Using Distributed Mode

The following steps occur when an end user runs a product in distributed analysis mode:

  1. Launch the client application. The end user launches the client software on his or her desktop computer. The client application presents a complete user interface.
  2. Connect to the server. The end user connects to the server software by logging in from the client application. The server framework’s service or daemon is always running, waiting for connection requests. When a connection is made, the server software launches a process to handle the end user.
  3. Access data. The end user accesses data as usual from the client application, except that his or her view of database drivers, data files, directories, and drives represents the remote server computer, not the desktop computer. The server process loads the appropriate data access modules and retrieves the data. A small segment of the data is sent to the client application so that the end user can refer to it when selecting an analysis. Most of the data remain on the server. You can also configure the server software to prevent any data from being sent to the client application. You can use the administration application (IBM® SPSS® Statistics Administration Console, which is installed as part of IBM SPSS Deployment Manager) to prevent the data from being sent to all clients. See the topic Users in the Deployment Manager User's Guide (included in the help for IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services) for more information. You can also configure access for each user or group. See the topic IBM SPSS Statistics Server User Profiles and Groups, in the Deployment Manager User's Guide, for more information.
  4. Analyze the data. Using the client application’s user interface, the end user selects the data and requests the type of analysis he or she wants. The request is sent to the server process, which loads the appropriate data analysis packages and processes the analysis. All data-related tasks, such as reading data, transforming data, computing new variables, and calculating statistics, are done on the server computer.
  5. Review the results. The server software sends the output from the client’s request back to the client application. Only the results are sent, the data remain on the server. The end user can then use the client application to refine and edit the results.