Importing large XLSX files into SAS® Visual Analytics might fail with a server error


When you attempt to import large XLSX files in SAS Visual Analytics, you might see the following error:

The request could not be completed successfully due to a server error.

The request could not be completed successfully due to a server error.

In most cases, the error message and the log do not include any additional information.

The problem can occur when the SAS® Web Application Server runs out of memory due to the size of the file. For example, you might see this error if your file includes around 1 million rows. The error can occur even if the file does not exceed the SAS Visual Analytics limit on file size. As a workaround, follow these steps for your operating system:

Windows

  1. On the middle tier, open the following file in a plain text editor: Config/Lev<N>/Web/WebAppServer/SASServer<N>/conf/wrapper.conf,
  2. Locate the wrapper.java.additional property for -Xmx. For example:
    wrapper.java.additional.7=-Xmx2048m
  3. Change the current value to a higher value. For example, you might change 2048 to 4096 or 8192.
  4. Restart the SAS Web Application Server.
  5. Attempt to import the XLSX file again.

Linux

  1. On the middle tier, open the following file in a plain text editor: Config/Lev/Web/WebAppServer/SASServer/bin/setenv.sh,
  2. Locate the JVM_OPTS property, which has many options. One of the options is -Xmx.
  3. Change the current value of -Xmx to a higher value. For example, you might change 2048 to 4096 or 8192.
  4. Restart the SAS Web Application Server.
  5. Attempt to import the XLSX file again.