8 Setting Up SAS

Oracle Clinical 4.6 supports SAS 9.2. You can validate your Oracle Clinical 4.6 installation, and then upgrade SAS 9.2 later. The SAS/ACCESS Interface to Oracle requires Oracle SQL*NET on the computer with the SAS software installation.

This chapter provides the Oracle Health Sciences-specific instructions for installing and configuring SAS 9.2 for Oracle Clinical 4.6.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Section 8.1, "Modifying SAS 9.2 for UNIX"
Section 8.2, "Modifying SAS 9.2 for Windows"
Section 8.3, "Setting Up SAS on a Different Computer"

You can install SAS 9.2 and the Oracle Database on the same Windows computer. However, you must still execute SAS jobs manually after their generation from Oracle Clinical. See the "Data Extract" chapter in the Oracle Clinical Conducting a Study manual for more information.

8.1 Modifying SAS 9.2 for UNIX

Perform the tasks in this section for any supported UNIX platform.

8.1.1 Prepare the SAS Template File

Make the following modifications to the SAS template file:

Copy the SAS template file from OPA_HOME/oc/46/tools to OPA_HOME/bin.
Open the SAS file in a text editor and find this text string:

<path_to_SAS_executable>
Replace the string with the SAS executable path.
Save your work.

8.1.2 Modify the opa_settings File

To use SAS 9.2 with Oracle Clinical on a UNIX platform:

Navigate to the following directory:

OPA_HOME/bin
Open the opa_settings file.
Change the value of the SASORA environment variable from V8 to V9. For example:

db_env_setting:_DEFAULT_:SASORA:V9

You can use the scope to apply your change only to certain databases. In the following example, all databases use the V9 SAS/ACCESS engine with the exception of database OC45, which uses the V8 engine.

db_env_setting:OC45:SASORA:V8

8.1.3 Additional Modifications for Oracle Solaris

This section describes Oracle Solaris-specific installation issues.

LD_LIBRARY_PATH

On Oracle Solaris, in previous releases of Oracle Clinical and versions of SAS before 8.2, you had to configure a script in OPA_HOME/bin that intercepted the SAS command to set some additional environment variables. The script then called the actual SAS executable. In Oracle Clinical 4.6, the SAS script file includes a step that points to the 32-bit libraries.

SAS/ACCESS Error with Oracle Database 11g

Using Oracle Database 11g may cause an error with SAS/ACCESS to Oracle. When using SAS/ACCESS to Oracle's SQL Pass Through Facility or Libname engine, you may receive an error similar to this one:

error: ld.so.1 sas: fatal: libclntsh.so.9.0: open failed: no such file or directory

To work around this problem, create a link from libclntsh.so.11.0 to libclntsh.so.9.0:

ln -s libclntsh.so.11.0 libclntsh.so.9.0

8.1.4 Additional Modifications for HP-UX Itanium

This section describes HP-UX Itanium-specific installation issues.

SHLIB_PATH

In Oracle Clinical 4.5.1, the SAS script file included a step that points to the 32-bit libraries.

Relink the Client Shared Libraries

In some cases, the Data Extract SAS jobs fail on HP-UX Itanium with the following error:

ERROR: Unsatisfied code symbol 'sem_destroy' in load module

To resolve this issue, implement the following workaround:

Log in to the database server where SAS is installed.
Change to the following directory:

$ORACLE_HOME/lib
Open the sysliblist file.
Add the following option to the existing list of options:

-lrt
Relink the client shared libraries:

$ relink client_sharedlib

8.2 Modifying SAS 9.2 for Windows

To use SAS 9.2 with Oracle Clinical on a Windows platform:

Navigate to the following directory:

OPA_HOME\bin
Open the opa_settings.bat file.
Verify that the value of the SASORA environment variable is set to V9.

8.3 Setting Up SAS on a Different Computer

This section describes setting up a connection to SAS if the SAS installation resides on a server computer different from that of the Oracle Clinical database tier (back end) installation. To set up the connection, you create SAS view descriptors on the Oracle Clinical back end in the $RXC_USER directory tree that the SAS server can access.

8.3.1 Setting Up SAS on a Different UNIX Server Computer

To set up SAS on a different UNIX server computer:

Use Network File System (NFS) protocol to make the directory on the Oracle Clinical server pointed to by the $RXC_USER environment variable visible to the SAS server. You must export this directory with write privileges because the SAS scripts generated by Oracle Clinical produce SAS view descriptors that are created in this directory tree.
Create the UNIX user accounts on the SAS server for all users of SAS within Oracle Clinical. Create identical groups for these users and put the users in the same groups. You may have to link /etc/group with /etc/logingroup on the SAS server if it is not the primary group for these users.
Open the init.ora file.
- Verify that the REMOTE_OS_AUTHENT initialization parameter is set to TRUE for the Oracle Clinical 4.6 database instance. If you need to add this parameter or modify its value, you must shut down and restart the database for your changes to take effect
- If SAS (and SQL*Plus and PSUB) reside on the same computer as the Oracle Clinical database, and RXC_SAS_CONNECT is set accordingly, then you can set REMOTE_OS_AUTHENT to FALSE.
Create a shell script that forces a "SAS" invocation on the Oracle Clinical 4.6 back end to run as a remote shell on the SAS server that invokes the SAS engine, passing it the name of the SAS file:
1. Create the shell script on the Oracle Clinical 4.6 back end in a publicly visible directory, such as opapps/bin.
2. Name the script SAS.
3. Set the protection mode to 755.
4. Insert the following code lines into the SAS file:
  
  :
  
  #!/bin/sh
  
  SASDIR='pwd'
  
  remsh sas_server /bin/sh -c ". .profile; cd $SASDIR; /usr/bin/sas $*"
  
  where:
  - sas_server is the name of the computer with the SAS installation
  - /usr/bin/sas is the absolute pathname for the SAS engine
Ensure that every Oracle Clinical user who needs to access SAS can create a remote shell on the SAS server:
1. Create a .rhosts file on the SAS server in each Oracle Clinical user's $HOME directory.
2. Ensure this file has an entry for the Oracle Clinical 4.6 back end, or any other method of granting remote shell privileges as documented for the UNIX remsh command.

8.3.2 Setting Up SAS Use on a Different Windows Server Computer

To be able to run SAS on the SAS server of a Windows computer, the user must have full control directory permissions to the following folders located in the SAS software folder:

SASWORK
SASUSER

8.3.3 Executing Data Extract PSUB Jobs

To enable executing data extract PSUB jobs:

On the computer with the PSUB service, create a local account. Note the password you create for this account. You must specify the same password when you create the SAS account in the next step.

(Because you must have a local account on the computer that runs PSUB, you may have already created this account. See the user account requirements in the Oracle Clinical Administrator's Guide.)
On the computer with the SAS application, create a local account for the user. The password you specify must be the same as the password you specified in Step 1.
Create the oclsascr local group on the computer with the SAS application.
Enroll the user in the oclsascr group.
Set up RXC_SAS_VIEW:
1. Using Universal Naming Conventions, define the RXC_SAS_VIEW environment variable in the opa_settings.bat file. For example:
  
  \\server_name\sas_view\database_name
2. Create a folder on the computer with the SAS application you defined in the RXC_SAS_VIEW environment variable.
3. Give full control share permissions to oclsascr on the folder you defined in the RXC_SAS_VIEW environment variable.
4. Give full control directory permissions to oclsascr on the folder you defined in the RXC_SAS_VIEW environment variable.

To be able to run SAS on the SAS server of a Windows computer, the user must have full access to the SASWORK and SASUSER folders located in the SAS software folder.