Replicate/Migrate SAS 9.4 Platform in a VM to GCP

[alko13]

Planning to Migrate/Replicate an existing SAS 9.4 M3 on a VM into Google Cloud.

We initially plan for a lift and shift approach. No separate SAS installation and  migrate of contents in GCP. Only clone the vm instance to GCP.

Does SAS has a guide for this migration/cloning into GCP?

[SASKiwi]

Have you got expert advice whether this is even possible and supported? Even when your architecture and platform remains exactly the same, the expert advice I have always received is to install from scratch then migrate content afterwards. If you haven't got expert advice yet, I highly recommend you get it. There won't be any guides for unsupported migration approaches.

It's also worth remembering that SAS 9.4M3 goes into limited support in 18 months. My advice would be to do a new install of SAS 9.4M8 on cloud as then you will have five years of full support. There is always a lot of work involved in any software migration and I can't see the point of having a cloud platform with only 18 months of full support remaining.  

[MargaretC]

Please note that SAS does not support a "lift and shift" of a SAS installation from on-premises to a public cloud.  We recommend that you do a new install of SAS on the public cloud instance, especially if you are using an instance that already has the operating system installed on it.  

Now for the question about what shared file system to use.  Please refer to this web site for a list of shared file systems in the public cloud that we have tested with SAS Grid.62239 - SAS® on the public cloud tuning guidelines 

[edasri]

We are planning to migrate from on-premises SAS Grid 9.4 M5 to GCP. Our exploration involves finding the appropriate shared file system on GCP for this migration (for around 100TB of data), taking into account factors such as I/O, throughput, high availability, and disaster recovery.

alko13, assuming your migration is in progress/completed, could you please let me know what Shared File System you are using on GCP for SAS Grid GCP VMs. 

Another related question: Did your team initially use SAS 9.4 M3 on GCP or directly employ SAS 9.4 M8?

[SASKiwi]

@edasri  - Choosing appropriate file system storage is usually done as part of the design phase for your GCP. Have you engaged with SAS to get expert advice from people like @MargaretC for example? SAS also provide a free sizing service to ensure that your new SAS platform is sized correctly.  Your SAS account manager can help with this.

[edasri]

@SASKiwi Thank you for sharing the information. Currently, we are in search of the most suitable shared file system for use on GCP, considering options such as Lustre, FileStore, NetApp, Spectrum Scale, etc. Our plan is to determine the sizing internally, and if necessary, we will engage the SAS team, including @MargaretC .

If you/anyone has experience migrating SAS 9.4 to GCP, we would greatly appreciate any insights into the file systems they utilized.

[edasri]

@SASKiwi 

Thank you for this information. Currently, we are in search of the most suitable shared file system for use on GCP, considering options such as Lustre, FileStore, NetApp, Spectrum Scale, etc. Our plan is to determine the sizing internally. Later, if needed, we will engage the SAS team. If you/anyone has experience migrating SAS 9.4 to GCP, we would greatly appreciate any insights into the file systems they utilized.

[SASKiwi]

@edasri - Unfortunately I can't offer any advice regarding cloud deployments as while we are in the midst of an upgrade, we are staying on-prem as going cloud wasn't a viable option for us. Do check out the link @MargaretC provided as it contains a heap of useful advice. And yes, we used SAS's sizing service and it proved to be very useful.

[edasri]

@SASKiwiThank you once again for providing these details. I will go through the heap details provided. I will share an update after finalizing our approach for GCP on our end.

[Patrick]

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@edasri wrote:

@SASKiwi 

Thank you for this information. Currently, we are in search of the most suitable shared file system for use on GCP, considering options such as Lustre, FileStore, NetApp, Spectrum Scale, etc. Our plan is to determine the sizing internally. Later, if needed, we will engage the SAS team. If you/anyone has experience migrating SAS 9.4 to GCP, we would greatly appreciate any insights into the file systems they utilized.

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I'd recommend to get SAS involved at an early stage in the process as else you risk to miss things.

From one of the links under the one already shared:

[edasri]

@Patrick  Thank you for this information.