SAS/CONNECT User's Guide

General Questions

SAS Software Products

Both SAS/CONNECT and SAS/SHARE provide services in a client/server environment. However, there are well-defined differences between the functionality of SAS/CONNECT and that of SAS/SHARE. Mapping these characteristics with the requirements of an application should enable you to determine which product you need to get the job done. In many cases, you might find that you want to combine functionality from both products.

Question

What is SAS/CONNECT software?

Explanation

SAS/CONNECT software enables a SAS session on one host to create a SAS session on another host and use that remote session to access remote data and execute SAS statements.

SAS/CONNECT software provides various services for the client/server environment:

Remote compute services allow you to submit SAS statements to the remote session for execution and get the results back in the local session.
Remote library services (RLS) allow you to access SAS data on a remote host (regardless of machine architecture) as if it were local.
Data transfer services allow you to explicitly upload and download files from one host to the other (including SAS data files and catalogs, external data files, and binary files).
Messaging Services allow programs, which compose a distributed application, to communicate by sending data in the form of a message to each other.
Remote Objecting Services are used by SAS/AF developers to distribute selected partitions of their encapsulated object frameworks across remote session boundaries.
Agent Scheduling Services are used as a client/server-based implementation of a periodic job scheduler that has extension to support on-demand execution.

Question

What is SAS/SHARE software?

Explanation

SAS/SHARE software provides a multi-user client/server environment for the SAS System. The multi-user server provides concurrent update access to SAS data for local and remote users across the enterprise. The server also provides remote users with low-overhead connectivity for reading SAS data.

SAS/SHARE software consists of two procedures and a SAS I/O engine:

PROC SERVER is the multi-user SAS server. It runs in its own SAS session and waits for requests from clients.
PROC OPERATE is the server administration tool. It displays and controls the status of a server, the libraries accessed through it, and the users connected to it.
The REMOTE engine handles SAS library and SAS file I/O requests by forwarding them to a SAS server. Combined with SAS software inter-host connectivity, the REMOTE engine enables remote access to SAS data; combined with the multi-user server, it enables concurrent update access to SAS data.

Question

What is the difference between SAS/CONNECT software and SAS/SHARE software?

Explanation

SAS/CONNECT software puts the full power of the SAS System at your disposal on the remote host. You can send work to it and get back the results, use it to download or upload data, or access remote data through it as if it were local. If you license SAS/ACCESS software on the remote host, you can also update DBMS data. However, update access to SAS data through the remote session requires that the remote session have exclusive access to the data.

SAS/SHARE software, by contrast, provides a multi-user data server which permits access to remote data as if it were local and concurrent update access to that data by multiple client SAS sessions. You cannot send arbitrary work to a SAS/SHARE server to be performed, and you cannot update DBMS data, but you can share SAS libraries, data sets, and catalogs with other users in update mode.

Question

What is the difference between creating a SAS/CONNECT remote session and connecting to a remote SAS/SHARE server?

Explanation

A SAS/CONNECT remote session is a dedicated SAS session on the remote host. This session is exclusively yours. You create the remote session when you need it, and terminate it when you are finished with it.

A remote SAS/SHARE server is a single SAS session that is shared by many users for the purpose of local access to remote data. The server reads and writes data on behalf of its users but typically has its own privileges and permissions. The server must already be running when you try to connect to it and continues to run after you disconnect from it. The server is started by an administrator or as part of system start-up.

Question

How is the REMOTE engine distributed?

Explanation

The REMOTE engine is distributed with base SAS software. You must license either SAS/CONNECT or SAS/SHARE software in order to use it. Licensing either product on the local (client) machine allows you to use it to access data through a SAS/SHARE server. Of course, SAS/SHARE software must be licensed on the remote (server) machine.

Question

What is remote library services?

Explanation

Remote library services (RLS) is a feature of SAS/CONNECT and SAS/SHARE software that allows you to access SAS data on a remote host (regardless of machine architecture) as if it were local. The REMOTE engine sends requests either to a single-user SAS/CONNECT server that runs in a SAS/CONNECT remote session or to a multi-user SAS/SHARE server that runs in its own SAS session on the remote host.

License Question

Question

I have end users with desktop machines who just need read-only access to SAS data on a mainframe or on a UNIX workstation. Because they only need read access, not update access, should I license only SAS/CONNECT software on the client and server machines?

Explanation

Not necessarily. If your users need remote computing services on a mainframe or on a UNIX workstation or if they need bulk data transfer services between the platforms, you need SAS/CONNECT software on the desktop (local) and remote (mainframe or UNIX) hosts. However, if you have a number of users who only need to read remote data, you can avoid the overhead of a SAS/CONNECT sign on for each of those users by licensing SAS/SHARE software on the remote hosts and SAS/CONNECT or SAS/SHARE on the local host. The users can use remote library services to connect directly to the SAS/SHARE server on the remote platform and access subsets of the data more quickly.

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