The Basics of SAS® Viya®4 Administration Q&A, Slides, and On-Demand Recording

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Watch this Ask the Expert session for an overview of SAS Viya 4 architecture, the Kubernetes method, and how Viya 4 is different from the previous releases of SAS. 

Watch the Webinar

You will learn:

• IT skills required for Viya 4 administration.
• The basics of containers and Kubernetes.
• About Viya 4 deployments.
• Logging and monitoring.
• Stopping and starting.

The questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the webinar are listed below and the slides from the webinar are attached.

Q&A

You mentioned Viya 4 can scale up and down. Are you saying Viya 4 can increase or reduce the number CAS worker nodes? 

Yes, it can do that. 

Seems like the deployment will be way easier in the future? 

Yes, deployment is going to be much easier compared to the previous releases of SAS. Now that we have this infrastructure as a code concept, all you must do is just go through that code and you can run that code and the code will take care of all the deployment from scratch for you. I have seen a best case scenario of installing. Deploying Viya 4 through this infrastructure code methodology, I was able to do it in less than 4 hours. That's the best case scenario.  

So, never edit the red block, always the green customizations file? 

You're talking about the site dot YAML file. Yes, I never tried to edit this site. If you are making any customizations, you should go through that flow chart that I talked about. 

Can SAS 9.4 code still work in Viya 4?   

Absolutely, just as moving from one server to another, make sure to check any libnames and filenames, changing them as appropriate to match the new locations in your SAS Viya environment. This code will execute on the SAS Compute Server in SAS Viya.  

Is SAS Viya only served as Docker images? 

I believe so, we ship the install media in the form of Docker Container Image. 

Do you need to have a cloud provider (e.g. AWS) to install, administer, and run Viya 4 or can you run it on in-house Linux servers? 

If you are not able to use the public cloud, SAS Viya supports deploying on Openshift on VMware giving you an On-Premises deployment option. Please refer to this webinar for more information https://www.sas.com/en_us/webinars/deploy-sas-viya-on-premises.html  

What is the level of Terraform knowledge required for Viya 4 implementation? 

Terraform skills will definitely help during the Viya 4 implementation, especially if you are taking Infrastructure as Code route. Check the Github projects: 

https://github.com/sassoftware/viya4-iac-azure  

https://github.com/sassoftware/viya4-iac-aws  

Is SAS Viya 4 the only option for SAS 9 users in the future? I heard there is no maintenance release after SAS 9.4 M8? Is that correct? 

SAS Viya is a reflection of the latest advances in technology and customer demand for cloud computing. SAS 9.4 will continue to be supported for a few years. Please check SAS Technical Support website to see the support level for all SAS releases. 

https://support.sas.com/en/technical-support/services-policies.html#non-current  

Can we continue to use the previous version of Viya? Will the non-cloud version of Viya continue to be supported and updated? 

Whenever possible, we encourage our customers to run on the most recent release that is practical for them. It’s an exciting time to be running on Viya 4 because new capabilities are released every month on Viya 4. Please check SAS Technical Support website to see the support level for all SAS releases. 

https://support.sas.com/en/technical-support/services-policies.html#non-current 

I am a SAS 9.4 administrator. If I must work and learn Viya, can I start directly with Viya 4? 

Yes, you can start with Viya 4. Please check SAS education website for recommended training: https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?crs=SVF&ctry=US 

Can you tell me about the differences between Visual Analytics and SAS Viya? 

SAS Viya 4 is our first fully cloud-native platform. And SAS Visual Analytics is a software product  that provides a complete platform for analytics visualizations. It runs on both SAS 9.4 and SAS Viya. For more details on SAS Visual Analytics, please visit https://www.sas.com/en_us/software/visual-analytics.html.  

Can we switch back and forth between Stable and LTS versions? 

Customers can change between cadences as long as the version that they are changing to is at the same version or newer than the installed version from their current cadence. For more details please see https://support.sas.com/en/technical-support/services-policies.html#cadence  

What do you mean by container vs what was on Visual Analytics? 

A container is a standard unit of software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another. 

SAS Visual Analytics like all Viya 4 software, can be deployed in a container. 

What is YAML in Viya 4? 

Viya 4 runs on Kubernetes. 

YAML for Kubernetes: Kubernetes works based on defined state and actual state. Kubernetes objects represent the state of a cluster and tell Kubernetes what you want the workload to look like. Kubernetes resources, such as pods, objects, and deployments can be created using YAML files.  

What do SAS Grid installations have in common with SAS Viya? 

The installation of the software is very different, however many of the features of SAS Grid workload management are available using SAS Workload Management of SAS Viya 4. 

Is Viya a replacement for SAS EBI? 

SAS Visual Analytics on SAS Viya has very robust capabilities for exploratory data analysis, reporting, dashboarding and analytics and it is designed to work with large data, leveraging the high performance capabilities of SAs Viya. For more information, please visit https://www.sas.com/en_us/software/visual-analytics.html 

Is there metadata concept or infrastructure data server concept in Viya 4? 

