Upgrade in Place Steps

[shirishkamath]

Hello All,

We are currently running SAS 9.4 M3 (SAS Studio 3.5) and have received software order for SAS 9.4 M5 (SAS Studio 3.71) from SAS. We would like to do an upgrade in place. Can you please let us know what are the steps involved? I tried checking the Tech notes but it does not tell me if I have to upgrade the depot or how to begin with?

Just the basic high level points should allow me to start with the upgrade.

Thanks in advance.

[shayne]

Instructions for updating SAS 9.4 to a later maintenance release are in the SAS® 9.4 Guide to Software Updates document. Not all sections may apply to your type of installation, but it's best to review the whole document so you can determine the best approach for updating SAS software at your site.

Here's a broad overview of the process:

1. Download the new SAS 9.4M5 order. You can download it to the existing SAS Software Depot (containing the 9.4M3 order) or you can create a new depot. The benefit of downloading it to the existing depot is that only updated files will need to be downloaded - any depot files that did not change between M3 and M5 will not need to be downloaded, meaning that the download time can be reduced.
2. Make sure you have prepared the environment as outlined in SAS® 9.4 Guide to Software Updates, including creating usable backups in order to restore customization after the update has been applied. This is essential for planned deployments.
3. Follow this page of instructions to apply the update.

[SimonDawson]

Here are some quick tips that are not explicitly written into the documentation that I've seen trip users (including myself) up -

1- Backups backups backups.... Make sure you have a bullet proof roll back strategy before you start in case anything goes wrong.

I've seen first hand cases where things like power outages occurign midway through an upgrade in places leave the system in an unsalvageable state. Ensure you have a way of getting all hosts in the deployment back to the state they were in before the update started.

2- Test everything you need have working is working before you start the upgrade.  You need to be confident you have a health environment before you start the upgrade. Often we'll see users identify major issues after an upgrade, we roll the system back to the backups before the upgrade was applied only to find the issue was still present before the update took place.

3 - Consider if there are any post-installation configuration updates that might impact the upgrade. eg. Was TLS/SSL manually configured after the SDW finished. Changes like this should be reverted so that the state of the system is what the SDW expects.

- Test : Make sure everything you need to have work is working

- Backup : Put a safety net into place. Should anything go wrong you will always be able to get back to working state

- Take stock of your deployment : Revert changes that were manually introduced that might stop the SDW performing updates

- Follow the docuemntation : Go through the docuemtnation and follow it to actaulyl perform the update

- Test... again... : Make sure everything you need to have working is still working

- Make a go/no-go decision : if everything is working you can keep the current setup and remove backups, ifs not working you need to decide if you troubleshoot or rollback

[Sven4IBM]

Hi all.

Currently we discuss the upgrade from SAS M3 to M6 (newiest Version) for our Linux System.

Is it true that I shall copy all new M6 sources to Linux before and the run the Deployment Wizard (setup.sh) from the new M6 install sources ? Is the configuration of the existing SAS system preserved ? Is it sufficient for the backup that I only secure the SASHome and Config/Lev1 directories?

The spds will upgrade automaticaly too. Is the structure of the data preserved ?

Thanks.

[SASKiwi]

Upgrades are done from a SAS Software Depot that you will have downloaded from SAS. As long as the depot is on a folder share accessible from linux it should be usable.

Your existing configuration settings are preserved.

I would recommend doing a full server backup before starting the upgrade. That way you can be confident you can return the server to exactly how it was prior to starting the upgrade.

[Kurt_Bremser]

A server will always have a full incremental backup that's not older than a day (if not, it ain't a server, just a catastrophe waiting to happen).

For a SAS upgrade, it is necessary anyway to have all SAS services stopped, so I recommend to stop all SAS services (also take care to stop all SAS-related jobs run from cron and/or any other scheduler), run an extra incremental backup, and then perform the upgrade.

[SAS_SHAZ]

What happens to various solutions hosted on the platform and there customization? We have SAS AML solution along with VA and Dataflux hosted on 9.4 M3 multi-tier platform. We are planning for an in place upgrade to M6 and wanted to collect some valuable information and experience. 

My primary questions for now:

 - Any specific M6 prerequisites that I need to consider for the upgrade? For example Oracle /RHEL version/ Any new packages to be installed?

- If configuration changes have been made post implementation e.g. SSL configuration/JRE/OpenSSL upgrade, do we have to revert them all back and bring the environment to the same state as it was after the initial implementation?

[Kurt_Bremser]

Regarding configurations:

If you followed SAS guidelines (to use _usermods files), configuration changes will not be overwritten.