SAS 9.4M6 with Oracle 12c and 19c

[titan31]

Hi,

Company are upgrading database from oracle 12c to 19c so I need to test on SAS. We're using redhat. 

We don't have a test environment, so need to work off the production environment. Is it possible to install Oracle 19c for tests and still have 12c working as normal. Idea would be we'd have odbc connection to a 19c DB and the rest are as normal on 12c version. 

Is there anything I'd need to take into account so instantclient or odbc drivers aren't clashing?

Regards,

Craig

[JuanS_OCS · Accepted solution]

Hello @titan31 , Craig,

as long as you have license in SAS for SAS/ACCESS interface for ODBC and for Oracle, you can install in the same server both underlying drivers and both should work.Yes.

Please note a few considerations:

- code and library definitions that where working for the current DB connections will not work for the new ones, as the engine is different. New definitions will be needed and possible code to be adapted or re-deployed. Also, not all functions will work the same, as the bulk-load, in ODBC, some might not been even available.

- See below. You should be able to use as well the native Oracle drivers and SAS/ACCESS license for the new Oracle version, however not together with the old drivers, as the libraries are shared/linked. Nonetheless, with new drivers you should be able to connect to older version of databases.

https://support.sas.com/documentation/installcenter/en/ikfdtnlaxsr/66396/PDF/default/sreq.pdf

Notes: Some additional configuration might be required to use the Oracle 12c, 18c, or later client. See the
Configuration Guide for SAS 9.4 Foundation for UNIX Environments for more information.

https://support.sas.com/documentation/installcenter/en/ikfdtnunxcg/66380/PDF/default/config.pdf

For example, if you
install Oracle Client 18c (which uses libclntsh.so.18.1), you must verify that there is a symbolic
link from libclntsh.so.11.1 to libclntsh.so.18.1 if you selected the 11g client option in the SAS
Deployment Wizard, or a symbolic link from libclntsh.so.12.1 to libclntsh.so.18.1 if you selected
the 12c client option in the SAS Deployment Wizard. The same steps might be required for the
19c client (which uses libclntsh.so.19.1) or later clients if the symbolic links are missing

- In any case, you you have a test SAS environment, I would say this would be the best place to test those new databases and the approach you will take, either ODBC or native Oracle drivers in the new version, or a mix of both if your SAS environment is licensed for both.

I hope it helps.

Best regards,

Juan