Wrap up and follow up from SUGA webinar

[ShelleySessoms]

Thank you to everyone who joined us on February 10 for our SUGA webinar on Moving from SAS 9 to SAS Viya. We had a wonderful attendance.

If you missed it, or would like to watch it again, please view the on-demand version linked above. The slide deck is attached to this post. And thanks to Tony and @MargaretC we have included a list of additional resources at the end of the Q&A list.

We received many questions and were able to answer quite a few during the session. We’ve included all of the Q&As below. Thank you to all for such insightful questions.

Q: Tony: Did I hear shared file system will not work with SAS Viya?      

A: Not exactly – The CAS_Disk_Cache backing store (located in on-board disks in the worker hosts) cannot be placed on a shared file system.  The CAS_Disk_Cache has to be stored on a local file system like XFS or EXT4.  All other file systems, feeding data into Viya, or accepting Viya job results CAN be a shared file system.

Q: Linux was mentioned here. Are Windows supported?           

A: For Viya 3.x, yes.  https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=calcdc&cdcVersion=3.5&docsetId=dplyml0phy0win&docsetTarget=t...  

Q: When connecting to identities service to LDAP, the base DN requires an "OU" , any suggestion on what we can do if we need to query multiple OU without restructuring the LDAP tree.

A: There is not a great way to configure two different search bases. It can be done with CLI, but it will not be exposed by Environment Manager, is not documented publicly, and is not supported by SASLogon. This means, that the identities service can use it to fetch users/groups from LDAP, but you’ll need to configure a different authentication method, such as SAML.

Q: Can identities service query multiple OUs without restructuring the LDAP to created nested OUs?   

A: The baseDN (the search base) does not require an OU. It is valid to use just the DC, e.g. DC=example,DC=com rather than OU=users,DC=example,DC=com. This allows more than one OU to be included in the search. It is a very broad scope. Best Practice is to filter on group membership or other attribute that is unique to the people/groups you want to load.

Q: Can I have Metacoda installed on SAS Viya?

A: (Answer from Metacoda):  Metacoda are continuing to monitor the SAS Viya APIs, gather customer requirements and assess demand for add-on software for the SAS Viya platform but do not have any software for release on the SAS Viya platform at this time. If this is something that you need then please contact Metacoda directly to discuss further. www.metacoda.com

Q: If I uses SAS Viya, I will get rid of installing Hotfixes? I mean in the cloud the patches and updates will be installed automatically? My system will be always updated?            

A: Not for SAS Viya 3.5.  You will still have to install hotfixes.  This will change with the CI/CD of SAS Viya 4.

Q: Could you explain more abour cGroups?      

A: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cgroups  

Q: If I have my Data in another server in my datacenters ,  I mean databases, like ORACLE, SQL or SYBASE, SAS Viya can easily connect to that databases in other serves, or the databases must be installed also in the cloud?       

A: You are asking if you can run SAS in a cloud and access data on-premises?  The answer is yes this technically works, but performance is generally less than ideal.

Q: Could you provide a link to learn more about CAS Controller, CAS Workers, etc.?     

A: There is lots of information about CAS in the past two SAS Global Forums.  Your SAS account team should be able to get you general information.

Q: How can I have access to a SAS performance lab?     

A: What do you need?   We prefer to work with you and your SAS account team.

Q: Is SAS performance Lab, like a test environment? where we can experiment and learn?        

A: No.  It is an internal testing team.  It is for internal SAS usage only.

Q: Is SAS 9.4 ending for PC SAS too? Will PC SAS with Display Manager still exist?          

A: SAS 9.4 will be available for many years to come. 

Q: Can you please elaborate on potential issues when using VMWare (re hypervisor level activities derailing services stability)?     

A: Yes, hypervisor level activities such as Vmotioning hosts, performing hypervisor-level VM backups, etc. can impact the hyperisor layer communications network, impacting microservices and Rabbit-MQ messaging latency.  If it is high enough of an impact for long enough, it can cause these operations to become unstable. Hypervisor level backups “pause” the VMs being backed up.  If you pause Rabbit-MQ, you will take it out of quorum, destabilizing it.  So host level backups are encouraged vs. hypervisor level backups, and Vmotion/DRS is not encouraged to be active for Viya Microservices and Rabbit-MQ servers.

Q: Is there a SAS Installation class for SAS Viya?            

A: Here is what I got when I Googled this question:  https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sas  installation class for viya&qpvt=sas installation class for viya&FORM=VDRE  

Q: sorry but I could not find anything in that link with respect to SAS installation class for SAS Viya?

A: we will get someone to contact you after the webinar.

