Install both 9.4 M5 and M8 Management console on same client device

[drhorg]

I installed on my device 9.4 M5 first, then when run the install for 9.4 M8 the Management console was updated to this version. But I have various environments both in M5 and M8. When connecting with M8 on client to the M5 on server, pops out that this version is unsupported. Can I use this? 

or if not, how can I install the M5 now to the same device? or have to uninstall everything and start from M5? what are the steps. 

Many thanks for your help.

[JosvanderVelden]

The client machine is windows 10 workstation?
If yes, there might be a way to do it (no guarantees) by doing only client side component installation of sas management console specifying "-changesashome -nosasupdate " when you run the setup from the M5depot.

[EyalGonen]

I am not sure this is officially supported on Windows as explained here: https://support.sas.com/documentation/installcenter/en/ikdeploywizug/66034/PDF/default/user.pdf on page 21:

Note: Windows only allows one active SASHOME. If an already defined SASHOME contains active SAS
software and you want that SAS software to remain active, then -changesashome should not be
used. More than one SASHOME for the same SAS release is not supported on Windows.

Not sure if 9.4M5 and 9.4M8 qualify as "same SAS release" or not.. Nevertheless, to mention I have used this option before for exactly such cases and it works fine

[drhorg]

Hi @EyalGonen , thank you for your reply. 

I already replied below to @JosvanderVelden 

If any other suggestions please let me know.

Many thanks

[drhorg]

OK, issue is I need to support both. However, my PROD servers are M5 and DEVs are M8, therefore I need M5 fully supported. If so, is  a better way to:

1. uninstall everything,

2. then install M5 client all  (console, EG, etc...) , to make it work with my PROD servers without issues.

3. Only then install M8 only console and EG (this is what I basically need) to work with DEV by using  "-changesashome -nosasupdate " as you suggest.

is this OK or still no? 

Many thanks for your help!

[SASKiwi]

I use SMC 9.4M6 with SAS server versions 9.4M2, M6 and M7 and have never run into any compatibility issues over several years. Sure you get the warning message about using an incompatible version every time you connect to a SAS server, but everything still seems to work. Have you run into any issues using a different version SMC?

[JosvanderVelden]

Since you say you need M5 for production the solution you indicate seems a valid option. Although I would follow an approach with some additional steps.
However SAS Technical Support will not provide assistance when you report issues. The reason is that both M5 and M8 installations will place a lot of items in the windows registry that may cause issues which are difficult to debug/track.
Therefore the option indicated by @PaulHomes to use a virtual machine is the preferred option. If you want to proceed with your proposed reinstallation steps and want advice you can contact me via academic@por.sas.com.

[PaulHomes]

As @SASKiwi mentioned I have seen many SAS customers use mismatched server/client maintenance releases. They usually click through the warning and, as far as I am aware, have not run into any issues. I personally don't like doing it and prefer to ensure they are matched.

There are a few ways I have used to achieve this in the past:

1) The SAS servers will have the matching SAS Management Console versions installed on them so you could use remote access (RDP for Windows servers and X11 for Linux Servers e.g. MobaXterm) and not bother installing SAS MC on the workstation at all. I have seen several SAS customers use this approach too.

2) It's a heavyweight approach but you could use Virtual Machines (local or remote) and have a different VM (or snapshots) with the SAS clients for each maintenance release you have to support.

3) A hacky method I have used in the past when testing on different versions of SAS MC was, before installing a new maintenance level, make a copy of the SASManagementConsole directory (e.g. SASManagementConsole94M5) then edit the config files and shortcuts to refer to this new copy and then install the latest maintenance allowing it to overwrite the original directory. sasmc.ini will need changes and it also refers to sassw.config so you will need a copy of that too. You may need a copy of the VJR too if the old version jars are no longer present. I don't use this method any more and so am not sure how it would go with the larger changes in M8 with Java 11.

Since #3 would not be a supported method anyway, I would recommend #2 if you want to run them side by side on a workstation or #1 for the least amount of effort - bearing in mind SAS MC via X11 over SSH is not always the nicest/fastest of interfaces.

I hope this helps.

Cheers
Paul

[PaulHomes]

I realized you can also use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) as an alternative to using MobaXterm if you want to run SAS Management Console directly on a Linux server with the windows appearing locally on a Windows workstation.  This is one of the ways you can use different maintenance levels of SAS Management Console from a single client. I wanted to try it out for myself first and wrote up a blog post about it in case it is of interest: https://platformadmin.com/blogs/paul/2023/08/remote-sas-management-console-using-wsl2/