Security for .sas files used by SAS Stored Processes

(SAS 9.2 Implementations) When saving SAS Stored Processes, the 'sassrv' internal user account is used to write the physical .sas files on the server. Security of these files (to reduce the users from overwritting other's .sas stored processes) can be accomplished via the Resource Management plug-in for SAS Management Console. Of course, after setting multiple file folder locations for .sas files to be saved, there will be multiple listings of 'Source Code Repository' within Resource Management.
Go into the 'Manage Source Directory Screen' and add a description for each of these. (Note ~ To get to the 'Manage Source Directory Screen', I always create a dummy STP in SMC, move to 2nd screen, select 'SAS Stored Process' server and then click the 'Manage' button. After creating/editing the directory locations, I just cancel out of the STP screens.) Now you can complete the authorization steps by completing the following:

1. Resource Management -> By Location -> SASApp
2. Under SASApp, right click the "Source Code Repository"
3. Move to the 'Authorization' tab and Set the permissions.

Different groups can be given 'CreateMetadata', 'WriteMetadata', and 'CheckInMetadata' access to their respective 'Source Code Repository' location. While you are there, remove this access for the 'SASUSERS' group or all SAS authenticated users will be able to edit this location anyhow.

Using Web Report Studio rather than Web Report Viewer from SAS Portal

(Information Below for 9.1.3 Environments) To modify the Web Report component used from SAS Portal, modify the PortalContent.xml located in the Installation Folder (such as c:\Program Files\SAS\Web\Portal2.0.1\Portal\WEB-INF\content in windows) and then redeploy the Portal. (You can directly modify the same file in the Tomcat/webapps location, however modifying the installation folder ensures future redeploys will include this modification rather than having to re-do later when changing something else (like application timeouts)). The only change required is in bold below. We modified 'SASWebReportViewer' with 'SASWebReportStudio'. Note that the java code is sensitive to capital letters, must be exactly what the Java Webapp is called. <Content interface="com.sas.report.repository.ReportEntryInterface" category="report" icon="Report.image" isViewerExternal="true" viewer="/SASWebReportStudio/logonFromPortal.do" appendSessionInfo="true" newViewerWindow="true" passObjectInSession="false" searchFilter="com.sas.portal.filters.PortalReportFilter,com.sas.portal.filters.PortalReportAttributeFilter" searchRepositories="OMR" searchFoundationOnly="false" version="2.0"> </Content> (Thanks to Zencos co-worker David Barron for providing this quick tip!)

Web Application Timeout Changes

Is the SAS Web Applications timeout of 30 minutes still too short? You can modify these by following editing the .xml files listed on page 15 of SAS Web Application Administration Guide. Here are the steps I took to update the Portal, SAS Web Report Studio and the SAS Stored Process Web Applications with a 90 minute timeout.
1. Stopped Tomcat
2. Edited the Files listed below & changed the code from: <session-config><session-timeout>30</session-timeout></session-config>
to:
<session-config><session-timeout>90</session-timeout></session-config>

   a. Portal and STP: SAS-install-dir\Web\Portal2.0.1\Portal\WEBINF\web.xml
   b. WRS: web.xml.host.tomcat and web.xml.trusted.tomcat found in: SAS-install-dir\SASWebReportStudio\3.1\config\Source\Java\resources
3.Redeploy the SAS Web Applications:
   a. Portal and STP: configure_wik.bat and tomcat_deploy.bat (found in: SAS-install-dir\Web\Portal2.0.1)
   b. WRS: sas.wrs.config.bat and sas.wrs.tomcat.deploy.bat (found in: SAS-install-dir\SASWebReportStudio\3.1\)
4. Restarted Tomcat

Still considering the 9.2 Upgrade? Take a look at Management Console Changes

Included are some highlights that I have seen and already reaped the benefits of. Take a look, I'm sure there is a one item that you will also enjoy!

• Logging Levels
Within the Management Console, for several of the Servers you can connect and view the logs immediately - without having to go into the Lev1/SASMain (now SASApp in 9.2) folder.
• Current Connections to System
In the same light, once connected to the server in SAS Management Console, you can view who is connected to the system at that time, when the connection was initiated, and control the connection. Thinking about a rouge process that one of your EG users failed to notify you of? It works quite well!
• Folders View
Instead of a 'BIP Tree', there is an entire Folder view. You can now organize all content (read OLAP Cubes, Stored Processes, Data Tables, etc) into Folders that have appropriate authorization access. This reduces the security management of individual tables, stored processes, etc.
• Stopping/Starting Services from Console
Without logging into the physical server environment or using .sh scripts in a UNIX putty session - you can directly manage the restart of a service from SAS Management Console.
• Plug In Manager (authorizing certain users access to certain plugins)
At an individual manner, you can allow different SAS Management Console users different areas of the various elements in the SAS Management Console.
• Manage Web Deployments in Configuration Manager
After a customer decided to modify the port that jBoss runs on, we didn't have to reconfigure the entire system. Only a quick change to the jBoss to run on the port and then using the Web Deployment plug-in to modify the each of the 'connection' screens to use the new port. Excellent!

Reference: What's New http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/whatsnew/62435/HTML/default/titlepage.htm

My Favorite SAS Resources

New and Long Standing SAS Customers alike ask for advice on where to find information to troubleshoot and learn about SAS. Included below is a running list of URLs that SAS Users can find useful for finding information!

• SAS Community     http://www.sascommunity.org
• SAS Conferences Paper Search     http://www.lexjansen.com/
• SAS Support Web Site     http://support.sas.com
• SAS Intelligence Platform Documentation     http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/intellplatform/index.html
• My Own Custom Google Search – searches specific websites for SAS references only
  http://www.google.com/cse?cx=partner-pub-0369052478647500%3A413bdc-x2c9&ie=ISO-8859-1
• Attend a Regional or Global Conference
  There is bound to be one near you!     http://support.sas.com/usergroups/