Blogging about all things SAS

If you are using Dataflux as part of your SAS 9.2 Enterprise Data Integration (eDI) license then when you downlaod (or receive) your install depot you will have DF Studio 8.1 and Dataflux Integration Server 8.1.

The current Dataflux release is 8.2 and it is certified with SAS 9.2 so make sure you get a support login to the Dataflux website and download the 8.2 install executable and install that version.

I have been doing an install of SAS 9.2 eBI using Weblogic.

In all the SAS 9.2 install documentation from SAS it mentions Weblogic 9.2, but if you check out:

Oracle WebLogic Server Support for SAS 9.2

You will see Oracle Weblogic 10.3 is supported.  And when you download the install depot from SAS it will actually downloads Weblogic 10.3 in the thirdparty directory for you.

But when you follow the instructions and try and do the install you will probably get an error when the Install Wizard is configuring the web packages.

If you check the install/configure logs you will see this error:

Problem invoking WLST – ava.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError:
Bad version number in .class file

It seems although the install screen asks you for a location to the 1.5 version of the JDK, you actually need the 1.6 version of the JDK for it to work with Weblogic 10.3, according to this tech support note:

Usage Note 36538: The SAS® Deployment Wizard fails when you use Java Development Kit 1.5 with Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3

So when going through the wizard, point to the JDK 1.6 and you are away.

When connecting to SAS Enterprise Miner 5.x on SAS 9.1.x you normally entered a connection string that was the EM servername followed by the port, with the standard port being :5199.

With SAS Enterprise Miner 6.1 on SAS 9.2 the standard port changed to :6412 (for a Lev1 environment)

I posted earlier about the removal of the Public Kiosk in SAS 9.2 / Portal 4.2.

All the feedback I got stated that they turned off the Public Kiosk in SAS 9.1.3 / Portal 2.x as a matter of course.

Just noticed a SAS Tech support notice “Enabling unchallenged access to content in SAS® Information Delivery Portal 4.2” which outlines how to allow access to the portal without the need to login.

So obviously a few people still wanted it.

Angela’s post on the changes in SAS Portal 4.2 (9.2) called Favorite things about SAS Information Delivery Portal 4.2 highlights the fact that the public kiosk is no longer available in the 9.2 SAS Portal.

A lot of the customers we have worked with have disabled the Public Kiosk page in 9.1.3

So I am wondering how much of an issue it disappearing is going to be?

So tell me do you use the public kiosk page and do you really need it?

Chris Hemedinger commented on my last article that EM6.1 is now released (thanks Chris)

You can see whats new in the latest release over at:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/whatsnew/62435/HTML/default/emwhatsnew61.htm

Ive done a little bit of playing with EM, but leave the real work to the experts (to much stats hurts my head, although I now know what the answer should have been when I asked my stats teacher at school when would I ever use this in the ‘real world’ Doh!)

Anyway from an architecture point of view it is good to see Enterprise Miner is now an integral part of the SAS 9 architecture, rather than just an integrated component.

I like the fact it uses the SAS Metadata server and content repository for EM projects.

I also like the fact there is a direct upgrade path from 5.3 and a conversion path from 4.3. Should make upgrades much easier! ( I still remember the EM 4.1/4.3 to 5.1 days which werent so good)

In SAS eBI 9.1 and 9.2 there is no easy way to migrate Portal pages across SAS instances.

So if you follow what we call Optimal practice and do all development in a separate SAS Development environment, then promote it to a UAT environment and finally to Production, there is a lot of rework instore.

We were thinking about creating a sasInct module to assist in this task but thanks to a tip off (thanks Robin) we have found out that SAS are about to release a utility that enables you to migrate portal pages on both 9.1 and 9.2.

It is due in the next couple of weeks, so ask your friendly SAS Account Manager or Presales Dude/Dudette.

Once I have tested it I will let you know what I think.

So interesting articles over at the Microstrategy site, where they compare their software to other vendors, one being SAS.

First thing that tweaked my interest was the disclaimer you agree to before seeing the content:

“The recipient of this document agrees not to disclose its contents to any third party or otherwise to use this document for any purpose other than an evaluation of MicroStrategy’s business or its offerings. Reproduction or distribution of this document is prohibited without MicroStrategy’s advance written authorization. MicroStrategy does not guarantee the accuracy of any information presented in this document, and there is no commitment, express or implied, on the part of MicroStrategy to update or otherwise amend this document.”

So wonder if I am in breach by posting the link? Well its guaranteed to not be accurate anyway (oops got those words round the wrong way

So they compare themselves to SAS, things I noted:

• They talk about integrated, but then only compare BI/Reporting tools, where is the ETL, Data Quality, Analytic’s and Solutions?
• Single web interface, what about users that need easy reporting or users that need advanced reporting, one tool to rule them all doesn’t do it for me
• Caching = Scalability, enough said
• Metadata, ok got SAS there, in 9.1 at least
• WSYWIG, again bring on SAS 9.2
• Security, does anybody care or need 128bit behind the firewall?
• Personalization, ok prompting in 9.1 is limited, but to me personalisation means more than prompting, no mention of a Microstrategy Portal (by the way we have built a mod that does this prompt based personalisation within WRS 9.1

I could go on, but I won’t. I do wonder if they are going to update it now SAS 9.2 is available.

As an aside one of the interesting things when working for a vendor was whether you should mention the enemy or not. Some say by mentioning the competiton validates therm as a competitor and keeps them in the customers mind.

Most vendors have a “slag sheet” but normally you only get to see it if you are their coach within the customer trying to discredit the competition in a sales cycle. Interesting approach to publish it online.

Me I think they should concentrate on what they do well, which looks like producing a BI Reporting tool.

Chris Hemedinger has blogged a number of very good reasons why you would move fomr Base SAS to Enterprise Guide. He has also outlined the things you will loose.

In my experience most SAS programmers are forced by their cpmpanies to move to EG rather than do so willingly (but I amnot saying the move is a wrong one). There are a number of reasons that this move is enforced on them, including:

• Reducing License costs, by moving from desktoplicenses to server ased licenses
• Increased code reuse by non SAS programmers
• Increased documentation, via EG’s semi self documenting features

One of the area I find base SAS Programmers struggle with is the whole idea of Metadata vs Physical table data. So I would recommend spending a bit of time on this with them.

At the moment we would love to move our DI Studio code to EG for one of our projects. The reason?

In EG you can see the log file as the code run’s, in DI Studio you have to wait until it finishes (assuming it does finish).

DI Studio provides the ability to see where in the process flow your job is at, but for now we write our code in DI Studio, then grab it and run it in EG so we can keep up with what it is doing.

Well last I heard SAS 9.2 – Phase 2, was still due Q1 2009 (anybody heard otherwise?).

So one month and a bit to go.

The Team from SAS Australasia are doing SAS 9.2 overviews at the New Zealand User group conference on 27th Feburary (checkout the impressive sponsors, especially top right .

And Bill Gibson is doing the open session, should have a lot more insight on 9.2 after those.

There are rumours we might even see some 9.2 based solutions released this year, can’t wait!

So are you preparing to upgrade to SAS 9.2 this year? Leave a comment and let me know!