The SAS System for Windows 8e Serverbased Features

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The SAS System for Windows 8e Server-based
Features

• Gary Mehler, SAS Institute

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Topics

• Throughput issues
• NT Service operation
• NT Event Log support
• NT Performance Monitor support
• Windows 2000
• High RAM use and clustering
• Terminal Services operation
• SAS on for 64-bit Windows

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Throughput improvements

• Scatter/Gather I/O
• Enterprise Server Memory Architecture
• MP Connect
• In Memory Files
• Asynchronous I/O

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Scatter/Gather I/O

• Scatter Read and Gather Write
• Option SGIO enables it
• Unbuffered, asynchronous I/O
• Good for very large (gt 527MB) files
• SMP systems can process in background
• Good for large-memory systems

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ESMA

• Enterprise Server Memory Architecture
• Requires
• Intel Xeon processor
• More than 4GB RAM
• NT 4 Enterprise Edition
• Can cache library contents for fast access
• Can cache WORK library for faster sorts
• Used to eliminate slow disk access

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ESMA modes

• Option MEMLIB
• WORK is placed in ESMA memory
• LIBNAME E . MEMLIB
• Specific library placed in ESMA memory
• Option MEMCACHE
• Cache libraries through ESMA memory
• Data is accessed through a large cache

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MP CONNECT

• Multi-processing with SAS
• Exploit SMP machines
• Pretty interesting on 8-way servers
• Uses new WAIT option on RSUBMIT
• New statement WAITFOR for rendezvous
• Available on all platforms

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Simple MP Connect Example

• Options autosignonyes
• Options sascmdc\sas\sas
• Rsubmit task1 waitno
• proc sort datas1 by var1 run
• Endrsubmit
• Rsubmit task2 waitno
• Proc sort datas2 by var2 run
• Endrsubmit
• Waitfor _all_ task1 task2

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MP Connect on Windows Servers

• Takes advantage of SMP machines
• Assumes capable servers for best results
• Basic operation works fine
• If tasks are CPU-intensive, scalability good
• Heavy I/O jobs can interfere with each other
• Scalability limited by low disk throughput
• Large memory jobs can cause swapping
• If insufficient RAM, swapping overhead can be
  excessive

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In Memory Files

• New in 8.1 on all platforms
• Opens data set and loads into memory
• Speeds access to frequently-used data
• Data is read once and held across PROC and
  Datastep boundaries
• Great for SAS/SHARE servers

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More on In Memory Files

• Used with SASFILE statement
• SASFILE lib.member OPEN
• Open file and allocate memory
• SASFILE lib.member LOAD
• Open, allocate, and read
• SASFILE lib.member CLOSE
• Close file, free memory

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In Memory Files on NT Servers

• Works well if enough RAM is available
• Insufficient RAM leads to swapping
• Insufficient RAM can lead to performance problems
• IMF sharing only works in a single SAS process
• Not useful with MP-Connect

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Asynchronous I/O

• Used with ASYNCHIO (or NOSYNCHIO)
• Allows SAS tasks to execute while I/O is pending
  with the operating system
• Good for SAS/SHARE servers
• Available on all V8 platforms

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Asynchronous I/O on NT

• Works well with SAS/SHARE
• Helps response time
• Works well on SMP machines
• Large Memory use on Windows 2000

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SAS Services on NT/2000

• SAS/CONNECT spawner
• Install as a service to listen for CONNECT
  requests
• Install with SPAWNER i c tcp
• SAS System 8.1 (new)
• Run any SAS session as an NT service
• Use SAS Service Control Manager to install

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SAS as an NT Service

• SAS running as a true NT service
• Autostart jobs at machine boot time
• Auto-restart on job failure (Windows 2000)
• Specify logon info per job
• Remotely monitor service operation
• Easy-to-use configuration utility
• Events logged to System Event Log

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SAS Service Configuration Utility
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More Service Configuration Options
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Windows 2000 Service Recovery
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SAS and the NT Event Log

• NT Event Log is standard place for system and app
  notable data
• Event data can be accessed from remote machines
• SAS uses the Application log area
• Installation changes are logged there
• Crashes are logged in most cases
• Service configuration changes are logged
• Users can log events manually

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User Event Log Use

• Datastep/SCL function
• Can mark main job function areas
• Example
• data null
• xntlog("INFORMATION", Nightly job done")
• run

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Event log Event Types

• SAS supports all event types
• Information
• Warning
• Error
• Success Audit
• Failure Audit

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Event Log Output
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Drilling into Event Details
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SAS and the NT Performance Monitor

• Useful for drilling into performance problems
• Can use
• system-wide counters or
• SAS-specific counters
• Best when logging data to a file for later review
• Interactive PerfMon mode for ad-hoc analysis

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SAS-specific Counters
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Windows 2000 Server Family

• DATACENTER SERVER
• Up to 32-way SMP
• Up to 64GB memory
• 4 node clustering
• WinSock Direct (SAN)
• Available soon

Value
Functionality and Capacity
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DataCenter Server and high RAM
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More on DataCenter Server
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Network Load Balancing

• Also called Scale Out
• Compared with Scale Up (meaning SMP)
• Distributes TCP/IP connections
• Basis for Microsofts highest scalability TPC/C
  numbers
• Testing with SAS 8.1

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NLB (Scalability Clustering)
Any applicationusing TCP/IP
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NLB with SAS/CONNECT

• Two nodes act as SAS/CONNECT servers
• TCP/IP communications required
• Network Load Balancing configured on nodes
• A new cloud IP address is created
• SAS/CONNECT clients use the cloud address
• RSUBMIT jobs are launched on both nodes,
  depending on incoming IP address

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Active Directory use on Windows 2000

• Based on LDAP
• SAS 8e uses this for
• Publish/Subscribe info storage
• Real-time DW data distribution
• Can access LDAP with SAS Call statements and SCL
  interface

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Terminal Server Compatibility

• Version 8 of the SAS System is Terminal Server
  Compatible
• Independently tested by Veritest Corp. for
• Functionality
• Performance
• Scalability
• Reliability

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Terminal Server Testing means

• Installs correctly in administrative install mode
• Pre-checks for installation privileges required
• Recognizes Terminal Server bandwidth issues
• Disables display of SAS System splash screen
• Single installation used by all users
• Independent SASUSER, SASWORK areas used
• Program area is read-only

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Terminal Server Performance

• Tested for comparable performance on T.S. as
  compared with typical client PC
• Tested in 15-user load with continuous activity
  for 20 hours
• No crashes
• No memory leaks
• No change in system stability

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SAS on 64-bit Windows

• Now running in the Compaq booth !
• Weve been working with Intel and Microsoft for a
  while on this
• One of the first public showings is here at SUGI!
• Itanium systems will have many advantages over
  current 32-bit PC processors

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Itanium Benefits

• Much faster floating point math
• 32-bit Intel systems are typically constrained by
  their floating point math performance
• Higher memory scalability
• Terabytes!
• Higher overall throughput
• Instruction parallelization
• Lots of other tricks too

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64-bit Scalability Differences
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32-bit vs. 64-bit Windows?

• 32-bit Windows will continue to exist for a long
  time
• Future 32-bit PCs will have interesting
  performance improvements too
• Customer choice cost vs. scalability and
  performance
• SAS will continue on both as needed

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Thank you! Any questions?Gary.Mehler_at_sas.com