SAS 9.4 Migration

[qoit]

Hi All,

The organisation I work for are planning on moving our SAS 9.4 software onto a new better hardware (Infrastructure). Currently we have three servers (the metada server, middle tier, and application server) sitting as 3 VMs on the existing hardware.

Questions:

- Would we require SAS's help to install the software onto the new hardware?

- Would both the machines (old and new) run in parallel so that the end-users (clients running EG code) face no disruptions?

- Would we need to install and configure a new instance of the SAS software?

- Can anyone recommend what the best practices from past similar experiences?

Note that this is just a software migration to newer infrastructure and no change to the SAS licencing agreement (based on number of cores).

Thanks!

[SASKiwi]

Will there be a change or upgrade in operating system on your new SAS servers?

Will you be upgrading your SAS software as part of the migration (a newer maintenance release counts as an upgrade)?

Are there any SAS architectural changes planned for your new servers?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions then you will need to install SAS again from scratch. In fact it is best practice to do this on new hardware even if you are essentially cloning your old servers.    

[qoit]

Hi @SASKiwi,

Currently we do have an older version Windows OS running on the servers so yes, we will be upgrading it to the latest OS version. No release upgrade and no architecture changes.

Would this mean we will have to get SAS involved? Is there also any reading/literature you can share for better knowledge on such subject?

Thanks!

[SASKiwi · Accepted solution]

@qoit  - What is your SAS version? If it isn't 9.4 M7 then getting maintenance up-to-date is highly recommended.

IMHO, these days SAS server installs are best left to SAS install specialists. If you don't have such experience in-house then you are best to consult with SAS itself or with third-party SAS install specialists. If SAS did your earlier installs then it is a no brainer to use them again as they will have all the old design docs.

To give you some idea a fairly simple SAS server infrastructure design doc will easily be over 100 pages long. 

[qoit]

@SASKiwi , it is M2 so I am assuming getting the latest version will require SAS's assistance.

[SASKiwi]

@qoit  - M2 is pretty old, around six years. It is the same version we are on 😀. Upgrading to the latest M7 is a no brainer as there are a lot of improvements and new functionality. You will need to request a new software order from SAS which you then use to download as a new SAS Software Depot.

If you want to know more about upgrades and migration explore this link: Migration