Moving and Accessing SAS Files across Operating Environments

When to Access a SAS File on a Remote Host

In some instances, accessing rather than owning and maintaining your own copy of a file may be preferable. Alternatively, you may need to read data from a locally mounted tape that was created elsewhere, or you may need to read, write, or update data that is remotely mounted on your network. Your host (source host) from which you access the data and the remote data or the locally mounted tape that contains the data (remote host) may share a common or different architecture and may run the same version or a different version of SAS.

Note: Do not confuse the term access with the product SAS/ACCESS. In the context of this book, access means to reach and use SAS files. SAS/ACCESS enables users to use third-party DBMS files. For a list of products that SAS/ACCESS supports, see Third-Party DBMS Files That Cannot Be Moved. [cautionend]

You can use these methods to access remote SAS files:

use SAS/SHARE on your client to access a remote SAS file that resides on a host on which a SAS/SHARE server runs. The client and server hosts may share a common or a different architecture. Also, the SAS release that the client and the server hosts run may be the same or different. SAS/SHARE facilitates a transparent concurrent access to remote data among multiple users. Restrictions apply to cross-release access of SAS data.
In addition, SAS/SHARE enables you to access certain third-party DBMS files by means of engines that SAS/ACCESS supports.
Note: You must have a separate license for SAS/SHARE.
use Version 8 features of CEDA (Cross-Environment Data Access) that allow read and write access to selected SAS files by means of third-party network communications products NFS (Network File Services) or FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
Note: Because CEDA is bundled with SAS/CONNECT, you must have a SAS/CONNECT license to use it.
without the aid of SAS/SHARE or CEDA, you can rely upon network services for access to remote files (both SAS files and third-party DBMS files). Usually, the local host and the remote host must share a compatible architecture and they must run the same SAS release. The operating environment, the network software, and the security software may control users' permissions to access specific remote files. For more information, see the SAS companion that is appropriate to your operating environment and see the third-party documentation for the network software and security software.

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