _DISARM| | 
      _DISARM| | _DISARM| | _DISARM| 9854976| _DISARM| 12| _DISARM| 12| _DISARM| 320| _DISARM| 1840| _DISARM| | _DISARM| | _DISARM| 
      | _DISARM| | _DISARM| | _DISARM| | _ENDDISARM 
NOTE: PROCEDURE| _DISARM|         STOP| _DISARM| 2016-07-31T15:44:27,279+10:00| _DISARM| WorkspaceServer| _DISARM| | _DISARM| | 
      _DISARM| | _DISARM| 9854976| _DISARM| 12| _DISARM| 12| _DISARM| 728| _DISARM| 1840| _DISARM| | _DISARM| | _DISARM| | _DISARM| 
      | _DISARM| | _DISARM| | _ENDDISARM

Sometime I want to suppress those lines (without uninstalling SAS APM). I then remember there’s a SAS page that contains instructions on how to do it, and spend several minutes trying to find it. I keep looking for a SAS Usage Note, but instead it’s a gem at the end of the SAS APM FAQ page: “Why do the Enterprise Guide SAS logs contain messages related to MVA_DSIO.OPEN_CLOSE and _DISARM? How can these messages be eliminated from the SAS log for EG users?”.

Essentially you edit the workspace server’s logconfig.apm.xml and change the Threshold of the WSLogAppender to Error.

You’ll want to pay attention to the note in the FAQ that says it will disable the SAS DI Studio Job Statistics features. I don’t use that feature in this environment, but you might!