Below is the log I copy for this question. It is really nagging. It did not happen when I used PC SAS version 8.x.

"NOTE: Remote signoff from IT034 commencing. NOTE: SAS Institute Inc., SAS Campus Drive, Cary, NC USA 27513-2414 NOTE: The SAS System used: real time 29.31 seconds cpu time 0.39 seconds

NOTE: Remote signoff from IT034 complete. NOTE: Remote signon to IT034 commencing NOTE: Copyright (c) 1999-2001 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. NOTE: This session is executing on the WIN_SRV platform.

NOTE: SAS initialization used: real time 0.46 seconds cpu time 0.45 seconds

NOTE: Remote signon to IT034 complete. NOTE: Remote signoff from IT034 commencing. NOTE: SAS Institute Inc., SAS Campus Drive, Cary, NC USA 27513-2414 NOTE: The SAS System used: real time 27:33.96 cpu time 0.45 seconds

NOTE: Remote signoff from IT034 complete. NOTE: Remote signon to IT034 commencing (SAS Release 8.02.02M0P012301). ERROR: A communication subsystem partner link setup request failure has occurred. ERROR: Cannot start remote process. ERROR: Remote signon to IT034 cancelled. "

In plain English, when Sig-on and Sign-Off repeat, sign off will fail some time soon.

Sometimes I wrote some wrong code, since I use SAS/Connect to remote submit my job, I had to quit SAS session to be able to re-compile the corrected code again. When using Connect with SAS PC version, after restarting SAS, the sign-on-off-on process was smooth, be it done automatically or manually, using or not using script files.

Now I have upgraded to SAS server version 8.2. I still use Connect to remote submit. I was first told I did not really need to quit SAS session to re-compile the corrected code. I should be able to sign on and off without quiting out of SAS. As the log shows, this way fails quickly. I go to the Work directory located on the remote Windows 2k server. I always see that after finishing 3 or 4 SAS sessions, those temp files, huge in total size, do not go away. If I want to delete them, I always have Sharing violatoin error and Access Denied, although no SAS session was active. I had to reboot the server to release them for deletion. As you all know, how pleasant it is to reboot a Windows 2000 server in real business time. It has 800 GB space on it affecting many people.

Finally, even if I quite SAS server version and restart, sign-on is not that smooth as with the PC version. 20% of the time sign-on hangs for 30 minutes or more. I had to kill the SAS session and try it again. The second time always works. SAS support has no clue about these issues.

I have world-class IT group supporting all the Windows applications. My SAS user behavior has not changed. The same thing I did with PC version, I am doing with the Server version. These problems never happen with SAS on Mainframe. I would appreciate it if someone can shed some light on it.

Paula D