There is a Paradigm Shift waiting for SAS Administrators in the new SAS Management Console environment. The new 'Folders' tab ... But honestly, the changes have some STRONG benefits! We just have to change our process for defining and managing the metadata.
In prior versions, SAS was a singular list of Data Libraries. There was no hierarchical structure, no inheritance of security, 8 character libname definitions, file references to single locations on the system. In 9.2, that still exists HOWEVER the new 'Folders' tab in SAS Management Console provides more organization of content around the Business! These folders use similar functionality to Windows Explorer with the inheritance of security through sub folders (BIG AWESOME BONUS!) but it also requires some modifications to how administrators organize and manage these libraries and tables.
Included is my recommendation on how to initiate the system:
- Define business structure (aimed around security requirements) in the Shared Data area of the ‘Folder’ tab.
- If there is a Test and Production Data Set ~ set up Shared Data folders around this as well since the tables will be the same name. (You are unable to define 'duplicate' table names in the same Shared Data Folder.)
- Define libraries & data tables in the ‘Plug-ins’ ‘Data Library Manager’ node
- Point these to the proper ‘Folder’ Tab location during the registration process
When you need to DELETE metadata references to tables, ONLY do this from the ‘Folders’/Shared Data location. If you try to DELETE from the ‘Plug-ins’ ‘Data Library Manager’ node they DO NOT get removed from the Shared Data folder.
If you need to modify the security on the structure, do this also from the 'Folders'/Shared Data location.
2 Comments
There are a couple of good Best Practise guides for managing SAS folders in 9.2 here:
Best Practices for Managing SAS Folders
Best Practices for Maintaining Associations Among Objects in SAS Folders
Customizing Your Folder Structure
Neat! I didn't notice they added that. If you use Data Integration Studio 4.2, you'll probably notice that they're using the same folders.