Communications Access Methods for SAS/CONNECT and SAS/SHARE Software

SAS/SHARE

Client Tasks

System Administrator, Applications Programmer, and User

To access a SAS/SHARE server, perform the following tasks:

For Windows NT only, assign the appropriate rights to each connecting client.
For Windows NT only, set security for connecting clients.
For Windows NT, Windows 95, or Windows 98, specify the DECnet access method.
Specify the server name.

Assigning the Appropriate Rights for Connecting Clients

CAUTION:: Windows NT only This process applies to a Windows NT client only.

The account in which a connecting client runs must have the appropriate rights. To assign these rights

Click on the Administrative Tools icon.
Click on the User Manager icon.
From the Policies pull-down menu, select "User Rights."
Click on the "Show Advanced User Rights" box.
Assign "Log on as a batch job" rights to the appropriate users.

Setting Security for Connecting Clients

CAUTION:: Windows NT only This process applies to a Windows NT client only.

Requiring connecting clients to supply both a valid user name and password enforces server security. At the client, set the preferred security method for relaying a userid and password that are valid on the server host. For details, see Setting Security for SAS/CONNECT and SAS/SHARE.

Specifying the DECnet Access Method

You must specify the DECnet communications access method at the client before you access a server.

Use the following syntax to specify the DECnet access method at each connecting client:

OPTIONS COMAMID=access-method-id;

where COMAMID is an acronym for Communications Access Method Identification. access-method-id identifies the method used by the client to communicate with the server. DECnet (an acronym for the Digital Equipment Corporation Networking architecture) is an example of an access-method-id.

Example:

options comamid=decnet;

The server is accessed using the DECnet access method.

You may specify the COMAMID option in an OPTIONS statement, at a SAS invocation, or in a SAS configuration file.

Additionally, you may use the COMAUX1 and COMAUX2 options to designate auxiliary communications access methods in a search list. See SAS/CONNECT and SAS/SHARE: Supported Access Methods According to Host Release for the supported access methods by host. If the first method fails to access a server, the second method is attempted, and so on. You can specify up to two auxiliary access methods, depending on the number of methods that are supported between client and server hosts.

COMAUX options can be specified only at a SAS invocation or in a SAS configuration file. The syntax for the COMAUX options follows:

-COMAUX1 alternate-method
-COMAUX2 alternate-method

An example of configuration file entries for a Windows NT client connecting to a Windows NT server follows:

-comamid decnet
-comaux1 tcp
-comaux2 appc

If the server cannot be reached with the DECnet access method, a second attempt is made with the TCP/IP access method, and then with the APPC access method.

Specifying the Server Name

You must specify the server name in the PROC SERVER statement. Use the following syntax:

SERVER=server-id

See SAS Language Reference: Concepts for details about SAS naming rules. See SAS/SHARE User's Guide for details about the LIBNAME statement and the PROC OPERATE statement.

If the client and server sessions are running on different network nodes, you must include the DECnet host name in the server identifier in the LIBNAME statement and the PROC OPERATE statement as follows:

SERVER=host-name.serverid

This representation is known as a two-level server name.

The host name must be a valid DECnet host name. If the server and the client sessions are running on the same host, you may omit the host name.

If the DECnet host name is not a valid SAS name, you may assign the name of the server host to a SAS macro variable, then use the name of that macro variable as the host-name in the two-level server name.

The following example shows how to assign a server host name to a SAS macro variable:

%let srvhost=2beorno;
libname sales server=srvhost.server1;

Note: Do not use an ampersand (&) in a two-level server name. An ampersand causes the macro variable to be resolved by the SAS parser prior to syntactic evaluation of the SERVER option. A macro variable is transparently resolved in a SERVER option that is assigned a two-level server name. [cautionend]

If you have represented a host name in several forms on your system, the access method will resolve the host name using this order of precedence:

acceptable host name
SAS macro variable
environment variable.

See SAS Language Reference: Concepts for details about SAS naming rules. See SAS/SHARE User's Guide for details about the PROC OPERATE statement and the LIBNAME statement.

