Adding an SAS Database Connection

note

The current version of this connector is not final and it will be updated.

Prerequisites

• A user with sufficient permissions is required to establish a connection with SAS.
• Zeenea traffic flows towards the data source must be open.

IMPORTANT

• The SAS proprietary libraries are not provided with the connector.
  Please download them and place them in the /lib-ext folder of the scanner: https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/omaref/p0522mtdjome30n1j0t0ku3ziwoy.htm
• If you are using Java 11 to run your scanner, you'll also need to download and copy these libraries to the /lib-ext folder :
  • glassfish-corba-internal-api-4.2.4.jar
  • glassfish-corba-omgapi-4.2.4.jar
  • glassfish-corba-orb-4.2.4.jar
  • pfl-basic-4.1.2.jar
  • pfl-tf-4.1.2.jar

Supported Versions

The SAS connector was developed and tested with SAS version 9.4 and is compatible with scanner version 44 and later.

Installing the Plugin

The SAS plugin can be downloaded here: Zeenea Connector Downloads

For more information on how to install a plugin, please refer to the following article: Installing and Configuring Connectors as a Plugin.

Declaring the Connection

Creating and configuring connectors is done through a dedicated configuration file located in the /connections folder of the relevant scanner. The scanner frequently checks for any change and resynchronises automatically.

Read more: Managing Connections

In order to establish a connection with a SAS instance, specifying the following parameters in the dedicated file is required:

Parameter	Expected value
name	The name that will be displayed to catalog users for this connection.
code	The unique identifier of the connection on the Zeenea platform. Once registered on the platform, this code must not be modified or the connection will be considered as new and the old one removed from the scanner.
connector_id	The connector type to use for the connection. Here, the value must be sas-database and this value must not be modified.
connection.server	SAS Server name
connection.port	SAS Server port
connection.username	Username
connection.password	User password
filter.table_name.includes	Comma-separated list of elements to include jobs in the synchronization using the following keywords: begins, contains, equals, between Example: includes = "enterprise,equals:customers,contains:prod"
filter.job_name.excludes	Comma-separated list of elements to exclude jobs during synchronization using the following keywords: begins, contains, equals, between Example: excludes = "enterprise,equals:customers,contains:prod"
filter	To filter data processes during the inventory. See Rich Filters

note

A template of the configuration file is available in this repository.

User Permissions

In order to collect metadata, the running user's permissions must allow them to access and read databases that need cataloging.

Here, the user must have read access to all SAS metadata objects.

Rich Filters

The SAS connector benefits from the feature of rich filters in the configuration of the connector. The keys that can be used to filter the elements are path or name.

Read more: Filters

Data Extraction

To extract information from SAS Metadata, the connector will connect using the SAS proprietary libraries and use the various objects provided to retrieve the following objects:

• Physical Table
• Job
• Server Component
• SAS Library

Collected Metadata

Inventory

Will collect the list of tables accessible by the user.

Dataset

A dataset is an SAS table.

• Name
• Source Description
• Technical Data:
  • Repository
  • SAS ID
  • Folder
  • Owner
  • Creation Time
  • Type
  • Library
  • Last Modification Time
  • Last Modified By

Field

Dataset field.

• Name
• Source Description
• Type
• Can be null: Depending on field settings
• Multivalued: Not supported. Default value false.
• Primary key: Depending on the "Primary Key" field attribute
• Technical Data:
  • Technical Name
  • Native type

Unique Identifier Keys

A key is associated with each item of the catalog. When the object comes from an external system, the key is built and provided by the connector.

More information about unique identification keys in this documentation: Identification Keys.

Object	Identifier Key	Description
Dataset	code/repository/dataset id	code: Unique identifier of the connection noted in the configuration file repository: Object repository dataset id: Dataset SAS technical identifier
Field	code/repository/dataset id/field name	code: Unique identifier of the connection noted in the configuration file repository: Object repository dataset id: Dataset SAS technical identifier field name