Overview

This SAS knowledge base article reviews some commonly encountered problems with scheduling and distribution in SAS Web Report Studio. The following topics are included:

• Schedule or Distribute option is unavailable or missing from the File menu
• Distributions are not received
• Reports do not execute as scheduled
• Recipient lists cannot be created or an error appears
• Other errors that might occur in the Schedule or Distribute wizard
• Scheduled reports do not display updated results
• Stored processes execute multiple times
• Additional documentation

Schedule or Distribute Option Is Unavailable or Missing from the File Menu

Here are some reasons why the Schedule or Distribute option might be unavailable or completely missing from the File menu:

• The report has not been saved at least once. You can schedule and distribute only reports that have been saved at least once.
• A report is not open. If you are still on the Welcome screen, then the Schedule and Distribute options are unavailable.
• You are not a member of a metadata role with the required capabilities. Specifically, you must have at least these capabilities in order to see the Schedule or Distribute option:
  • Basic:Modify Repository
  • Output:Save
  • Output:Schedule Own Report or Advanced Scheduling:Schedule Any Report
  • Advanced Report Creation:Distribution

• You have logged on to SAS Web Report Studio with an internal account. Internal accounts have @saspw appended to the user ID. Internal accounts cannot schedule or distribute even if they are in a role with the required capabilities.
• Your middle-tier operating system is AIX, and you are using the in-process scheduler. The Distribute option might be missing even though you are in the required roles and the scheduler is configured correctly. For more information, see SAS Note 55975.
• The scheduling server is offline. If the previous reasons are not applicable, then gather some additional logging about the status of the scheduler:
  1. Stop the SAS^® Web Application Server where SAS Web Report Studio is deployed.
  2. Delete or rename the SASWebReportStudio4.4.log. The log is in a location similar to /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASServerX_Y, where X_Y is usually either 1_1 or 2_1.

Note: If you are using release 4.31_M2, your log is named SASWebReportStudio.log. There is no release number at the end of the filename. The log is in a location similar to /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/.

3. Log on to SAS^® Management Console with an administrative account such as sasadm@saspw.
4. On the Plug-ins tab, navigate to Application Management ► Configuration Manager ► SAS Application Infrastructure ► Web Report Studio 4.x.
5. Right-click Web Report Studio 4.x and select Properties.
6. Click the Advanced tab.
7. Click Add.

• For the Property Name, enter wrs.scheduling.verboseScheduleStartup
• For the Property Value, enter true

8. Click OK twice to exit all of the dialog boxes.
9. Restart the web application server. When the server is fully up, send a copy of the SASWebReportStudio4.4.log that was generated after the restart to SAS Technical Support. Indicate which scheduling server you are using.

Distributions Are Not Received

If users do not receive the distributed report, check the View Scheduled and Distributed Reports dialog box to see whether the distribution's status is Executed, Failed, or Running.

1. Log on to SAS Web Report Studio.
2. Select File ► Manage Files.
3. In the upper right corner, click View Scheduled and Distributed Reports.

Depending on the status, here are some possible reasons why a distribution might not be received:

• If the distribution executed but no one received an email, then check the logs for your email server. For more information, see SAS Note 51209.
• If some recipients received the email but some did not, then your list might include invalid addresses. For more information, see SAS Note 41433.
• If the distribution failed or is still running, then review these possible causes:
  • Ensure that the Cache Locator is started. If it is not, then start it.
  • Make sure that the Sender display name did not include an &. For more information, see SAS Note 48792.
  • If there are no obvious errors in the log, then see SAS Note 59215.
  • If your email server requires authentication, then make sure that you have correctly completed the additional required steps. For more information, see the topic "SMTP Mail Server" in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Middle-Tier Administration Guide. (See Additional documentation for a link to the guide.)
  • If the SAS Web Report Studio log contains an error that a file is in use, see SAS Note 33811.
  • If the report includes a stored process that executes on a workspace server, then see SAS Note 41751.
  • If SAS Web Report Studio uses a standard workspace server, then additional configuration is required. For more information, see SAS Note 54785.
  • If you are using Platform Suite for SAS^® as your scheduling server, then make sure that your license has not expired. This integrated enterprise job scheduler is a third-party product that can be used for scheduling SAS Web Report Studio reports.

Note: If you are using an authenticated Gmail server and the address that you enter into the Sender e-mail field in the Distribute Report wizard is ignored, then contact SAS Technical Support.