Q: so that does not have anything to do with installing SAS Viya so I am looking at either a course that SAS offers or a genric install that is done using standard hardware so I can see what components are required to install. Do you have a video showing an generic install on Linux and or training course that should be offered by SAS. I am certain that internal folks have had training on installing SAS Viya.        

A: We will contact you after the webinar.

Q: I thought that you had to use SAS Studio and not SAS EG anylonger on SAS Viya?     

A: That was true initially.  I want to say this changed last year.  Yes, SAS EG works with SAS Viya, you just can't order it with Viya 3 - you have to get it from a separate SAS 9 deployment.

Q: so does that mean that SAS/Viya does NOT have a Metadata server?            

A: You are correct, SAS Viya does NOT have a Metadata server.  https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/technical-papers/sas9-4-sas-viya-functional-compariso...  

Q: what are cgroups?   

A: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cgroups

Q: does viya perform better on windows or rhel?          

A: RHEL because you are able to several nodes for the various Viya components (i.e. many systems).  Viya on Windows can only run on a single Windows system (i.e. only 1 system).

Q: are the same assumptions the same for viya 2020 as 3.x as presented?         

A: What assumptions?

Q: performance, networking, services split across containers    

A: There are lots of differences when using containers.  There will be lots of different recommendations.

Q: If we have dynatrace as a monitoring tool, does it interfere with environment manager?     

A: No, it typically does not. Environment Manager has independent operations and is separate.  If you did monitor a very large number of storage devices (i.e. close to 100 or greater), a too short of a monitor interval in dynatrace can actually get in the way of the IO, But that is system general and not germane to EV.

Q: Will SAS Viya 4 work on AWS instead of Azure?        

A: It is the plan to support Viya 4 in all public cloud offerings.  AWS will be the next public cloud Viya 4 will be released on.

Q: Is there any end user application for SAS Viya 4 like EG or AMO?      

A: SAS/Studio is the primary end user applications.  However, SAS EG can be used if you have it already - it does not ship with SAS Viya.

Q: Why SAS Viya 3.X and SAS Viya 4 are different from each other?      

A: SAS Viya 4 is being rewritten to be cloud native using containers.

Q: On next Saturday, we will perform VIYA3.4 OS Patching, we need to install redhat 7.9, I already validate with SAS Support and it is compatible, I saw in your presentation that maybe there is special adjustment to perform?            

A: Just follow the instructions at SAS Help Center: Perform Linux Tuning and you should be fine.  If any performance issues arise during the run of your system we can individually help you adjust them.  Unless the workload is very heavy it is unlikely that these settings will need to be altered.  Those settings will be fine for Viya 3.4 as well.  https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=calcdc&cdcVersion=3.5&docsetId=dplyml0phy0lax&docsetTarget=n...  

Q: Just for my curiosity, what % of SAS/Viya projects are hosted in SAS, what % is on cloud, and what % in house?          

A: We are not able to share this information.

Q: Should we combine our SAS 9.4 work into SAS Viya? or should we keep them separate?       

A: This will depend on what you are doing with SAS 9.4.  Steven Sober did a presentation on this topic at SAS Global Forum 2020. The paper can be found here https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/sas-global-forum-proceedings/2020/4147-2020.pdf and a video can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=242EsXPDC50&list=PLVV6eZFA22Qwahw8r9nilFm1VskGuG0Vf  

Q: Will Viya have a Management Console? or Environment Manager?  

A: Yes, SAS Environment Manager is an integral part of Viya.  What features of Management Console are you looking for?  Please review this paper to see if it addresses your questions: SAS 9.4 and SAS Viya Functional Comparison https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/technical-papers/sas9-4-sas-viya-functional-compariso...  

Q: how do incorporate SAS Grid?          

A: SAS Grid-like features will be added to SAS Viya 4 in the future.

Q: How do you monitor all the functions of Viya?          

A: SAS Environment Manager is the very best place to start to monitor the Viya System.  If you require a deeper level host or storage monitoring, we can suggest alternative monitors.

Q: What version of SAS 9.4 can be migrated to viya? M5? What format must the base sas files be in to be migrated (xml, json), how do you convert them?     

A: Any version of SAS 9.4 can migrate to SAS Viya.  SAS data files can be directly read by SAS Viya. 

Q: Are there any other recommended Linux distributions?       

A: SAS Viya 3.x runs on RHEL 7.6 or higher.  It is not supported on RHEL 8.x currently. 

Q: Are there tools to measure the Data flow to ensure it meets the requirements?       

A: SAS Environment Manager is the very best place to start to monitor the Viya System.  If you require a deeper level host or storage monitoring, we can suggest alternative monitors.

Q: Can we connect 9.4 with SAS Viya. Also, can we use SAS EG to submit codes to SAS Viya?     

A: Yes, to both questions.  Mark Schneider did a presentation at a recent SAS Global Forum for the first question. 