Client Example

The following example illustrates the statements that you specify in a Windows NT client SAS session to access a server with the DECnet access method:

options comamid=decnet;
libname sasdata 'edc.prog2.sasdata' user=_prompt_ server=rhost.share1;

The COMAMID option specifies the DECnet access method. The LIBNAME statement specifies the data library that is accessed through the server RHOST.SHARE1 by means of a prompt for a username and a password that are valid on the server.

Server Tasks

Server Administrator

Note: Server security is supported on the Windows NT platform only. [cautionend]

To set up a secure server and to make it accessible to a client, perform the following tasks:

For Windows NT only, assign the appropriate rights for a secure server.
For Windows NT, Windows 95, or Windows 98, require that only validated clients can access a secure server.
For Windows NT, Windows 95, or Windows 98, set DECnet access method security.
For Windows NT, Windows 95, or Windows 98, specify the DECnet access method.
For Windows NT, Windows 95, or Windows 98, specify the server name.

Assigning the Appropriate Rights for a Secure Server

CAUTION:: Windows NT only This process is supported on the Windows NT platform only.

The account in which a secure server runs must have the appropriate rights. To assign these rights

Click on the Administrative Tools icon.
Click on the User Manager icon.
From the Policies pull-down menu, select "User Rights."
Click the "Show Advanced User Rights" box.
Assign "Act as part of the operating system" rights to the appropriate users.

Setting DECnet Access Method Security

Note:

CAUTION:: Windows NT only This process is supported on the Windows NT platform only.

Before you can create a secure SAS/SHARE server, make the access method secure by assigning the value _SECURE_ to the SASSECUR option. See Providing Client Identification in a pre-Version 8 Session for information about setting the SASSECUR option.

Specifying the DECnet Access Method at the Server

You must specify the DECnet communications access method before you can create and access a SAS/SHARE server.

Use the following syntax to specify the DECnet access method at the server:

OPTIONS COMAMID=access-method-id;

where COMAMID is an acronym for Communications Access Method Identification. access-method-id identifies the method used by the server to communicate with the client. DECnet (an acronym for the Digital Equipment Corporation Networking architecture) is an example of an access-method-id.

For a server that is running on a host on which only one communications access method is available, use the COMAMID option.

Example:

options comamid=decnet;

The server will be available only to SAS/SHARE sessions that use the DECNET access method.

You may specify the COMAMID option in an OPTIONS statement, at a SAS invocation, or in a SAS configuration file.

However, if the host on which a server is running supports multiple access methods, you may specify up to two auxiliary access methods that clients may use to access the server using the COMAUX1 and COMAUX2 options. See SAS/CONNECT and SAS/SHARE: Supported Access Methods According to Host Release for the supported access methods by host.

All of the access methods initialize when the server initializes. The activation of multiple access methods makes a server available to several groups of clients, each using a different communications access method simultaneously.

COMAUX options can be specified only at a SAS invocation or in a SAS configuration file. The syntax for the COMAUX options follows:

-COMAUX1 alternate-method
-COMAUX2 alternate-method

An example of configuration file entries for a server that is running on a Windows NT host follows:

comamid decnet
comaux1 tcp
comaux2 appc

When the server starts, all of the communications access methods are initialized. The server is simultaneously available to client sessions that use the DECnet access method as well as to clients that use the TCP/IP and APPC access methods.

Specifying a Server Name

You must specify the server name in the PROC SERVER statement. Use the following syntax:

SERVER=server-id

See SAS Language Reference: Concepts for details about SAS naming rules. See SAS/SHARE User's Guide for details about the LIBNAME statement and the PROC OPERATE statement.

Server Example

The following example illustrates the statements that you specify in a SAS session on the Windows NT host at which you start a server:

%let sassecur=_secure_;
options comamid=decnet;
proc server id=share1 authenticate=req;
run;

The value _SECURE_ (for the SASSECUR macro variable) requires that clients specify a user name and a password that are valid on the server. The DECnet access method is declared, and the server SHARE1 is started on the Windows NT host. The additional options in the PROC SERVER statement allow only validated clients to access the server.

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