Tip: As  a test, select File ► Email. If you cannot successfully send email, then you cannot successfully distribute. Send any error along with the SASWebReportStudio4.4.log to SAS Technical Support as described next.

If you cannot determine why the distributions are not being received, then send the SASWebReportStudio4.4.log to SAS Technical Support. Provide the name of the report and the time at which it should have been distributed. Indicate which scheduling server you are using.

Reports Do Not Execute as Scheduled

If reports are not executing as scheduled, check the View Scheduled and Distributed Reports dialog box to see whether the schedule's status is Executed, Failed, or Running.

1. Log on to SAS Web Report Studio.
2. Select File ► Manage Files.
3. In the upper right corner, click View Scheduled and Distributed Reports.

Depending on the status, here are some possible causes:

• If the schedule executed during your current session, then log off and back on to see the scheduled copy of the report.
• If the schedule failed or is still running, then review these possible causes:
  • If there are no obvious errors in the log, then see SAS Note 59215.
  • If the SAS Web Report Studio log contains an error that a file is in use, see SAS Note 33811.
  • If the report includes a stored process that executes on a workspace server, then see SAS Note 41751.
  • If SAS Web Report Studio uses a standard workspace server, then additional configuration is required. For more information, see SAS Note 54785.
  • If you are using Platform Suite for SAS^® as your scheduling server, then make sure that your license has not expired. This integrated enterprise job scheduler is a third-party product that can be used for scheduling SAS Web Report Studio reports.

If you cannot determine why the schedules are not executing, then send the SASWebReportStudio4.4.log to SAS Technical Support. Provide the name of the report and the time at which the report was scheduled to run. Indicate which scheduling server you are using.

Recipient Lists Cannot Be Created or an Error Appears

Here are some problems related to recipient lists that you might encounter:

• If there are no existing recipient lists and you do not have the ability to create a new one, then the Recipients and Distribution Rules button is not available to select. In order to create a recipient list, you must be in a metadata role with the Administration:Manage Distribution List capability enabled. As an alternative, someone with the required capabilities can create a list for you to use.
• When you attempt to create a recipient list, you see Could not access table and The user does not have permission to perform this action. Creating a recipient list requires that you have WriteMetadata permission on certain objects. For more information, see SAS Note 43622.
• When you click the Recipients and Distribution Rules button, you see a java.lang.NulPointerException. This problem can occur if the most recently selected recipient list was invalid or corrupted. For more information, see SAS Note 46452.
• You click Cancel in the New Recipient List dialog box, and you see The system was unable to complete your request. This problem can occur if there are no other recipient lists defined in the environment. For more information, see SAS Note 50826.

Other Errors That Might Occur in the Schedule or Distribute Wizard

Here are a few other problems that you might encounter when using the Schedule or Distribute wizard:

• When you click Finish in the wizard, you see wrs.schedulemanager.configErrorScheduleServerNotInSMC.txt. For more information, see SAS Note 57201.
• You see a message that the report associated with the schedule or distribution was not found. For more information, see SAS Note 47846.
• You see a message that you do not have permission to schedule the report. For more information, see SAS Note 45758.
• If either the deployed job or the deployed flow associated with the schedule was modified or deleted using the Schedule Manager plug-in to SAS Management Console, then you can encounter a variety of issues. SAS Web Report Studio schedules must be managed from within SAS Web Report Studio. For more information, see SAS Note 39432. Here are some examples of what you might encounter:
  • The schedule or distribution might no longer execute.
  • You might no longer be able to edit the schedule from within SAS Web Report Studio.
  • The Occurrences box in the Scheduled and Distributed Reports dialog box might be blank.

Scheduled Reports Do Not Display Updated Results

For performance reasons, a session cache is active while you are logged in to SAS Web Report Studio. As a result of this caching, if a scheduled report runs and updates results during a session, then you must log off and then log back in to see the refreshed copy of the report. For more information, see SAS Note 39343.

Stored Processes Execute Multiple Times

If a scheduled SAS Web Report Studio report includes a stored process, the stored process is executed at least four times when the report is generated at the scheduled time. This is expected behavior. For more information, see SAS Note 33811.

Additional Documentation

• For links to SAS Web Report Studio documentation, see the SAS Web Report Studio documentation page.
• For a link to the SAS Intelligence Platform: Middle-Tier Administration Guide, see the SAS Intelligence Platform documentation page. Click the tab for your release of SAS. If you are using release 9.4, then click the Administration Documentation link to access the guide.