Specify Remote Communication option in Deployment Wizard

[anandas]

Hello

I am in the process of performing an upgrade-in-place for SAS Visual Analytics. My SAS deployment is a multi-machine deployment. It is spread across four servers. Before the upgrade, it was recommended by SAS Tech Support to perform the steps manually mentioned in this link which I promptly did and was successful - https://sas.service-now.com/csm?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0036368

I click SAS Deployment Wizard to start the actual upgrade and get to the window below. I am not sure which option to pick in this window.

In the drop down menu "Specify how to secure the remote connection" option, there are three options;

1. Do not secure the connection
2. Generate credentials to secure the connection
3. Specify existing credentials to secure the connection

I am not sure which option to pick. The reason for my doubt is, because I updated SAS Deployment Agent manually and followed the steps for a multi-machine deployment from the link mentioned in the top, I am not sure which option to pick in the SAS Deployment wizard window during the actual upgrade. This window comes once I click "setup" to initiate the actual deployment. 

Does anyone know which is the correct option to pick from Deployment Wizard especially in light of the fact that I already manually generated and synchronized SAS Deployment Agent security credentials? Since I have to do the same for all four servers, I need to make sure I use the same option for all four servers.

I also put in a ticket to Tech Support but haven't heard anything in the last week and my Visual Analytics is down and I need to bring it back at the soonest.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

[JuanS_OCS]

Hi there,

I would look into the configuration done previously (response files, configuration files) and apply the same.

This being said, chances are high that this configuration is just the one that comes by default in the prompt 🙂

Edit: don't you have a Test environment or sandbox? Perhaps you can test this safely in that way. DTAP is always a good idea.

[anandas]

Thank you

@JuanS_OCS I am not able to tell much from the previous configuration file unfortunately. I have asked my IT person if they can create a test environment. Yes, the prompt "Generate credentials to secure the connection" is the default prompt and one that is "recommended" by SAS installation/configuration guide to select. But since i followed these steps manually (https://sas.service-now.com/csm?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0036368) prior to upgrade, I am not sure which one. But i am leaning towards using the default prompt. 

[JuanS_OCS]

Wise decision

[sys-halt]

Hi,

I have also recently did UIP to M8 and did the steps in the SAS note.

As JuanS_OCS mentioned "hances are high that this configuration is just the one that comes by default in the prompt" and I did that too back then, I just moved with the default and didn't give it much of a thought and the UIP worked with no problems.

I hope you had a full environment backup (disk-cloning or image-cloning of the machines). because you do not know what you will face of challenges.

Regards,

Ahmad

[anandas]

Thank you.

@Ahmad, is your SAS deployment single machine or multiple machine. Mine is multiple machine. Just want to confirm, you followed the steps in this link - https://sas.service-now.com/csm?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0036368 and then you went through the upgrade with the default prompt?

[sys-halt]

I had multi-machine deployment and yes I did follow  knowledge base number KB0036368.

I have also checked my screenshots and I confirm that I selected default option in SAS Wizard.

Also during my UIP process I used to exist second phase of the Wizard when it asks to select SASCONFIG for update and run SDM manually instead, SAS Deployment Manager, and choose Update Existing Configuration for two reasons:

1. the machines were using alias names and SAS Wizard does not pass alias names to SDM in the second step when it launch SDM automatically for you to update SASCOFIG so I had problems in that

2. the Wizard consumes lots of memory and tmp space so not to face a crash I stop the Wizard on SASCONFIG update phase, then I run SDM manually instead to update SASCONFIG.

Basically UIP process will do two thing when you run it:

1. Update SASHOME

2. Then it asks you to confirm SASCONFIG path to launch SDM automatically to update SASCONFIG

In the second step I exit the Wizard then I run SDM manually and select "Update Existing Configuration".

On Mid-tier when I ran SDM manually I also used the javaoptions parameter to increase SDM memory size from 2GB to 4GB because it failed on first run (mid-tier SASCONFIG update consumed SDM default allocated memory of 2GB):

/opt/sas/sashome/SASDeploymentManager/9.4/sasdm.sh -javaoptions "-Xmx4096M"

A) Make sure that /tmp has at least 10GB free, preferred 20GB especially for Mid-Tier.

B) Make sure that you have enough free memory - I first stopped SAS, rebooted Linux and then started SAS to free memory buffer/cache

C) Make sure disk space is about 1.5 of SAS size - i.e: if SAS is installed in /sas directory and SASHOME and SASCONFIG are consuming 20GB, then you would need at least 30GB (20x1.5) of available disk space inside /sas directory

[sys-halt]

I forgot to mention that when I upgraded from M6 to M8, UIP did not upgrade SAS Internal database (PostgreSQL) and discovered that SAS PostgreSQL is still the old version. So please check SAS online documentation to verify your Postgresql version and on how to upgrade it.

[sys-halt]

Sorry I keep forgetting important points. but did you ran SAS 9 System Evaluation tool before starting your UIP? https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/bicdc/9.4/contentassessment/n0b6u5fv19rtogn1322l2m4crxle.htm

You need first to run SAS9 System Evaluation first, then open a case with SAS TS to evaluate the output and give you feedback.

[Sajid01]

Hello @anandas 
In your scenario I would agree with @sys-halt  and go for the default option " Generate credentials to secure the connection". Make sure   you have the backups so that roll back can be done should it be needed.