Best Practices for Upgrading to the Latest Version of SAS®9? Q&A, Slides, and On-Demand Recording
Watch this Ask the Expert session on best practices for upgrading to the latest version of SAS®9.
Join Brian Kinnebrew as he discusses the best practices for upgrading to the latest version of SAS®9 (SAS 9.4 M7) and why it’s important to upgrade this year. Watch this webinar to learn about:
- Removal of Adobe Flash and why it’s important.
- The upgrade in place process.
- How to use the System Evaluation Tool to ensure a smooth upgrade.
- New, beneficial features in M7.
The questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the webinar are listed below and the slides from the webinar are attached.
I upgraded to SAS 9.4M6, should I upgrade to M7?
Yes, because you will want to resolve your Adobe Flash dependencies and M7 brings enhancements that are not currently in M6.
Is the upgrade to 9.4M7 an upgrade to Viya? What if the license is for Base and Stat?
Upgrade in Place allows for the upgrade from one Maintenance release to another within a Major platform release (from 9.4M6 to 9.4M7 for example). Upgrade in Place is not available for a SAS 9.4 to Viya modernization.
Do you have a list of SAS components that use Flash?
See Modernizing Your SAS® UIs: Removing Dependencies on Adobe Flash for a technical paper that lists SAS products that had Flash dependencies.
Which products will no longer work? Is SAS/FSP one of those?
FSP has no Flash Dependency. See Modernizing Your SAS® UIs: Removing Dependencies on Adobe Flash for a technical paper that lists SAS products that had Flash dependencies.
Do any options involve an increase in cost?
Upgrading SAS products on the SAS 9 platform have no additional costs. A decision to modernize to Viya will affect the SAS Platform for which you are licensed and possibly the product set and as such, fees will likely be changed.
Will Support be working over Christmas?
Yes. See https://support.sas.com/en/technical-support/services-policies.html.
If browser updates are frozen, will that allow flash to work into the future?
Possibly, see the section titled Options for Continued Use of Adobe Flash available in this article.
Are there tools and/or best practices for estimating time for the install during an upgrade in place based on the number of tiers and which products are in the SAS environment?
Because the process is very dependent on your environment, there is not a tool to estimate the time it may take to execute.
I would appreciate a follow-up about estimating outage time for my environment.
This is case by case. It depends on the complexity of the products installed and the configuration. Your account rep can help you investigate your down time.
Is there a way to identify if your current SAS installation has flash dependencies? We may not be able to upgrade to from M5 to M7 until February or March 2021.
Your account rep can help you identify if you have any impacted products. You can also visit https://support.sas.com/en/technical-support/services-policies/sas-software-and-its-use-with-Adobe-F... for details on the SAS products that have Adobe Flash dependencies.
Can you upgrade to M7 directly from M5, or do you need to upgrade in place to M6 first?
Yes, you can upgrade in place from M5 to M7.
Having several installations (M6), is it possible to upgrade each sequentially?
Each SAS installation must be upgraded or migrated independently.
What about 9.4M6 and FLASH. I don't think we currently use FLASH. Will I run into problems?
If the products you are using have no Adobe Flash dependencies, then you will not run into problems. Please visit https://support.sas.com/en/technical-support/services-policies/sas-software-and-its-use-with-Adobe-F... for details on the SAS products that have Adobe Flash dependencies.
How long is the down time?
This is case by case. It depends on the complexity of the products installed and the configuration. Your account rep can help you investigate your down time.
For in place upgrade, if the upgrade fails can you return back to original install or do you have to go to backup copy?
In the event of an upgrade in place failure, the recovery action is to restore from backup.
Does the assessment work on AIX?
Content Assessment is not supported on AIX.
Any issues with internal PostGres SQL engine during upgrade that we need to watch out for?
The SAS System Evaluation tool available from the SAS Content Assessment download provides a check for issues with PostGres SQL that are known to have caused issues with SAS Upgrade in Place experiences in the past.
What will happen with our environment if we don’t upgrade M6 to SAS 9.4 M7?
If you have Adobe Flash dependent products, they will no longer work as of January 1, 2021.
Does M7 works on Windows Server 2008?
Yes, it does. Note however the End of Live for Microsoft Server 2008 occurred in the beginning of 2020 and as such, support for that environment is limited.
What are the steps to be taken before we upgrade to M7?
See the SAS® 9.4 Guide to Software Updates and Product Changes for a complete discussion on this topic. That guide is available at https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.5&docsetId=whatsdiff&docsetTarget...
We basically just license base, stat, graph, access to ole db, but the install we have done shows other products that may be affected by Adobe Flash. Are we going to have to upgrade all our users?
If your SAS installation includes a product with Adobe Flash dependencies, the entire environment will have to be upgraded or migrated to a release without dependencies.
We have SAS EG, Studio, SAS Stored Process will we be in trouble not to upgrade to M7 by end of the year?
This set of products has no Flash dependencies.
We have M4 if we don't have flash dependent products will we have any problems by not upgrade to M7 by end of year?
You should not have any problems if the products you are using do not have any Adobe Flash dependencies.
What if I am running SAS 9.4 M6 now? Do I have to update because of Flash?
Not necessarily, with a few product exceptions, the use of Flash was eliminated in SAS 9.4M6. There are however artifacts (.swf files) that remain in the SAS Platform at SAS 9.4M6 that could not be removed until ALL Flash dependencies were eliminated. Those artifacts were removed with SAS 9.4M7.
We have M7 on our PCs and M6 on our server and are running into a weird remote submit error. Could there be a conflict between versions?
It certainly could be. SAS is not tested or verified to work in environments where the SAS Server and Clients are running different versions.
