Using SAS/CONNECT with SAS/SHARE

You can use SAS/CONNECT with SAS/SHARE to extend your access to SAS files and execute SAS tasks on one or more servers. All output and messages that are generated from that server session are directed back to the client for display. This execution can be done in parallel to provide scalability of large jobs and reduce the amount of time to completion.

SAS/CONNECT provides the connection between the client and the server that enables you to run SAS statements on the server, and gives you the ability to perform this execution in parallel. SAS/SHARE allows concurrent update access to data. You must use SAS/SHARE with SAS/CONNECT if SAS files that are used in server processing require concurrent update access. For complete details about SAS/CONNECT, see the SAS/CONNECT User's Guide.

The following example shows the need to access a SAS/SHARE server in a SAS/CONNECT server session.

You have to create a report from DATALIB.FUEL, but John and Maria are currently accessing this data through a SAS/SHARE server. You can use SAS/CONNECT to connect to the operating environment where the library DATALIB is stored. However, because DATALIB is already being accessed through a SAS/SHARE server, you must use the same SAS/SHARE server to access DATALIB.FUEL and generate the report. Therefore, you connect to the SAS/SHARE server and submit the following code:

signon apex;
rsubmit;
   libname datalib server=shr1;
   proc print data=datalib.fuel;
      where area='TEX3' and profits<=0;
      title 'Losses in Texas, Area 3';
   run;
endrsubmit;

The LIBNAME statement identifies DATALIB as the library to access through the same server that John and Maria are using. Your SAS/CONNECT server session connects to the SAS/SHARE server and executes the PRINT procedure to produce the report. The report is displayed at your client session. Except for some interactive limitations that are imposed by SAS/CONNECT, you can remotely submit the same SAS program statements to read from or write to the same data in DATALIB that other users work on when they log on directly to the server.