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CCSQ Data & Analytics Townhall

Date

Thursday, June 28, 2023, at 1:00 pm ET

Recording

CCSQ Data & Analytics June Townhall - Video 

Agenda

  1. Monthly Satisfaction Survey

  2. SAS Viya Stability Issues

  3. Data Camp Materials

  4. Best Practice - Creating Help Desk Tickets

  5. Data Backup & Recovery

  6. Ambari Decommission

  7. Databricks (DBX) SQL Cluster

  8. Q&A

SAS Stability Issues with Database Connections

  • Issue Description: Several downtimes have occurred in the last two weeks related to database connection issues.

  • Actions Taken:

    • The CCSQ Data & Analytics Team investigated and was able to bring the system back up so users could access/run their reports.
    • Engaged SAS Professional & Technical Services for assistance in resolving the issues.
    • We identified additional issues that were contributing to the access of the Centralized Data Repository (CDR). After further troubleshooting on 6/26, we implemented an upgrade on our Amazon Web Service (AWS) Relational Database Service (RDS) (Unplanned Maintenance Alert) that should improve the stability issues significantly.
  • Future Actions:
    • We continue to modify our system alerts and have after-hours emergency support for SAS.
    • We continue to work to automate our systems to help with the stability issue.
    • We are working on being as proactive as possible in communicating CDR downtimes.
  • Contact us via email (servicecentersos@cms.hhs.gov) or Slack (#help-service-center-sos) to alert us of any issues.

2023 Spring Data Camp Materials

  • The 2023 Spring Data Camp recorded sessions are now available.
  • Individual Sessions recordings and Q&As can be found on the Confluence site.
  • 2023 Spring Data Camp

Best Practice - Creating Help Desk Tickets 

  • Creating a Help Desk Ticket
  • Communication
  • Code Issues
    • Provide entire code with issue.
    • Provide a screenshot of the code issue and error.
    • Complete error logs/error stack trace along with timestamp. 
  • General Best Practices
    • Provide the complete Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket path.
    • Provide the specific workbench and the corresponding name you are having issues.

Upcoming New Rules for Data Backup and Recovery

Reference the recording for a walk through of this information at timestamp 15:20.

Ambari Decommission Update

  • Why are we sunsetting?
    • Greater performance.
    • Cost efficient.
    • Less maintenance.
  • What steps are needed for the decommission?
    • Connect everyone to DBX by Fall 2023 at the latest.
    • Migrate metadata from Hive to Glue during a maintenance weekend.
    • Turn off the lights.


Databricks Notebook SQL Cluster Release

  • What does this mean?
    • Users will be able to connect SAS Viya and other Bring Your Own Analytics (BYOA) tools to a DBX cluster to utilize DBX features instead of Ambari.
  • Who can connect?
    • SAS Viya users
    • BYOA tool users 
      • Three phases of releases
        • SAS Viya users
        • BYOA
        • CASLIBS
  • How can they connect?
    • Through the use of a service principal and token
    • Not Personal Access Token (PAT) right now
  • When will this be released?
    • July 2023
What is coming next? 
  • Notebook SQL cluster is coming soon.
  • Ambari Decommission.
  • SQL Warehouse is coming in the next few months.
    • Need to be fully off Ambari. 
  • Databricks educational opportunities.
  • Feature Enhancements.
    • Personal Compute (by request only).
Support
  • Email servicecentersos@cms.hhs.gov or use the help-service-center-sos slack channel for any issues.
  • Open a request for Auto machine learning (ML) access, new features, or any training requests.

Reference the recording for a demo of the application

Q&A

June 2023 Townhall Q&A (pdf)
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