Generating a debug file for SAS® Data Integration Studio


SAS Technical Support often requires a debug file to determine the cause of an issue that is occurring at a customer site. The following instructions outline the steps you need to perform to create a debug file for SAS® Data Integration Studio:

SAS® Data Integration Studio 4.2 (and later releases)

Complete the following steps to create a debug file:

  1. Go to the SAS Data Integration Studio installation folder on your client machine. The default installation location for the product is as follows:

    C:\Program Files\SASHome\SASDataIntegrationStudio\VERSION

    Where VERSION is the version of SAS Data Integration Studio. For example, SAS Data Integration Studio 4.2 or SAS® Data Integration Studio 4.3.

  2. Make a copy of the file distudio.ini and save it so that you have a backup of the file prior to modification.
  3. Open the file distudio.ini with a text editor.
  4. Go to the MainClass= line (the last line in the file) and add the following at the end of that line: -debug -serverlog
  5. Save the changes you have made to the distudio.ini file.
  6. Launch SAS Data Integration Studio. Please note that when the product initializes, a system command window will also be displayed. This is normal and expected. It is a result of the new options.
  7. Log on to SAS Data Integration Studio and complete the steps necessary to reproduce the problem or unexpected condition. Then, close SAS Data Integration Studio.
  8. Retrieve the SAS Data Integration Studio log file. This file is named DataIntegrationStudio_Log.txt. The location for this file varies depending on the version of Windows on the client machine.

    On Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server, the file location is C:\Documents and Settings\USERID\ApplicationData\SAS\SASDataIntegrationStudio\VERSION.

    On Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server the file location is C:\Users\USERID\AppData\Roaming\SAS\SASDataIntegrationStudio\VERSION.

    Where USERID is the user id that is logged on to the machine, and VERSION is the version of SAS Data Integration Studio.

  9. Create a ZIP file that contains the DataIntegrationStudio_Log.txt file inside.
  10. Send this ZIP file as an email attachment to your technical support case.

Note: After completing these steps and sending in the resulting debug log file, you should rename the distudio.ini file with the debugging options and then restore the copy of the original that you made in step 2 to turn off debugging. If you need to perform debugging again in the future, just switch back to the file version with the debugging options.

SAS® Data Integration Studio 3.4 (and earlier releases)

Complete the following steps to create a debug file:

  1. Go to the SAS Data Integration Studio installation folder on your client machine. The default installation location for the product is as follows:

    C:\Program Files\SAS\SASETLStudio\9.1

  2. Create a new file in this folder, named DI_Debug.bat, and open it with a text editor (for example, Textpad, Wordpad, Notepad, and so on.)
  3. Open the file etlstudio.ini with a text editor. This file is found in the SAS Data Integration Studio installation folder.
  4. Copy the entire text string that begins directly after CommandToExecute=.
  5. Go to DI_Debug.bat and paste this string into the first line of the file. Then, enclose the entire text string that you just pasted within double quotes.
  6. Go to etlstudio.ini and copy the entire text string that begins directly after CommandLineArgs=.
  7. Go to DI_Debug.bat, insert a space at the end of the current text string after the closing double quote, and then paste the CommandLineArgs value on this same line. Do not enclose this text string within double quotes.
  8. Go to the very end of the single line in DI_Debug.bat, add a space, and enter the following on that same line:
    -debug -serverlog > c:\DI_Debug.txt

    Note: You can change the "c:\DI_Debug.txt" to a different location if you prefer, but be sure that the folder already exists.

    At this point, you should have one long command on a single line in DI_Debug.bat.

  9. Save DI_Debug.bat. Remember, it must reside in the SAS Data Integration Studio installation folder.
  10. Cancel out of the text editor that you used to open etlstudio, which will prevent you from making any inadvertent changes to this file.
  11. Execute DI_Debug.bat and launch SAS Data Integration Studio. When the product initializes, a system command window also appears. This is normal because you are launching the product via a BAT file.
  12. Log on to SAS Data Integration Studio and perform the steps necessary to reproduce the problem or unexpected condition. Then, close SAS Data Integration Studio. At this point, there should be a debug file in the location specified in step 8.
  13. Create a ZIP file that contains the debug file inside.
  14. Send this ZIP file as an email attachment to your technical support case.

Note: If the ZIP file exceeds the maximum allowable size (4 MB) for Technical Support email attachments, you can upload the file to the SAS Technical Support SASTSDrive by following the instructions in SAS KB0036136, "How to upload and download files using the SASTSDrive file sharing server."