Upgrade from SAS 9.4 TS1M0 to SAS 9.4 TS1M3

[tlk]

Hello,

First, is this upgrade  worthed, I saw all the new features(admin, eg 7.1 and all) but with 250+ users an upgrade is not always a smooth drive ? 

Second, is the configuration of IWA for the SAS portal easier to configure(we haven't sucessfully implement it with our current version) ?

I have now some user asking about EG 7.1, is it me or it is difficult to download  EG or AMO only, we have to go through the "depot".

Thanks in advance for your thought on this subject.

Laurent

[SASKiwi]

I suggest you read the documentation in what's new in SAS 9.4M3 to decide whether it is worth it for you or not:

http://support.sas.com/software/maintenance/index.html

Of particular interest are the improvements in performance monitoring with Environment Manager.

EG 7.11 has a number of significant improvements, my favourite one being the ability to type in your own WHERE statements when viewing data. You could roll out EG 7.11 as an independent upgrade without going to 9.4M3. It would be a lot less work to do this.

[tlk]

Thanks for your suggestion. I will soon begin reading the documentation.   I think the "where" statement when viewing data is must, some of my user still mourn their beloved SAS(DM), maybe it will ease the pain... 

[SimonWilliams · Accepted solution]

Hi Laurent,

When updating your environment to 9.4 (TS1M3) it's important to check the latest documentation:

http://support.sas.com/software/maintenance/index.html

To your specific questions:

• IWA (integration with kerberos) is straightforward from a SAS perspective. The key will be to do checks prior to updating the SAS configuration e.g. check the principal names etc. (see the SAS Security administration guide and on google do a search on "SAS kerberos Stuart Rogers" and you should find some useful materials). If you are running your SAS Metadata Server or SAS Compute on Linux or Unix then the administrator of the host machines may have to use third party software to register the hosts in Active Directory;
• EG is indeed found within the depot, but can be installed without having to use the SDW. The SAS Installation and Configuration Guide states:

  　

  "MSI-Based Packages for SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office

  In SAS 9.4, there is another installation option for SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office. This additional option consists of packages based on Microsoft Installer (MSI) that are much smaller in size than the SAS Software Depot. These MSI-based packages enable administrators to install these two SAS products over a distributed deployment using software provisioning tools such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). This new installation option is available only on Windows.

  For more information, see the SAS Deployment Wizard and SAS Deployment Manager 9.4: User's Guide, available at http://support.sas.com/deploywizug94.html. "

Cheers, Simon

[SASAdmMY]

Hi All,

I am planning for a sas maintenance upgrade from SAS9.4M1 to SAS9.4M3 on windows x64 env.

We do have a three server architecture (meta/app/web tiers). I am comfortable with the meta and app tiers but regarding the web tier, I am just wondering, if the maintenance upgrade is straightforward or do i need to go though any additional steps of undeploying and then rebuild/redeploy or anything like that.

[JuanS_OCS]

Hi @SASAdmMY

probably it would better (for you) to have this question on a different port, since this one is already marked as solved.

Anyway, that is a minor detail, let's go through your question:

The update process should already rebuild and redeploy webapplications, unless you selected to not do it automatically, then you will need to use the SAS Deployment Manager and your Insstructions.html/powershell/perl scripts.

What you need to keep in mind is your customizations: If you have any customization not realized initially by the SAS Deployment Wizard, you will most likely to:

1- undo and save your customizations

2- check that your deployment is able to start and be validated

3- execute the update + rebuild + redeploy

4- redo your customizations

5- check that your deployment is able to start and be validated

SSL/certificates, Single Sign-On, Web Authentication, Reverse Proxy, customizations to xml/configuration files  are good examples of the possible customizations you will need to put attention on.

If you have certificates, keep in mind also the post-configuration steps for certificates. Critical and quite easy to forget some of those steps: http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/biig/69172/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n12025intelplatform00...

[SASAdmMY]

Thank you for the information  @JuanS_OCS

Is there a way to identify what are the manual changes that have been done during the first installation. As i have no documentation of what has been done during first install but i will be upgrading the environment from M1 to M3 now.

What will be the best way to perform the upgrade in this situation, when i am not sure about the initial customizations? I was planning to perform the upgrade assuming no customisations have been done and then resolve any issues, i encounter after the upgrade. Do you think this will be a good idea. Please adwise 🙂

[JuanS_OCS]

You are welcome 🙂

There is no direct way for an identification of manual changes. But on a change of perspective, you might be able to get some clues from an indirect way:

- 1 option: contact the person who did the maintenance or the latest installation on the server.

- 2 option: try to see what has been done automatically

   - 2a. find the latest responsefiles and see if it matches your current config. Not sure but most probably that what it does not match it was done manually.

  - 2b. You can find this information also in the logs of the latest run of the SAS Deployment wizard (on linux on the /home/sasinst, and on windows on the /Users/%AppData%/SAS/SAS Delployment Wizard directory).

Please note: SSL can be done manually or automatically, but SSO or Reverse Proxy can only be configured manually. Same goes for the configuration/xml files on the web applications.

[JuanS_OCS]

Anyway, I advise yo have always a disaster recovery plan. If you have a full backup/snapshot of your servers before starting the changes, you can always revert back if needed. A must 😉

[anja]

Hi,

I would not recommend to go the route of upgrading and then fixing any possible problems that might occur after the fact.

This sounds as if you are currently experiencing any problems, or, are you just worried about the "if a problem might occur, I'll fix it"?

In case there are any issues right now with M1, do not run the upgrade w/out fixing these problems!

As for the concern about not knowing what changes have been made by the prior admin who installed, there are some approaches you could take to "back you up".

Its a bit dirty, but what is an admin role without adventure, right? 🙂

Thoughts:

To have any config files that might have changed in M1 available, without having to restore from a backup, copy your current Lev1 config dir to any location outside your M1 config. You will not be able to run it!!!! Just leave it as is. It is simply meant to be a copy of files.

This would allow you to look up M1 config files/files to see if any changes have been made, and if needed, you'd have the "old" config files to peak at. It could be cumbersome tho, but is an option.

Important: you might not want to copy M1 files over to M3 without further investigation to make sure not to overwrite any M3 format files with M1 files

As mentioned, it is rather cumbersome but offers one option to see or check for difference/changes that might have been made.

As for data created by your users:

Export the content via promotion/export and import wizards. In the FOLDERS tab in SASMC, do a right click on the data you'd like to "backup", and hit EXPORT. This will create a package file (.spk) which can be used to import into M3 if needed.

The nice thing here is that it is pretty easy to import partial content into M3.

This does not really fit your original question, but might be a route to go addressing your concerns.

Thanks

Anja

[SASAdmMY]

  @anja @JuanS_OCS

Thank you so much, for your responses.

So, right now,  i feel the only option i am left with is, take a backup copy of the SAS Home/Config folders > Performance the Maitnenance update > then resolve issues. I know its a bit complicated as i am doing it directly on PROD 😮 ... but yeah, am ready for this adventure. Hope things go well.

Will update you soon....