While there will be familiar concepts like User Management and Permissions, there is no metadata server per se. 

Is there a concept of SMP and MPP in Viya 4? 

Yes, the concept of Symmetric Multiprocessing and Massively Parallel Processing modes of CAS exists in Viya 4 as well. 

If everything is processed in in-memory, do we need more RAM for each SAS Viya machine to host pods? 

The more RAM the better always, please check the Hardware and Resource Requirements for Viya 4 here: https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/itopscdc/v_030/itopssr/n0ampbltwqgkjkn1j3qogztsbbu0.htm  

What Microsoft course would you suggest for Viya 4? 

If your organization is using Microsoft Azure as your cloud provider, tasking the Azure Fundamental Course would be a recommendation. 

What are SAS cache server and SAS Message Broker job in the SAS Viya 4 environment? 

SAS Cache Locator and SAS Cache Server provide a distributed cache technology to microservices in SAS Viya. 

The SAS Message Broker processes messages between SAS Viya services, routing these messages through exchanges and queues. Message Queues allow services to report on activity and allow other services to monitor the activity.  

For the new architecture, how do you suggest setting up a dev versus prod environment? For example, for now, we have a machine for prod and another for dev, is this still the case or can all this be on one machine? What is the best practice? 

You can create individual namespaces within your Kubernetes cluster and logically separate them. Please reach out to your SAS account team to learn more about the options that may be best for your organization. 

What does SAS ESP do in Viya 4? 

SAS Event Stream Processing enables you to analyze streaming data, uncover hidden insights with AI and make real-time, intelligent decisions in the environment of your choice. https://support.sas.com/en/software/event-stream-processing-support.html  

In what ways is Viya not backward-compatible with SAS 9.4? 

Viya 4 is an all new, fully cloud-ready architecture with a substantial set of new capabilities that grows with every release. While code written for SAS 9.4 can execute in SAS Viya (once libnames and filenames are modified as appropriate), the reverse is not likely because there are several new SAS procedures and algorithms (and even an additional language) which are not part of SAS 9.4. Here is a technical paper to see the capabilities present in both SAS 9.4 and SAS Viya Functional Comparison 

(red block = site.yml)? 

Yes 

Do we need a new contract for SAS Viya 4 or will it be an auto upgrade from 3.x to 4? 

Your SAS Customer Success Manager or your SAS Account Executive should be able to assist you in this process. 

How is are CAS engine and ESP engine different? What different applications use those engines? 

Cloud Analytic Services (CAS) is the main (in-memory, distributed) analytics engine in SAS Viya. 

ESP - SAS Event Stream Processing analyzes streaming data and takes appropriate action instantly.  

SAS now only provides Viya 3.5 training right? 

SAS Education providers training for all supported releases of SAS.  https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?crs=SVF&ctry=US  

What are the challenges of moving from SAS 3.x to SAS 4 

For the functional users there are minimal impacts because the concepts and interfaces are largely the same, with new capabilities being added with every release. However, for the SAS administrators who support Viya 4, which runs on Kubernetes, we highly recommend administrators learn the Kubernetes way of doing things. 

Will on premise LDAP / Active Directory authentication be available for Viya 4? 

SAS Viya is configured by default to use Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). As an alternative, you can change the configuration to use System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM). LDAP must be disabled if SCIM is selected. More details can be found here: https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/calids/v_001/p0vf7jxazgusirn1gd0jsd6teq3o.htm  

Does SAS provide any documents for SAS Viya 4? 

Yes, please refer SAS Help Center: Welcome to SAS Viya Administration which provides all the documentation. 

Can the number of nodes be automatically scaled based on the load on the SAS environment? 

Yes, Kubernetes has this feature called Auto scaling and it can scale up the resources based on need. Learn more about it here: https://kubernetes.io/blog/2016/07/autoscaling-in-kubernetes/  

Are there any license implications when scaling your SAS environment? 

Please reach out to your Account Executive so they can provide details about your specific account. 

Do we have recorded versions of SAS Viya 4 deployment for AWS/Azure which can be shared with SAS partners? 

We do offer workshops for customers and partners on Viya 4 deployments that have slides and recordings, as well as hands-on exercises to deploy SAS Viya 4. Please check with your SAS Customer Success Manager for more details. 

Will Viya be available as Software as a Service? 

We plan to offer more true SaaS offerings. Here is what we currently offer: https://www.sas.com/en_us/solutions/cloud/sas-cloud/saas.html  

Is SAS Enterprise Miner available on SAS Viya? 