Q: Apologize if you have already mentioned this. How much time/resources does it take in general when converting SAS9.4 to Viya?          

A: This will depend on what you are doing with SAS 9.4.  Steven Sober did a presentation on this topic at SAS Global Forum 2020.

Q: For an organization who is using SAS GRID 9.x and majority of the use case is running PROC SQL code. Does SAS Viya make sense for such organization. Because for the user group of that organization loading data into CAS library etc will be complicated    

A: Like Tony stated, this is a conversation that depends on how you are using SAS 9.4.  Please work with your SAS account team to set up this conversation.

Q: SAS 9.4 works with Viya 2020.x or 3.5 is suitable for it?        

A: What do you mean "works with"?  Do you mean a separate SAS 9.4 deployment talking to a Viya deployment?  Or do you mean the SAS runtime component that is part of Viya?

Q: The building block for performance as Tony discusses them available in one doc as recommendation?  If yes, how we get it     

A: I don’t know of a document besides this presentation that covers latency and bandwidth suggestions, aside for the Install Guides - SAS Help Center: SAS Viya 3.5 for Linux: Deployment Guide https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=calcdc&cdcVersion=3.5&docsetId=dplyml0phy0lax&docsetTarget=t...  

The General VMWare advice in the VMWare papers should also be followed if you deploy on VMWare - Deploying SAS® on Software-Defined and Virtual Storage Systems, Deploying SAS® Grid Systems on VMware ESXi Virtually Provisioned Storage, MovingVirtualVMware.pdf  https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/MovingVirtualVMware.pdf   These papers were written for SAS9, but also still apply to Viya.  

Q: Could you talk a bit about Docker and specifically Kubernetes...(Include us in that authentication question most specifically what options are there such as connecting AD/LDAP etc to on-prem AD forest?  Very imp question that always come up           

A: That is beyond the scope of this talk. 

Q: What is the licensing cost difference between SAS 9.4 & SAS Viya    

A: That is a question you should address to your SAS Account team.

Q: do you need a dedicated disk for the CAS_DISK_CACHE on every CAS Worker node?

A: It is highly recommended to have the CAS_Disk_Cache mounted on internal worker node hosts, typically use 3 – 6 SSDs depending on the workload you are servicing, and stripe them together into a host logical volume.  CDC has to be bandwidth performance (100/MB/sec/core) and as low latency as you can provide.  Striped SSD/NVME meets that best. You can resort to HDDs for small workloads, and it may suffice. 

Q: Any experience working with the Domino Data Lab platform?          

A: Yes, SAS has worked with them.  Stay tuned for a brief on the results of this work.

Comparing SAS 9.4 to Viya 3.5:

• Paper: SAS 9.4 and SAS Viya Functional Comparison (SAS Global Forum 2019)

Migrating from SAS 9.4 to Viya 3.5:

• Paper: Migrating from SAS® 9.4 to SAS® Viya® 3.5  (SAS Global Forum 2020)  
• Video: Migrating from SAS 9.4 to SAS Viya - YouTube
• Paper: Best Practices for Converting SAS Code to Leverage CAS (SAS Global Forum 2020)
• Video: Best Practices for Converting SAS Code to Leverage SAS Cloud Analytic Services - YouTube
• Paper: My Experiences in Adopting SAS Cloud Analytic Services into Base SAS Processes  (SAS Global Forum 2018)
• Paper: What is CASL? (sas.com) (SAS Global Forum 2019)

Running SAS 9.4 and Viya 3.5 in the Public Cloud:

• Video: Important Performance Considerations When Moving SAS to a Public Cloud - YouTube
• Paper: Important Performance Considerations when Moving SAS to the Public Cloud
• Webinar: How Do I Move SAS Applications to a Public Cloud? | SAS
• Paper: Solved: Best Practices for Using Microsoft Azure with SAS® - SAS Support Communities

Viya 4:

• Webinar: Travel to Faster, Trusted Decisions in the Cloud | SAS

[ChrisNZ]

> Thank you to everyone who joined us on February 10 for our SUGA webinar on Moving from SAS 9 to SAS Viya. We had a wonderful attendance.

When Clicking the link:

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[Otis_]

@ChrisNZ, this is my link to the replay.

https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/2933723/6538822F81B7824E47278EEB9FFC6A84

You can register here:

https://www.sas.com/en_us/events/users-groups/20q4/moving-from-sas9-to-sas-viya.html

[ChrisNZ]

Thanks Tony.

The link works and this page opens:

I have not registered for the event. Any way to view without signing in? Or using my SAS community signon?

[ShelleySessoms]

You will need to “register” for the event so you can access the on-demand version. SAS likes to know how many people watch live vs on demand. Thanks!