Overview

Beginning with SAS Add-In 7.14 for Microsoft Office, the SAS add-in can open SAS Visual Analytics reports through a Metadata connection Profile or through Additional Visual Analytics Profiles.

Based on the type of the connection that you are using, you might experience the following errors when you try to open SAS Visual Analytics reports.

Metadata Connection Profile

Suppose that you are connected though a metadata connection profile, as shown in the following display:

You select SAS ► Reports and try to open a report. The following error might occur:

The Excel logging file might contain an error that is similar to this one:

1. Single sign-on is enabled in your environment. Single sign-on is not supported with metadata connection profiles. You should use Additional Visual Analytics Profiles to open your SAS Visual Analytics reports in the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office.
2. Whitelist is enabled in your environment in SAS^® Visual Analytics Administrator and the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office is not added in the Mobile Device list. If Blacklist is enabled in SAS Visual Analytics Administrator and the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office is on the blacklist for Mobile Devices, then you see Connection Failed: The user or password is not valid. For more information about correctly using a whitelist or a blacklist, see "Enable or Prevent Access by Using the Whitelist and Blacklist."

Note: Authentication to the SAS Visual Analytics server changed in SAS Add-In 8.1 for Microsoft Office to increase the security. This is why you might not experience these issues when using previous software versions.

Additional Visual Analytics Profiles

Suppose that you are connected though Additional Visual Analytics Profiles, as shown in the following display:

You might experience one of the following errors when you click OK in the Add a Profile window:

• Connection Failed: The server is not valid. This error might occur for two reasons:
  1. Information in the profile is not correct. Check if SSL is enabled on your environment. If it is, then use https:// in the connection field before the server name, and use the correct port that is configured for SSL in your environment.

For example:

Connection: https://yourservername.demo.sas.com

Port: 443

2. If you are connecting to a SAS Visual Analytics 7.x server with SSL enabled, and SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office is installed on a Windows 7 client machine, then install the following Windows 7 update to address this error: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3140245/update-to-enable-tls-1-1-and-tls-1-2-as-default-secure-protocols-in-wi 

Note: After installing the Windows 7 update, ensure that the update has been correctly applied on your client machine and that it changed the Windows Registry for TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2. There is an "Easy Fix" download that will do that. If you do not run the Easy Fix, just applying the Window 7 update does not correct the issue.

 

• Connection Failed: The user or password is not valid.  In your Excel log, an error that is similar to the following appears:

This error might occur for two reasons:

1. Whitelist is enabled in your environment in SAS Visual Analytics Administrator and the SAS Add-in for Microsoft Office is not added in the Mobile Device list. Blacklist is enabled in SAS Visual Analytics Administrator and SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office is on the blacklist for Mobile Devices. For more information about correctly using a whitelist or a blacklist, see "Enable or Prevent Access by Using the Whitelist and Blacklist."
2. You saved an incorrect password in the profile. Perform the following steps to address this problem:
   1. Close Excel and rename the file VAServers.xml in C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\SAS\MetadataServerProfiles.
   2. Open Excel and check if you are signed in as a specific user. If you are signed in with a specific user, then select Sign out, close, and then open Excel without signing in.
   3. In Excel, choose Options ► Connections ► Additional Visual Analytics Profile, and Add a new profile.
   4. Fill out fields (use the correct port: http\80 or https \ 443).
   5. Do not save the password.