Migration of datasets from sas9.3 to sas9.4?

[ShiroAmada]

Dear SAS Community,

We will be upgrading our SAS 9.3 to SAS 9.4.   Our SAS migration to 9.4 case is that we have the same OS (Unix) but differentmachine.

Questions:

1. Could we just copy (OS-level copying) our datasets from the old server running on sas9.3 to a new server running on 9.4?

2. Is there a special process to migrate SAS datasets to a higher version? 

Many thanks in advance for your reply/replies.

[RW9]

Is it just datasets?  What about catalogs or other files?  Is the 9.3 32 or 64 bit, what about the 9.4 version?  Catalogs for instance cannot be used 32 versus 64 bit systems (which is a good example of why they should not be used full stop).

Datasets should be directly copyable.  Code should also, as you will have it as plain text not catalogs!, be copyable.

I would suggest you would want to go through a couple of procedures however.  First a migration process, which could be just copying files across, but I would expand it to analysis of what is of value copying across - is there better methods or can some be archived etc. rather than just dumping everything from one system to the new one.  

Second and leading on from that an analysis of the code and such like - good time to run a lifecycle analysis of the code you have and see if it can be rewritten or archived.

Remember a new system doesn't happen very often and it is a prime time to start fresh.  That creaky old macro library from version 6 for instance would be one target for removal (yes, we all have these dreadful macro libraries carried over year after year, never being looked at or re-assessed).

[ShiroAmada]

Dear RW9,

We will also migrate catalogs and other files (i.e: indexed datasets).  Yes it's a good idea to identify which data to copy and to copy and archive.

How do I migrate SAS catalogs? 

Here's my migration plan

1. Folder setup in the new server

2. Copy the datasets (old to new server)

3. Migrate the SAS catalogs, sas indexed datasets (not sure if copyable)

4. Set-up the SMC

5. Check if libname statement will work

6. Migrate the SAS EG Projects

7. Test each migrated SAS EG Project

8. Repeat steps 6-7 - apply to all SAS EG Projects

[RW9]

Ok, so your using Enterprise Guide.  I personally haven't used it in a long time, so there maybe that system specific things to consider.

1. Folder setup in the new server

- You shouldn't need to do this, it would all be copied, so folder strusture will remain the same.

3. Migrate the SAS catalogs, sas indexed datasets (not sure if copyable)

- If the old system is 32bit, and then new system is 64 bit, then you cannot copy the catalog to the new system.  You will need to recompile it on a 64 version of SAS.  A good example of why not to use catalogs - ever!

7. Test each migrated SAS EG Project

- This would be the main effort.  I would check that the project produces the expected output, but also have time to reflect on what that project does, can it be done any better, what about general tools at a system level which could replace parts across projects etc.  This is probably your one time you will have the opportunity of a fresh system, use it to define what you want to be doing in the future not what has been done in the past - this to me is the key part.

[andreas_lds]

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@RW9 wrote:

3. Migrate the SAS catalogs, sas indexed datasets (not sure if copyable)

- If the old system is 32bit, and then new system is 64 bit, then you cannot copy the catalog to the new system.  You will need to recompile it on a 64 version of SAS.  A good example of why not to use catalogs - ever!

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I am curios: how can using catalogs be avoided in an BI environment with Web Report Studio?

Of course, the only things to be stored in catalogs are formats.

[RW9]

I have never used WRS so I can't tell you.  What I can say is that anything binary/proprietary winds me up something chronic, be it old XLS files, catalogs anything.  I never use catalogs anymore, everything is stored plain text files, and if that is needed at runtime, then run the text files.

[SASKiwi]

If you use SAS formats then you can't avoid SAS catalogs as the formats are stored in these. Of course if you still have all of the source code for your formats then you can simply rerun them and new catalogs get created.

[SASKiwi]

@ShiroAmada - your go to resource should be the SAS Migration Focus Area: http://support.sas.com/rnd/migration/

[RW9]

Yes you can.  Keep the formats as text and run them as and when needed, this way you are storing the portable, easy to use text variant.  Zero need to store bad bad binary files.