Upgrade SAS GRID from SAS 9.4M7 to M8 on new servers. Where to start? How SMU works?

[PierreDupuis]

Hi Team,  we are planning to upgrade our GRID environment from SAS 9.4M7 to M8 release on new servers with the same topology as our M7 deployment.  My understanding is I could use the SAS Migration utility(SMU) in order to help me to do an automated migration.  My questions are

1) I am not very familiar with a Grid migration and I don't see anyone mentioning about it so any advice will be really appreciated.  Where to start with Grid migration? Does SMU cover any Grid migration part? 

2) Our old SAS 9.4M7 environment is running REHL 7.9 so Java11 is not installed. Not sure if Java11 is supported on REHL7.9?  I am wondering how I run SMU?  Should I run SMU from M7 or M8 depot?

3) Also, please help me regarding the prerequisites of upgrades from M7 to M8 and the process involved.

Thanks in Advance,

Pierre

[SASKiwi]

A good starting point is the SAS Migration Guide if you haven't looked at it yet. This covers SMU.

I also recommend using the SAS Content Assessment tool for evaluating and migrating SAS content.