SAS/SHARE User's Guide

Windows: Creating the Server Environment

You can invoke the SAS System and start a server session automatically by adding a program item to your Windows StartUp Program Group as follows:

Highlight the StartUp Program Group in the Windows Program Manager.
Select New ... from the File menu.
Select Program Item from the New Program Object dialog box.
Click on OK.
Complete the Program Item Properties dialog box to reflect your site's configuration. The following sample properties assume that SAS is located in the C:\SAS directory and the program that is used to invoke the server is named server.sas. Sample properties follow:

Description:

Server Startup

Command Line:

c:\sas\sas c:\sas\server $logflush $gpf dump -set sasdump

Working Directory:

c:\sas

Shortcut Key:

None
You can use the Command Line field to specify SAS system options. For example, the following command line invokes SAS, starts a server, and specifies that a memory dump can be written to C:\SAS\SERVER.DUMP whenever a general protection fault occurs:
```
c:\sas\sas c:\sas\server $logflush $gpf dump 
   -set sasdump c:\sas\server.dmp
```
Click on OK.

These steps add an application icon for the SAS System to the StartUp Program Group and start the server session when you re-start Windows.

Setting SAS System Performance Options

The following SAS system options can be used to tune server performance:

BUFNO=n | nK | nM | nG | MAX | MIN | hex

specifies the number of buffers to use for SAS data sets. There is no maximum number of buffers you can allocate, except for memory constraints. Under Windows, the default is 3.

For SAS/SHARE, setting the value of BUFNO= option too high may hurt performance by using too much memory because SAS/SHARE may be accessing multiple files at one time.

See All Hosts: Setting SAS System Performance Options for more information about the BUFNO= option.

BUFSIZE=n | nK

specifies the permanent buffer size for an output SAS data set. The value can range from 512 bytes through 1 megabyte. The value can be specified as n buffers or nK (kilobyte) buffers, where K=1,024. You may want to vary the value of the BUFSIZE= option if you are trying to maximize the number of observations per page. Under Windows, the default is 0.

For SAS/SHARE, setting the value of the BUFSIZE= option too high may hurt performance by using too much memory because SAS/SHARE may be accessing multiple files at one time.

UNBUFLOG

specifies that the SAS log file (which was specified in the ALTLOG= option) is opened so that other processes can read it, and that each line written to the log is then immediately transferred to disk. This option enables you to examine the server SAS log while the server is running. The UNBUFLOG option must be specified in a SAS command or in a SAS configuration file.

Note: The overhead that is incurred by the UNBUFLOG option may degrade the performance of a busy server. [cautionend]

A typical SAS configuration file follows:

-bufno 3
-bufsize 0
-unbuflog

See SAS Companion for the Microsoft Windows Environment for more information about these SAS system options.

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