Archive for March, 2009

SAS Metadata Objects (and left over artifacts)

Mar
31

We have been doing some work/testing on our Wiki integration with the SAS Metadata Server.

We have a test page that shows all the Metadata objects by type in the repository, I thought these ones were interesting:

Sample 133 – List TestCat objects
Sample 134 – List TestFlea objects
Sample 135 – List TestGrandKitten objects
Sample 136 – List TestKitten objects
Sample 137 – List TestLeg objects
Sample 138 – List TestMouse objects
Sample 139 – List TestReqAttrs objects
Sample 140 – List TestRoot objects

Obviously they are test artifacts that the developers forgot to remove.

I think I should go and check the Metadata Associations to see if the the TestLeg is associated with the TestCat or the TestMouse ;-)

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Integration Frustrations and why I am no longer a fan of SAS ITRM

Mar
19

So had a bad today and need to vent…..

When doing a project there are a few things we do as a matter of course and are what we call Optimal Practices (as part of our OptimalBI company), these include:

  • Reconciling each level of the data warehouse to ensure data consistency
  • Use of symantic layer for all end user reporting
  • Regular user workshops throughout development to ensure good user engagement and feedback
  • Use of Wiki to enable interactive documentation
  • Monitoring of the Production and Development servers to monitor and report performance and assist with capacity planning

So with the last one in mind we purchased SAS ITRM to enable us to monitor the SAS Servers on one of our projects.

We run a multi (n) tier architecture, so dedicated Web tier, Metadata Tier, Application Tier (Workspace/Stored Processes Servers) and Data Tier.

So ITRM being a SAS Solution, based on SAS 9.1 and utilises DI Studio and Web Report Studio, multi tier install here we go.

We apparently no.

It seems ITRM uses a custom metadata repository and as such required Web Report Studio etc to be installed/deployed separately.

In addition it comes with some prebuilt DI Studio jobs to read the adapters/log files (i.e SAR,BMC Patrol) but you have to build your own Performance Data Mart and Reports (in version 3.x that is as the old version 2.7 had lots of these out of the box).

So best practise is apparantley to install it on its own server and then build your own.

Not impressed.

Here end the rant

ps. as per my previous post I explicitly deny permission for Microstrategy to reproduce any content from this blog

pps. as if they would be reading my blog!

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Should Vendors slag off/recognise other vendors

Mar
19

So interesting articles over at the Microstrategy site, where they compare their software to other vendors, one being SAS.

First thing that tweaked my interest was the disclaimer you agree to before seeing the content:

“The recipient of this document agrees not to disclose its contents to any third party or otherwise to use this document for any purpose other than an evaluation of MicroStrategy’s business or its offerings. Reproduction or distribution of this document is prohibited without MicroStrategy’s advance written authorization. MicroStrategy does not guarantee the accuracy of any information presented in this document, and there is no commitment, express or implied, on the part of MicroStrategy to update or otherwise amend this document.”

So wonder if I am in breach by posting the link? Well its guaranteed to not be accurate anyway (oops got those words round the wrong way ;-)

So they compare themselves to SAS, things I noted:

  • They talk about integrated, but then only compare BI/Reporting tools, where is the ETL, Data Quality, Analytic’s and Solutions?
  • Single web interface, what about users that need easy reporting or users that need advanced reporting, one tool to rule them all doesn’t do it for me
  • Caching = Scalability, enough said
  • Metadata, ok got SAS there, in 9.1 at least
  • WSYWIG, again bring on SAS 9.2
  • Security, does anybody care or need 128bit behind the firewall?
  • Personalization, ok prompting in 9.1 is limited, but to me personalisation means more than prompting, no mention of a Microstrategy Portal (by the way we have built a mod that does this prompt based personalisation within WRS 9.1 ;-)

I could go on, but I won’t. I do wonder if they are going to update it now SAS 9.2 is available.

As an aside one of the interesting things when working for a vendor was whether you should mention the enemy or not. Some say by mentioning the competiton validates therm as a competitor and keeps them in the customers mind.

Most vendors have a “slag sheet” but normally you only get to see it if you are their coach within the customer trying to discredit the competition in a sales cycle. Interesting approach to publish it online.

Me I think they should concentrate on what they do well, which looks like producing a BI Reporting tool.

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Bad Graphs and Eating your own dog food

Mar
16

Interesting blog post over at Stephen Few’s Visual Business Intelligence blog.

He takes two vendors to task (one being SAS) for bad graphs/visualisation in their Marketing blurbs.

Well at least it wasn’t a pie graph ;-)

As an aside when I used to work at Oracle Uncle Larry came up with “Eating our own dog food” as the mantra for globalising the business into using Oracle Applications internally.

I much preferred Peoplsoft’s “Drinking our own champagne”, but then again look who survived! Goes to show Marketing isnt everything (and that is something SAS has proven for 28 years!)

Although (unless it has changed lately) I am always amazed SAS hasn’t globalised its internal systems in a single application, seems kind of archaic. But then again perhaps they have a really good Data Warehouse ;-)

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sasInct Development – What should we do next?

Mar
06

So we have been busy over the last year building a few portlets, check out the list on the main sasInct.com site.

The things we are finishing off at the moment is our Mediawiki extension for dynamically surfacing SAS Metadata in a Wiki.

We are also working on testing everything on SAS 9.2.

After that we are trying to decide if we should extend our portlets further (i,e add more graph options to the Flash Graph portlet) or develop new ones.

Current suggestions for new capability include:

  • A Report Usage auditing capability
  • Sharepoint extension to surface SAS Metadata in Sharepoint
  • A SPM portlet, that extends the current functionality
  • A web based Metadata explorer
  • A Management Console plugin to enable you to migrate Portal Pages across SAS instances

Is there anything else you need built?

Leave us a comment and let us know, you never know, we may just build it.

Ps. It doesnt have to be a portlet, we also DI Studio, SAS Management Console plugins and Enterprise Guide Addins, so if you have an idea shoot it our way!

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sasInct Portlets and 9.2

Mar
03

We are eagerly awaiting the General Availability of SAS 9.2 install media.

Once we get our grubby hands on it we will beinstalling it toot sweet and then testing and releasing all our sasInct Portlets as both 9.1 and 9.2 version.

We are aiming for all our portlets to be avaiable on 9.2 within a month of the media being available.

Of course 9.2 delivers some of the capability out of the box (i.e flash graphs in the BIDashboards) but if youwant the functionality now in 9.1 or find something still missing in 9.2 let us know.

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Marketing Automation 5.1 Documentation

Mar
03

Sometimes I find it hard to find documentation on the SAS support site.

Also some documents are no longer publicly available, they seem to only available to customers on request.

Marketing Automation 5.1 seems to be one of those.

So if you are embarking on a Marketing Automation install/configure, make sure you ask your friendly SAS dude (or dude-ette) for copies of:

  • MA5_1InstallQuickReference.pdf
    (Deployment Guide)
  • ma_ug.pdf
    (User Guide)
  • MA5_1AdminGuide.pdf
    (MA Admin Guide)
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Changing the default number of rows in WRS

Mar
03

If you want to change the default number of rows in a WRS table from 40 to something else, this SAS support note will tell you how:

Changing the default number of rows displayed and scrolled in a table in a Web Report Studio report

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