How to set SAS CPUCOUNT

To increase the number of CPUs available to SAS for processing, you can simply include an OPTIONS statement in your SAS code.

options cpucount=actual;

It would be common to put that near the top of your command file along with other global statements like LIBNAME or FILENAME.

See the SAS documentation for more details and options.

Maximizing Processing Power

More Power

The easiest way to use more computing power for your SAS work is to change computing platforms.

Maximum CPU Requests

Platform Operating System default max
Winstat Windows 2 4
Lab computers Windows 4 12
Winstat for Big Jobs Windows 12 24
Linstat Linux 36 36-48
Slurm Linux 36 36-128

Only some SAS procedures can take advantage of multiple CPUs to speed up their work. If you are using

  • proc means or proc sort with large data sets,
  • proc glm or proc mixed with many variables,
  • or any of the hp procs (see the SAS documentation)

on Winstat or a lab computer, and your procedure takes more than a minute to run, this could be a good task for multiple CPUs.

Moving to Winstat-for-Big-Jobs enables your SAS job to use 12 CPUs, while moving to Linstat enables your SAS job to use 36 CPUs. All you need to do is move your work to a different platform!

CPUCOUNT and Slurm

The default SAS CPUCOUNT is 36 cores in Slurm (just like Linstat).

Jobs submitted to Slurm can use up to 128 cores. (See the Slurm cluster specifications for more details.)

To use more than 36 cores for a SAS job submitted to Slurm, we need to harmonize two settings:

  • the number of cores requested of Slurm (the default is just 1!)
  • the number of CPUs (cores) requested for SAS

SAS will use the minimum of the Slurm cores request and the SAS CPUCOUNT setting.

Slurm cores

Omitting this options means SAS will be limited to one (1) core!

To specify that Slurm make more cores available, your ssubmit command will look like

ssubmit --cores=N "sas myjob.sas"

where N is any number of cores up through 128. In this case, SAS will use either N or 36 cores, whichever is less.

SAS cpus

To enable SAS to use more than 36 CPUs, you need to specify the CPUCOUNT option, either within your SAS program, or as a command line option.

  • In the SAS command line use

    ssubmit --cores=64 "sas -cpucount actual myjob.sas"

  • Or within a SAS program

    In your SAS program include an options statement

    options cpucount=actual;

proc glm data=bigdata;
  class nation;
  model freedom = nation gdp politics year;
  run;

    Then your Slurm request simplifies to

    ssubmit --cores=64 "sas myjob.sas"

Last Revised: 09/09/2024