From The Mainframe To The Sun To The World

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From The Mainframe To The Sun To The World!

• Carmen Williams
• Rose Keeley
• Carol Drechsel
•  
• University of North Dakota
• Presented at Midwest SAS Users Group
• September 2003

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The Goal

• Automate the way we generate and report our
  daily student registration activity to the web.

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SAS/IntrNet Project

• SAS/IntrNet implemented through the Higher
  Education Computer Network
• Principle users located at the University of
  North Dakota (UND) and North Dakota State
  University (NDSU)
• Steps involved the coordination of mainframe
  programs to the Sun (server) to the web

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Project Overview

• Developed out of the need to automate SAS
  output to the web
• Worked with our ITSS SAS user consultant along
  with another institution
• Once approved to move forward in the proposal,
  received a more specific list of product needs
  and costs from SAS (educational prices)
• Upon final approval, timelines (aggressive) were
  set up for implementation

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Project Overview cont

• Total Team Effort
• Install ourselves?
• Technology framework
• Training and learning the new system
• Life after the consultants leave

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Implementation Timelines

• Installs to do prior to SAS consultants arriving
• Example programs sent to SAS
• Hardware needs assessed
• Software needs assessed
• We were only at version 6.09 at this time
• End users needed to learn PC-SAS version 8.2

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Total Team Effort

• All assessments, installs, other preparation took
  a total team effort
• Mainframe support teams, security, UNIX support
  teams, client support consultants, and the end
  users all had to commit their time and knowledge
• Very intense (but for short time)

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Installation

• We chose to have the SAS products installed
  (under the Risk Mitigation Pilot Implementation
  solution offered by SAS -for government
  academic customers)
• One expert mainframe consultant
• One expert UNIX consultant
• Daily schedule
• Conference first thing in the morning
• Make sure everyone was on same page
• Went through examples to understand process and
  final product
• Ended each day with a brief overview/demo of what
  was accomplished that day

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Technology framework

• IBM Mainframe MP 3000 7060-H50 with RAMAC 9393
  Disk running OS390 V2.10 loaded with Base SAS,
  SAS/GRAPH, SAS/STAT, and the new module
  SAS/CONNECT
• Sun Enterprise Station - Model 220R, dual SPARC
  Ultra-60 processors performing _at_ 450 MHZ running
  Solaris 5.8 (64 bit) OS
• This one machine (server) maintains the Web
  Server running Apache 1.3 and the Application
  Broker, as well as the SAS Server running SAS
  8.02 and the Application Server. The SAS/IntrNet
  Application Dispatcher provides the Application
  Broker on the Web Server and the Application
  Server on the SAS Server

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Training and learning the new system

• Following the installation, the products were
  working.
• Gave us a little time to re-group and take some
  of the new features in
• We had some problems with earlier versions
  (formats, password protection) which needed extra
  time to fix
• Consultants came back after one month
• Worked on the applications more
• Provided some hands-on training
• Six days of public training was also purchased
• Practice, practice, practice

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Demonstration
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Report Selections
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Drop Down Box Selections
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Static Report 1
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Static Report 2
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MDDB Report ViewerFictitious Data
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Fictitious Data
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Fictitious Data
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Fictitious Data
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Fictitious Data
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Fictitious Data
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Life after the consultants

• The three of us met regularly
• Went through all of the jobs
• Documented the steps
• Took advantage of the public (web) training
• Discussed at our regional meeting (Red River
  Valley SAS Users Group)
• (re)formed a UND SAS Users Group

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SAS/IntrNet Project Wrap-up (cont)

• Pros
• Two very capable and qualified SAS consultants
  writing the SAS code
• SAS consultants worked with the technical
  personnel to install necessary products
• With the consultants on campus it required the
  attention of the team to act when called upon
  and drop everything and come to the table (note
  pro con!)
• Now that we have the code and everything is
  working well, it will be much easier to write
  other programs
• Have had excellent assistance from the SAS
  consultants for follow-up questions

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SAS/IntrNet Project Wrap-up

• Cons
• Everyone involved needed to be on call for the
  two weeks that the consultants were on-campus
• We did receive a lot of documentation but its
  never enough
• The training was very intense.. not enough
  handouts, and at times difficult to follow and
  document

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Thank you for attending!
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University of North DakotaFor questions, please
contact

• Carmen Williams, Institutional Research
• Carmen.williams_at_mail.und.nodak.edu
• 701-777-2456
• Rose Keeley, Info Tech Systems Services
• Rose.keeley_at_mail.und.nodak.edu
• 701-777-3062
• Carol Drechsel, Institutional Research
• Carol.drechsel_at_mail.und.nodak.edu
• 701-777-2487