Tag: SAS 9.2

Finding Interesting SAS 9 Loggers

SAS 9 server log files contains lots of useful information to help you monitor, audit, and troubleshoot the usage of your SAS 9 platform deployments. However, sometimes the information you need might not be there by default. Thankfully the SAS 9 Logging Facility is flexible and allows a wide range of configuration customizations. Usually this is done by modifying the logconfig.xml file for the SAS server of interest, such as the SAS Metadata Server. This config file is normally only read when the SAS server restarts so you might not want to keep restarting a heavily used server to test out your logging config changes. This is where the SAS Management Console Server Manager plug-in shines. You can use it to connect to a SAS server, view all of the available loggers, change their logging levels, and have those changes take effect immediately without a server restart. If you find loggers and levels that give you the information you need, you can then update the config file and have the server restarted at a much more convenient time.

You can find the SAS documentation for this under Using SAS Management Console to Monitor SAS Servers. In this post I show how I use it to find interesting SAS metadata Server loggers. Continue reading “Finding Interesting SAS 9 Loggers”

SAS Management Console: My Favourite SAS App

SAS® Management Console is by far my favourite SAS application. As a SAS platform administrator I like it because I can use it to administer much of the SAS 9 platform. I also like that I can use it to reach into, query and update SAS metadata in the SAS Metadata Server. My favourite interaction with SAS Management Console though is as a software developer and in this post I’ll explain why.

Way back in the mid 2000’s, when SAS 9.1.3 was the most recent version, I discovered SAS documentation for a SAS Management Console plug-in API and it spurred my imagination. Even with the best of applications there are always ways they can be improved, from one-off organization specific requirements to generic everyone-could-use-these features. The developers and designers of SAS Management Console, right from the early days with SAS 9.1, had planned for it to be extended with a documented API for adding custom functionality directly into the SAS application. I imagine this started from internal SAS requirements but I was very happy it made it into external documentation for us to use too. That was of course where Metacoda Plug-ins started. It’s amazing to think that I’ve been working with this application and it’s plug-in API for over 15 years.

What sort of things does the SAS Management Console plug-in API support? Continue reading “SAS Management Console: My Favourite SAS App”

Metacoda Plug-ins: Library Reviewer

One of the most requested features from Metacoda customers has been a way to review all SAS® libraries registered in metadata, to see if they have been specifically protected with access controls, and to filter the list by various attributes like libref, engine, pre-assigned status, assigned server etc. Of course, to also be able to export to CSV and HTML as with the other plug-ins. The recent Metacoda Plug-ins 6.1 R8 release adds a new Library Reviewer plug-in to assist with this.

The list of libraries is presented at the top of the screen and selecting a library will Continue reading “Metacoda Plug-ins: Library Reviewer”

Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: View SAS Management Console Log File

In supporting Metacoda Plug-ins, one of the most useful things for us to review is the SAS Management Console log file SASMCErrorLog.txt. If you have ever had to look at this file yourself, or ask someone to email you a copy, then you would know it can be tricky to explain where to find it. So, to make it easier to access, and remove this friction, we have added a small enhancement to the recently released Metacoda Plug-ins 6.1 R6.

After installing Metacoda Plug-ins 6.1 R6, if you look in the SAS Management Console Tools menu you will see a new View SAS Management Console Log File... action. It opens the SAS Management Console log file SASMCErrorLog.txt by launching a standard text editor.

Metacoda Plug-ins: View SAS Management Console Log File

Continue reading “Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: View SAS Management Console Log File”

Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Replaceable Tokens

This is a tip for those who use the Metacoda Security Plug-ins Batch Interface for scheduled automation of SAS® metadata security reporting, testing and identity synchronization. You will find this tip useful if you are using the same configuration values in multiple batch configuration or Identity Sync Profile (IDSP) XML files and would like a way to specify these values in a single places rather than maintain them in multiple locations.

An enhancement that was added in Metacoda Plug-ins 6.1 R3 (Feb 2020) included Continue reading “Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Replaceable Tokens”