SAS Enterprise Miner is a SAS 9 product; similar capabilities (and more!) are available in SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning on Viya. You can learn more about it here: https://www.sas.com/en_us/software/visual-data-mining-machine-learning.html 

If you have models built in SAS 9.4 that you’d like to move to SAS Viya, please check this informative webinar: https://www.sas.com/en_us/webinars/enterprise-miner-to-viya.html  

Does Hotfix in Viya 4 involve downtime like other SAS versions? 

Please find the details of how to update the software here: https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/sasadmincdc/v_025/k8sag/p0hm2t63wm8qcqn1iqs6y8vw8y81.htm   

Do the Viya 4 admin courses go through deployment labs/examples? 

This course is a four-day immersion into a SAS Viya environment. This course provides essential topics for SAS Viya administration and demonstrates how to perform administration tasks using SAS Environment Manager, the command-line interface, and basic Kubernetes commands to administer a SAS Viya Environment. 

https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?crs=SVF&ctry=US  

Is "VLE Courses on Viya4" available for external clients or only for SAS employees? 

SAS Viya 4 customers receive an enablement portal with many learning assets to get started – this is included in their license. It contains courses in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as well as several on-demand assets. Please contact your SAS Customer Success Manager for more information. 

Is the "Viya Fast track course" available for external clients? 

Yes, it is available for all clients, please check with your SAS Customer Success Manager for more details. Also please check this link for more information: https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?crs=SVF&ctry=US  

In the past, we were told that CAS could spin up additional containers upon high demand for in-memory storage but that these containers could not be removed easily when demand is reduced. Has this changed? More generally, how are varied in-memory (and cas_disk_cache) demands handled in current state for Viya 4? 

CAS does not yet automatically scale workers based on utilization.  It is currently up to an administrator to modify CAS topology manually or by way of scripting the necessary changes.   

Can you provide an example workflow for the open-source container updates? For example, adding new Python libraries necessitates building a new image and deploying. Is there a simpler way to do this in Viya 4? 

The workflow would be this: 

(This is only done once) Copy $deploy/sas-bases/examples/sas-pyconfig/change-configuration.yaml to $deploy/site-config/sas-pyconfig 

Add -site-config/sas-pyconfig/change-configuration.yaml to your kustomization.yaml 

1. Edit $deploy/site-config/sas-pyconfig/change-configuration.yaml at line #26 to include the Python libraries you want
2. Rebuild site.yaml and apply to the cluster. 

This will update sas-pyconfig which will kick off a job that updates the PVC with the requested python libraries. 

After the initial configuration, steps 1-2 would be repeated each time a library change was needed.  

Documentation link: SAS Help Center: Requirements for Optional Features (https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/sasadmincdc/v_030/itopssr/p1n66p7u2cm8fjn13yeggzbxcqqg.htm#p... ) 

Is it still true that it is not recommended to spread services (or pods/containers) across availability zones for latency concerns or is that specifically from a regional zone standpoint outside the zone envelope? 

Correct.  SAS has work in progress to test this type of distributed deployment but as yet, this is not a recommended configuration. 

Any performance (large analytics workload) benchmark between Viya 3.5 and 4? Can you share any numbers? 

Yes! We have a dedicated team of developers, who are refactoring algorithms to take fuller advantage of the SAS Viya architecture.  

Our company is considering using Viya to host the SAS AML 8.3 application. How does that application fit into Viya? In 9.4 it is a Web Application. Is this the same in Viya? 

SAS AML 8.3 is a solution that runs on SAS Viya. All interfaces in Viya are Web based. Please check the following links for more details: 

https://support.sas.com/en/software/sas-anti-money-laundering-support.html  

https://video.sas.com/category/videos/sas-anti-money-laundering  

Recommended Resources

SAS® Viya® Administration Fast Track

What Do I Need to Know About Kubernetes for Administering SAS® Viya®?

How Are SAS®9 and SAS® Viya® Administration Different?

Kubernetes Tutorial

Moving from SAS9 to SAS Viya

Please see additional resources in the attached slide deck.

Want more tips? Be sure to subscribe to the Ask the Expert board to receive follow up Q&A, slides and recordings from other SAS Ask the Expert webinars. 

[Yadav2]

am trying to load the hive table to cas memory using parallel mode with Viya 4 - Stable release 2023.12, against CDP- 7.2.16, getting the error like ERROR: Client unable to establish connection. System error: Connection refused , can any one help please , is am doing incorrect way ?

here is my sample code 

cas mysess;

caslib hive

datasource=(srctype='hadoop',

server='hiveserver',

platform="spark",

schema='xxxxx',

username='test',

password='xxxxxxx',

dataTransferMode="parallel",

jobManagementURL='LIVYRESTURL',

HadoopConfigDir='/data-drivers/jdbc/conf'

bulkLoad=false);

caslib _all_ assign;

proc cas; /* Step 1*/

session mysess ;

action sparkEmbeddedProcess.startsparkep caslib="hive"

;

run;

quit;

proc casutil;

load incaslib='hive' outcaslib='hive' casdata='test123' casout='test1234';

run;