Printing a SAS® Visual Analytics report to PDF fails with the error "Fonts currently Unavailable"


SAS Visual Analytics might fail to print, and the following error appears in the browser:

Visual Analytics printing 503 error encountered fonts currently unavailable

 

If you see this error, look in the Report Renderer service log that contains start-up information. Look for a message that is similar to the following:

[FAILED_WRKNG_DIR_CREATE] Failed to create the needed working directory null/workingdir. 

 

If you see this message, then the Report Renderer service might be having trouble locating some directories because of how symbolic links are defined on the system. In this case, it is necessary to set a couple of properties. To set the properties, you can follow these steps:

  1. Log on to SAS® Environment Manager as an Administrator.

  2. Navigate to Configuration ► All Services ► Report Renderer Service.

  3. Edit the sas.reportrenderer.system configuration instance.

  4. The workingDirectory property is predefined and can be adjusted here. Change the value to the following:
    /opt/sas/viya/config/tmp/sas-report-renderer/workingdir

  5. Add a new property called fontsDirectory by clicking the Add Property link under Supplemental Properties.  Add a property called fontsDirectory with the following value:
    /opt/sas/viya/config/tmp/sas-report-renderer/fonts/ 

    Note: Make sure that you include the trailing slash in the path. If you do not include it, the PDF might be blank because the fonts cannot be found. 

  6. Restart the Report Renderer service.

  7. Log on to SAS Visual Analytics, and print to verify that the change resolved the issue.

    Tip: If the problem is not resolved, and the sas-report-renderer.log contains errors that one or both paths are invalid or do not exist, then ensure that there are no leading spaces in either of the paths.