SAS Grid - several operating systems

[Flo_And]

Hi,

I have an simple question. Is it possible to set up a SAS Grid with several operating systems?

A real Grid from literature don't need the same operating system about all nodes. So can I build for example a Grid architecture with a Windows Server and a Linux Server?

Sorry for my bad english skills and thank you for your help.

[SASKiwi · Accepted solution]

Yes it is possible as SAS supports both Windows Server and linux operating systems. This FAQ confirms it:

http://support.sas.com/rnd/scalability/grid/SAS_Grid_FAQ_External_31JUL2007.pdf

There are some restrictions with this as mentioned in the above link. For example DI Studio and Enterprise Miner can't be used with mixed OSs. You would need to consult with SAS to confirm if this is possible with your SAS product requirements.

However I doubt very much that SAS would recommend such an approach. A SAS grid environment is already complex, so why make it harder for yourself by using two operating systems? This link shows Windows and linux OS's with separate install instructions:

http://support.sas.com/rnd/scalability/grid/gridinstall.html

At the very least you would have to deal with two sets of installation and configuration instructions.

[Flo_And]

It was just a hypothetic scenario. I want to verify if SAS Grid is a real Grid.

In our environment, we want to use 4 Linux server.

[nhvdwalt]

Another consideration is your shared file system. Can your file system live across different OSs ? Some file systems might require that all nodes are 100% identical.