From The Mainframe To From The Mainframe To The Sun To The World!The Sun To The World!

Carmen WilliamsRose Keeley

Carol Drechsel 

University of North Dakota

Presented at Midwest SAS Users GroupSeptember 2003

The GoalThe Goal

Automate the way we generate and report our daily student registration activity to the web.

SAS/IntrNet ProjectSAS/IntrNet Project

SAS/IntrNet implemented through the Higher Education Computer Network

Principle users located at the University of North Dakota (UND) and North Dakota State University (NDSU)

Steps involved the coordination of mainframe programs to the Sun (server) to the web

Project OverviewProject Overview

Developed out of the need to “automate” SAS output to the web

Worked with our ITSS SAS user consultant along with another institution

Once approved to “move forward” in the proposal, received a more specific list of product needs and costs from SAS (educational prices)

Upon final approval, timelines (aggressive) were set up for implementation

Project Overview Project Overview con’tcon’t

Total Team EffortInstall ourselves?Technology frameworkTraining and learning the new

system Life after the consultants leave

Implementation TimelinesImplementation Timelines

Installs to do prior to SAS consultants arriving

Example programs sent to SASHardware needs assessedSoftware needs assessed

– We were only at version 6.09 at this timeEnd users needed to learn PC-SAS &

version 8.2

Total Team EffortTotal Team Effort

All assessments, installs, other preparation took a total team effort

– Mainframe support teams, security, UNIX support teams, client support consultants, and the end users all had to commit their time and knowledge

– Very intense (but for short time)

InstallationInstallation

We chose to have the SAS products installed (under the Risk Mitigation – Pilot Implementation solution offered by SAS -for government & academic customers)– One expert mainframe consultant– One expert UNIX consultant

Daily schedule– Conference first thing in the morning

Make sure everyone was on “same page” Went through examples to understand process and final product

– Ended each day with a brief overview/demo of what was accomplished that day

Technology frameworkTechnology framework

IBM Mainframe MP 3000 7060-H50 with RAMAC 9393 Disk running OS390 V2.10 loaded with Base SAS, SAS/GRAPH, SAS/STAT, and the new module SAS/CONNECT

Sun Enterprise Station - Model 220R, dual SPARC Ultra-60 processors performing @ 450 MHZ running Solaris 5.8 (64 bit) OS– This one machine (server) maintains the Web Server running

Apache 1.3 and the Application Broker, as well as the SAS Server running SAS 8.02 and the Application Server. The SAS/IntrNet Application Dispatcher provides the Application Broker on the Web Server and the Application Server on the SAS Server

Training and learning the new Training and learning the new systemsystem

Following the installation, the products were working….– Gave us a little time to re-group and take some of the new

features in– We had some problems with earlier versions (formats,

password protection) which needed extra time to fix Consultants came back after one month

– Worked on the applications more– Provided some hands-on training

Six days of public training was also purchased Practice, practice, practice

DemonstrationDemonstration

Report SelectionsReport Selections

Drop Down Box SelectionsDrop Down Box Selections

Static Report #1Static Report #1

Static Report #2Static Report #2

MDDB Report ViewerMDDB Report ViewerFictitious DataFictitious Data

Fictitious DataFictitious Data

Fictitious DataFictitious Data

Fictitious DataFictitious Data

Fictitious DataFictitious Data

Fictitious DataFictitious Data

Fictitious DataFictitious Data

Fictitious DataFictitious Data

Fictitious DataFictitious Data

Life after the consultantsLife after the consultants

The three of us met regularly– Went through all of the jobs– Documented the steps

Took advantage of the public (web) trainingDiscussed at our regional meeting (Red

River Valley SAS Users Group)(re)formed a UND SAS Users Group

SAS/IntrNet Project Wrap-up SAS/IntrNet Project Wrap-up (con’t)(con’t) Pros

– Two very capable and qualified SAS consultants writing the SAS code

– SAS consultants worked with the technical personnel to install necessary products

– With the consultants on campus it required the attention of the “team” to act when called upon and drop everything and come to the table (note – pro & con!)

– Now that we have “the code” and everything is working well, it will be much easier to write other programs

– Have had excellent assistance from the SAS consultants for follow-up questions

SAS/IntrNet Project Wrap-upSAS/IntrNet Project Wrap-up

Cons– Everyone involved needed to be “on call” for

the two weeks that the consultants were on-campus

– We did receive a lot of documentation… but it’s never enough

– The training was very intense.. not enough handouts, and at times difficult to follow and document

Thank you for attending!Thank you for attending!

University of North DakotaUniversity of North Dakota

For questions, please contact:For questions, please contact:

– Carmen Williams, Institutional Research Carmen.williams@mail.und.nodak.edu 701-777-2456

– Rose Keeley, Info Tech Systems & Services Rose.keeley@mail.und.nodak.edu 701-777-3062

– Carol Drechsel, Institutional Research Carol.drechsel@mail.und.nodak.edu 701-777-2487