In SAS^® 9.4, the ENCRYPTFIPS SAS option enables SAS encryption services to use FIPS 140‑2–validated algorithms. FIPS mode applies only when using SSL or AES encryption.

However, a SAS/CONNECT spawner might fail to start when FIPS is enabled, even if the underlying operating system (Linux, z/OS, or Windows) is already configured for FIPS compliance.

This issue can occur in two scenarios:

• a SAS Metadata‑configured SAS/CONNECT spawner with FIPS selected in the SAS/CONNECT Server metadata definition
• a Foundation‑configured SAS/CONNECT Spawner started with the -ENCRYPTFIPS parameter

The failure might occur regardless of whether NETENCRYPTALGORITHM is set to SSL, AES, or even SASProprietary.

Notably, no errors are written to the SAS/CONNECT Spawner log when this start-up failure occurs.