To do a SAS install, I have to choose 'run as administrator'. Since I need to update our entire team's PC SAS, it would be faster to run it in quiet mode on each machine. Is there a way to specify admin mode in quiet mode/command line?
This question can best be handled by contacting SAS Technical Support.
Can you please provide a list of flash impacted products?
See Modernizing Your SAS® UIs: Removing Dependencies on Adobe Flash for a technical paper that lists SAS products that had Flash dependencies.
Is it possible to migrate from Windows to Linux using the migrate process?
The SAS Migration Utility does NOT support the ability to change from one operating system to another.
Is there a process to migrate manually from Windows to Linux if there is no utility to do the migration?
Yes, you can install a new SAS environment and then use the SAS Promotion tools (SAS Export and Import utilities) to promote metadata from one SAS environment to another.
Is there a method to estimate down time using upgrade in place?
Because the process is very dependent on your environment, there is not a tool to estimate the time it may take to execute. Your Account Executive can help you investigate your down time.
My organization found an issue with M6 and submitted an issue to SAS. There is now a hot fix available for download. When we move to M7, do we still need to download this hot fix?
Starting in SAS 9.4M7, many hot fixes are included with your order. (In previous releases, only a subset of hot fixes were included.) See a discussion on this topic in the SAS® 9.4 Guide to Software Updates and Product Changes, in the section titled Applying Hot Fixes available at https://go.documentation.sas.com/api/collections/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/docsets/whatsdiff/content/whatsdi....
Does the VIEWTABLE command depend on Adobe Flash?
Adobe Flash is used to provide interactive user interfaces, as such a specific command or feature like VIEWTABLE, unless implemented in an interactive user interface, will not have an Adobe Flash dependency.
Can we avoid downtime with an upgrade in place?
No, you will still have down time with an upgrade in place. When we’re changing the bits and bytes, the system will be unavailable.
If we chose to go with upgrade in place, will it overwrite the existing binaries? And is this all done Via Deployment manager?
SAS Upgrade in Place DOES NOT overwrite the existing SASHOME, rather it installs the new release of SAS I SASHOME under folders that are versioned for SAS products. In prior releases of this tool, this method caused the size of SASHOME to grow. With SAS 9.4M7, the Upgrade in Place tool is enhanced with the option to remove prior releases of SAS from SAS Home. The Upgrade in Place is executed from the SAS Deployment Manager.
See the SAS® 9.4 Guide to Software Updates and Product Changes for a complete discussion on this topic. That guide is available at https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.5&docsetId=whatsdiff&docsetTarget...
SAS 9.4 M6 UIP failed in Mid-Tier config on SDM Stage 8. Update Config, 1. SAS Web Infrastructure Platform, with Object Type 50 - Proxy Error, caused by expired .jks from another directory. not from original location, which was not found in the SAS Content Assessment / System Evaluation.
This question can best be handled by our Technical Support Team.
Does SAS FM5.3 version dependent on Flash?
SAS Financial Management 5.3 on SAS 9.3 does contain Flash dependencies and SAS recommends upgrading to SAS Financial Management 5.6 on SAS 9.4M6 or later. Note that this is a very old release of the solution and SAS Platform and an upgrade or migration to newer releases is absolutely recommended; there are however options to use SAS Financial Management 5.3 without Adobe Flash that requires that workarounds be accepted, contact your SAS account team for additional information.
Can you directly upgrade from 9.2 to 9.4(M7)?
No. Upgrade in place will only work for upgrades within a major release on the platform, for example, 9.4 M2 to 9.4 M7. A migration is required to move from 9.2 to 9.4.
What if we never upgrade or missed the opportunity to upgrade at this time? (currently using 9.4 M3)... Will the existing forecast reports run?
If the user interface of the product that you are running is Adobe Flash-dependent, then once Adobe Flash is end of life at the end of the year and your browser no longer supports the Flash player, then the user interface in the SAS product will no longer be available. The code will continue to run, but the SAS user interface will not be available.
I use SAS Base and SAS/STAT only on a PC with Win 10. Is all this required for PC-SAS?
Those products have no Flash dependencies.
Since the system eval tool is not available for UNIX, do you have a corresponding checklist that UNIX admins can step through to reach the same result?
There is not, however, consult with SAS Technical Support Team for guidance.
In my project, we are using 9.4 M1 and no midtier. Which is the best approach SMU OR UIP? And RHEL 6 is compatible for 9.4M7?
One method of moving to an updated release of SAS is no better than another, rather they are options for achieving the same end goal. RHEL 6 is supported in 9.4M7 however Red Hat has announced the end of support for RHEL 6 as of November 2020.
Will programs written in previous versions still work in M7?
Yes, they will still work.
Can you please tell us a bit about Viya? I am a user not a techie!
Please visit sas.com/viya to learn more about our latest release and its capabilities.
Is there a specific validation tool for UIP?
There is no specific validation tool for UIP.
To use upgrade in place, do we have to migrate to 9.4 M7 or is this already available in M6?
You can use the upgrade in place to migrate from 9.4 M6 to M7.
Please provide the link to the upgrade in place documentation.
The SAS® 9.4 Guide to Software Updates and Product Changes is available at https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.5&docsetId=whatsdiff&docsetTarget...
What are the new features of the new M7 version for users and for SAS administrators?
See the What’s New in Base SAS® 9.4 and SAS® Viya for a complete discussion on this topic. This publication is available at https://go.documentation.sas.com/api/docsets/basewn/9.4/content/basewn.pdf.
Recommended Resources
System Evaluation Tool Helps with SAS® 9.4 Upgrade-in-Place Planning
SAS® Software and its Use of the Adobe Flash Player
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