SAS Upgrade 9.4 M2 to 9.4 M6 from One Linux Physical Server to Linux VM

[mailkaushikp]

Please suggest whats steps are required to upgrade sas 9.4 M2 to 9.4 M6 from One Linux Physical Server to Linux VM

Please explain in very simple steps.

Also please suggest how the license key will be applied during upgrade; can we use same key on two different machines ?

[SASKiwi]

I suggest you explore the SAS Migration / Upgrade Focus Area: https://support.sas.com/rnd/migration/utility/upgrade.html If this doesn't answer all of your questions then please post back here.

Is there any particular reason for not moving to the latest release M7? 

Since you are not doing an upgrade in-place, you will need to migrate your SAS content to the new server as well.

Whether you need a new licence or not will depend on whether your current licence contains a CPU ID or not. Check with your SAS account manager to be sure.

[AnandVyas]

Hi @mailkaushikp 

My two cents below:

• You will need to request SAS Software depot for 9.4 M6 for the site from SAS account manager or representative
• Software Order E-Mail (SOE) should also contain your new license file and instructions to download the depot
• Upgrade options:
  • SAS Migration Utility (SMU)
    • Run pre-assessment on your current environment and create content packages
    • On the new VM, perform the pre-installation checks
    • Run the SDW, Install/configure and use the packages created earlier during configuration
    • Reference: Copying an Existing SAS 9.4 Deployment 
      Notice to SAS Migration Utility Users 
  • Partial Promotion
    • On the new VM, perform the pre-installation checks
    • Install the new software version of VM and using SAS export/import utilities promote your content from older environment to new one
    • Reference: Introduction to the Promotion Tools 
  • Cloning
    • If your site has software that can clone your entire system i.e. everything on OS and application software, data then you can clone the existing system
    • Perform upgrade in place for the cloned instance
    • Reference: How the SAS Deployment Wizard Adds, Updates, and Upgrades Software 
    • NOTE: Just copying of files is not supported, it should be a proper clone. Usually NOT recommended if IT teams doesn't support it fully
  • Check out the migration guide for more detailed steps and understand the process better
    Migration Guide 
  • Agree with @SASKiwi that you should upgrade to M7 instead of M6. It was released in Aug 2020
  • For your old environment if you wish to continue using it alongside the new one, you should speak to your account executive on the terms and conditions and financial impacts
    • If you are going to decommission the old environment, I don't think there should be any impact on license

Hope this helps!

[JuanS_OCS]

Hi @mailkaushikp ,

keeping the good advise from @SASKiwi and @AnandVyas close to our hearts, you will probably see there are several options, and considerations, to keep in mind. Not only that! As @MargaretC luckily has shared today, you might want to check out the differences between SAS in a physical host vs SAS in a virtualised environment. 

https://communities.sas.com/t5/Architecture/What-you-need-to-know-to-prepare-virtualized-i-e-VMware/...

I will explain to you how this works in few words:

There is no explanation with few words 🙂

Depending on your SAS solution, the integrations and the capabilities at your company, a professional should select first the method for this migration + upgrade and the right order. And this is not always very easy (almost never is), as there will be an aspect that will always "suffer" in the process, and you will need a balance.

I would highly recommend you to get onboard SAS and infrastructure architecture knowledge. Once the specific path and high level overview is chosen, the steps (details) can be defined. 

I can only say that I am sorry, I am aware this is not the answer you were looking for, but it is my most humble and honest answer.