Performance comparisons of SAS Server on Linux and Windows Operation System

[jkaran321]

Hello SAS Community,

We are planning a SAS server and EG client deployment and request your opinion/recommendation on "Linux SAS Server --> Windows SAS EG client" or "Windows SAS Server --> Windows SAS EG client" combination for below points:

1. Which combination supports much user friendly features such batch submit, etc.
2. Which combination will provide better performance in terms of IO and data analysis.
3. Which combination will provide speed execution codes.

Kindly provide your comments on these points it would be great help.

Best regards,

Karan Joshi

[Patrick]

Assuming you're planning on setting up a new environment that then also will require licensing and all the other stuff:

There is much more to be considered to come-up with an architecture that's right for you/your company. I feel you probably would best contact your SAS representative and ask for a proposal for a new environment. I'm sure SAS will then ask you all the relevant questions to come-up with such a proposal plus likely also mention alternative options you haven't even considered yet.

[LinusH]

1. Which combination supports much user friendly features such batch submit, etc.

Depends on for whom? Who will adminster the server? What competences do you have?

2. Which combination will provide better performance in terms of IO and data analysis.

I don't there is any big difference. Maybe Linux have less of overhead...?

3. Which combination will provide speed execution codes.

Same as above? The SAS code and data is identical in structure...so what is you real pain?

[Kurt_Bremser]

From my experience, as a server system UNIX is always to be preferred, but you need to have the necessary know-how. If all you've got are Windows people, then you will probably have to stay with the toyboxes.

I've run our company's SAS data warehouse on UNIX systems for more than two decades (Reliant Unix, then AIX), and it never let me down, and was easier to handle than Windows by orders of magnitude. Even major release jumps (AIX 4.3 to 5.1, later 7.1) cause much less grief than a Windows release change or even hotfix.

<snark>

UNIX has servers counted per admin, Windows counts admins per server.

</snark>

[Sajid01]

Hello @jkaran321 

I had an opportunity to run the same code on both Unix and Windows server  some years back (It was running SAS 9.2 then) the run times were comparable.

Both Windows and Linux have their own advantages but as an administrator my personal choice would be Linux. 

I feel shell scripting / programming (Bash/Ksh ) is more mature on Linux than windows power shell and this would be of great help. 
Thus if there capability  on Linux available then it would be good choice, other wise Windows ii what that remains.
Needless to say in the long term cloud is the future of SAS and knowledge of Linux would be helpful.

SAS EG client would work well in either scenarios.

[SASKiwi]

There is no right or wrong answer regarding choice of OS to use with SAS.

I assume you are talking about SAS 9.4 here. With SAS Viya 4, SAS's latest fully cloud-enabled offering, then Linux is the only choice anyway.

A lot depends on your company's preference and expertise. If you are mostly a Windows Server shop then stick with Windows. If you are mostly a Linux shop then stick with Linux.

[AniyaSantiago]

I’ve been digging into this myself lately  It got me thinking about how crucial the choice of OS can be for SAS deployments.

[AniyaSantiago]

I’ve been digging into this myself lately, especially after stumbling upon some benchmarks at https://operatingsystems.info/. It got me thinking about how crucial the choice of OS can be for SAS deployments. Personally, I've seen Linux handle heavy data processing loads like a champ, but Windows has its perks too, especially for integration with other Microsoft tools. I’d love to hear more opinions on this—what’s been your experience? Have you noticed significant differences in performance or reliability based on the OS? It seems like such a nuanced topic where real-world experiences can really shed light.

[Sajid01]

Hello @jkaran321 , @AniyaSantiago 
There are two important factors that one needs to consider when selection between Windows and Linux.
1.The SAS installer account needs to be a local administrator (there is a chance that other service accounts may be setup as admin account), whereas on Linux it is a standard account.

2.Second on Linux files created are not executable by default whereas on Windows they are. (One does come across the use xl2xlsx.vbs script to convert the file to xlsx format.) This is a sign of the system being vulnerable.
These factors tilt the scale in favor of Linux as the OS.