Effortlessly Migrate Multiple SAS® Enterprise Guide Projects to SAS® Viya Using the Migration Wizard

When integrating SAS Enterprise Guide with SAS Viya, projects originally created in SAS9 may require modifications to individual nodes or the entire project to ensure a smooth transition. This article, outlines the use of the Migration Wizard to update multiple SAS Enterprise Guide projects to run on SAS Viya.

Wilbram introduced the integration of SAS Enterprise Guide with SAS Viya in this article, providing a comprehensive guide to establishing a connection with the SAS Viya Compute Server. This article also offers detailed guidance on updating tasks in existing SAS Enterprise Guide projects, including modifying individual tasks and using the built-in Project Maintenance Tool to update servers and libraries. The Migration Wizard provides similar functionality as the Project Maintenance Tool but for multiple projects and supports updating older SAS Enterprise Guide files to newer versions as well as updating the location of raw data files.

Using the Project Maintenance Wizard

This video demonstrates updating individual tasks in a project, using the Project Maintenance Wizard to update all tasks in a project.

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Using the Migration Wizard

The Project Maintenance tool updates a single project while the SAS Enterprise Guide Migration Wizard offers similar functionality but for multiple projects. Also possible is the migration of older SAS Enterprise Guide files to later versions and changing the location of raw data files.

The MigrationWizard.exe can be found in the installation directory of SAS Enterprise Guide. From the desktop, right-click the SAS Enterprise Guide shortcut icon, select Open File Location and locate the exe file. If Open File Location is not available, select Properties first.

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Double-click the exe to run the wizard. The first step of six provides essential information about the migration wizard including necessary prerequisite actions to prevent potential metadata issues. I have already moved all relevant resources to the new location and closed all Microsoft Office applications and SAS Enterprise Guide.

Click Next to proceed.

The wizard automatically detects the current active SAS connection. If the connection is correct, click Next to continue.

Step 3 of 6 enables you to select the SAS Enterprise Guide projects to be migrated. Expand Local Computer > D:️ > workshop > VS to locate the project files.

Select the check boxes for the following projects Car Door Reporting, Embedded Code and Simple DoorData.

Click the arrow button between the two panels to confirm the selection of the files.

Click Next to proceed.

Step 4 of 6 provides details on parsing the selected files, which begins when you click Next. This step may take a while, depending on the complexity of the files but don’t worry, no changes are made until the migration is finalized.

Click Next to start parsing

Click Done to return to the Migration Wizard.
Step 5 of 6 focuses on remapping object references. The wizard displays a table of object references and their current locations. Expand the window or adjust column widths for better visibility. Use the Show menu drop-down to filter references (Global, Item-specific, or All) that require updates. More complex projects could contain many more references.

Let’s start with mapping the SASApp server to the SAS Viya Compute.
1. Select the SASApp server object and in the New Mapping column, click Select SAS Execution Server.
2. Click Browse, expand Servers and select the SAS Viya Compute. Upon initial connection, you will be prompted to provide an authorization code based on your user credentials.
3. In the browser tab, confirm the credentials have been entered and click Sign In. If the SAS Viya environment is configured for Single Sign-On (SSO) no credentials prompt will appear.
4. Admin access is not required so click Authorize Access to generate an authorization code.
5. Copy the authorization code and return to the Migration Wizard and paste the code into the Authenticate with SAS Viya pop-up window.
6. Click OK.
7. Confirm that the Apply the changes to all object references that contains this value check box is selected.
8. Click OK to return to the migration wizard. All instances of SASApp are now mapped to the SAS Viya Compute server, but the changes will not be applied until all the steps in the wizard are completed.

Select the File Reference object and in the New Mapping column, click Select External File.
1. Select Servers, SAS Viya Compute and if necessary, authenticate with SAS Viya as per the previous instructions.
2. Select Files (/) > workshop > VS_Data and select SoldCars.csv.

Click Next to continue.
In the final step of the wizard, reference mappings can be saved to a Migration Record File. This file can then be used to apply the same mappings to future project migrations, saving you time and minimizing the risk of manual errors. If you do not specify the file location a file is not generated.

A log file is automatically created and should be checked carefully as it contains a list of all the files that were processed as well as any errors that occurred during migration.

Leave the check box clear for Do not create automatic backups of original files so that the original files are backed up to a folder called MigrationBackup before being overwritten.

Select the check box to Perform resource verification to check for the existence of all resources that have been changed to confirm the existence of the updated resources, log their status and apply the changes accordingly.

Click Finish.

Once the migration process has complete, click View Log File and check everything behaved as expected.

All the files migrated successfully. If the wizard failed to update any of the projects, identify the cause, then use the backup projects to run the migration wizard again.

Projects should always be executed and verified to ensure the migration is complete. For example, as the migration wizard cannot view embedded code additional adjustments may be required.

Open SAS Enterprise Guide.
Use the application toolbar and select File and Open. Select My Computer, click Browse and navigate to Data (D:), workshop, VS. Select Embedded Code and click Open.
Use the toolbar in the process flow and click Run.
Use the Submission Status pane to verify that the tasks are now successfully executed on the SAS Viya Server.

Conclusion

We have seen that there are multiple methods of updating existing SAS Enterprise Guide projects to execute on the SAS Viya Server, depending on your requirements. For individual projects, tasks can be updated individually or by using the Project Maintenance tool. For multiple projects or those containing raw data files, the Migration Wizard is recommended.

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