.Net Framework compatibility

[Nigel_Pain]

Hopefully a straightforward question, but one I can't find an answer to in the support pages. Is SAS 9.4M7 compatible with all versions of Dot Net which are in support? Just discovered that our mid-tier server is running Dot Net 4.5.2 which is out of support since April. The other servers (metadata, compute, LASR) are at 4.8.

[SASKiwi]

That's interesting. I checked our (Windows) SAS servers and .Net isn't installed at all. The only .Net SAS App I'm aware of is EG and .Net is only going to run on Windows platforms anyway. My suspicion is you don't need it, but you might want to check with Tech Support.

[Nigel_Pain]

I'd be very surprised if that was the case. The Dot Net Framework is built in to Windows these days, but doesn't appear as an installed program. I think if you checked the registry here HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full you'd find entries indicating the version which is installed. This page tells you how to determine the actual version:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/migration-guide/how-to-determine-which-versions-a... 

Nearly all Windows software is built on Dot Net, so I can't imagine that SAS for Windows wasn't. Not including the Java bits, of course. But I would expect Java for Windows itself was built on Dot Net.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Since the SAS server components are also available on completely .NET-free platforms, I do not think that they make use of it anywhere, at least in a direct fashion. If Windows itself needs .NET to work at all, that's a different question.

[Nigel_Pain]

I would imagine that software developed on any platform will make use of native libraries. My thoughts were that in Windows these would be based on the .Net Framework because in effect the whole of Windows is. But, I'm not a software developer so I can't really comment authoritatively. 

[michele_sas]

Hi @Nigel_Pain 

To see if the SAS 9.4M7 software you have installed has a requirement for .NET the best place to check will be the system requirements documentation. Search | SAS Support

It's possible that the .NET installed on the Windows server that is your SAS Middle Tier is for something other than your SAS software, for example .NET is required for Windows PowerShell. 

The .NET 4.8 on your Windows servers for metadata, compute, LASR would come from the requirement for SAS Foundation on Windows. You can find this note in the Software Requirements section of System Requirements--SAS 9.4 Foundation for Microsoft Windows for x64 "SAS software requires the Microsoft .NET Framework, which SAS provides as a convenience. SAS obtains the latest version of .NET as a system redistributable from Microsoft when preparing SAS software for release."  Some SAS clients also require .NET, for example SAS Enterprise Guide. 

You can look at the <SAS software depot>\install_doc\<order>\ordersummary.html to see what .NET version was provided in your 9.4M7 order and that will be a .NET 4.8. 

If you still have questions, I recommend opening a track with SAS Technical Support.

[Nigel_Pain]

Thanks @michele_sas

We upgraded from M5 to M7 a couple of years ago. I see from our order summary that .Net 4.8 was supplied with M7, and I think it would have been .Net 4.6 with M5. That would explain why the other three servers have 4.8 installed (I don't remember that bit in the upgrade but, as I say, it was two years ago and I had someone from SAS UK doing it with me). I don't quite understand why it didn't install for the mid-tier server though - maybe just wasn't a requirement for the mid-tier software, which doesn't include SAS Foundation? 

I have already raised a track with TS just to confirm.

[Nigel_Pain · Accepted solution]

The reply from TS is that the mid-tier components are all Java-based and, as such, aren't reliant upon the .Net Framework so I think we'll be safe to upgrade to .Net 4.8. Thanks to all for their contributions, especially @michele_sas.