sas 9.4 m6...•customers can upgrade directly to sas 9.4m6 •from any release of sas 9.4 –m0,...

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SAS 9.4 M6 News in the latest Maintenance


What are my benefits from upgrading?What are the great new things in M6?

• Direct interoperability with SAS Viya – including direct programming interfaces in Enterprise Miner, Enterprise Guide, Data Integration Studio and SAS Studio. Customers can use familiar tools, and write code that intersperses SAS 9 procs and SAS Viya procs – accessing new methods and often faster processing benefits of SAS Viya directly. Customers who care about performance and scalability should be looking at the innovations available in SAS Viya and CAS.

• Security hardening and product fixes. Customers who have a strong focus on IT security – or who need to perform regular security audits – will benefit from enhanced encryption options, enhanced TLS configuration options, and updates to key third party software components.

• Enhancements to SAS Grid Manager and Platform Suite for SAS. SAS is introducing new Grid functionality that more directly supports workflow and integration with SAS Viya. Current customers will likely choose to stay with SAS Grid Manager for Platform.

• Enhancements to SAS Studio 3.8, including the ability to leverage new BASE SAS procs for managing GIT repositories. GIT

• Expanded Accessibility support.

• General performance and functionality enhancements.

• Platform for updates to Analytics and Data Management offerings.

http://proc-x.com/2019/01/using-built-in-git-operations-in-sas/


What benefits do I get from M6?

• By upgrading to the latest SAS 9.4 software release, customers benefit from the continuous improvements. Specific examples include:

• Staying current with product releases. In the fast-paced world of software development, it is important to stay on the most current release to enable faster delivery of product updates and security fixes.

• Updated Analytics 15.1. SAS software enables customers to extract value from their data. It’s a process we pioneered, and where our expertise shines. It’s all about Data, Discovery, and Deployment – the crossing the chasm phases of the Analytic Lifecycle. See the “Analytics 15.1” link on http://support.sas.com/software/94/

• Updated Data Management -- See release notes on the SAS Communities Library

• Tools to help modernization – such as DSTODS2 proc [for converting existing code], and CAS –enabled PROCs to support direct interoperability with SAS Viya capabilities and processing power were introduced in SAS 9.4M5, and some additional PROCs have been released since then.

• Significant accessibility enhancements are supported at a production level in SAS 9.4M6. These include sonification options for data charts that enable you to “hear” the data plots in addition to seeing them. Check out the internal Big Ideas recordings to see and hear Ed Summers demonstrate the value of sonification.

• Character handling & language…. Enhancements to encodings, locales, etc…. (see details in the Discussion Guide, and in NLS documentation).

• Administration tools continue to be refined, with more options for choosing what to log and how to look at events. More job scheduling capabilities can be accessed from SAS Environment Manager.

http://support.sas.com/software/94/https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Release-notes-for-SAS-Data-Management-offerings-in-November-2016/ta-p/311666?utm_content=buffera78eb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer


Should I move to M4 or M5 orM6??

• Stay as current as you can. Recommend M6. Take advantage of the new functionality and enhanced security.

• SAS 9.4M6 includes capabilities delivered in previous maintenance releases –plus enhancements.

• Start fresh – without lots of hotfixes. And be confident that the M5 release (with incorporated fixes and features) has been extensively tested.

• Customers can upgrade directly to SAS 9.4M6 • From any release of SAS 9.4 – M0, M1, M2, M3, M4• From SAS 9.3M2• From SAS 9.2M3

• Know your products. • Some products may not issue a new release immediately – so you can run familiar

products while benefiting from enhancements in M6. Versions that ran on SAS 9.4M5 will continue to run on M6 until a version of the product that is built on SAS 9.4M6 is released.


Will M6 solve ?

• Many, but not all, Customer Reported Problems (CRP’s) are addressed.

• Starting points for specific questions about previously reported problems

• Customer’s technical support track, and related defects

• Maintenance Release Announcement (MRA) http://support.sas.com/software/maintenance/index.html

• Addressed issues list (linked from the MRA page) http://support.sas.com/techsup/reports/maintSAS94/SAS94_TS1M5_issues_addressed.html

• Some enhancements (such as support for constrained delegation) will be delivered in 2019, and will require that SAS 9.4M6 is installed before the enhancement can be applied.

http://support.sas.com/software/maintenance/index.htmlhttp://support.sas.com/techsup/reports/maintSAS94/SAS94_TS1M5_issues_addressed.html


WHEN should I upgrade to SAS 9.4M6?

• Update now if

• You care about security fixes.

• You care about hot fixes.

• You care about Java 8.

• The release dates map into your typical upgrade cycle. (If not, schedule an upgrade to M6 for your next upgrade cycle – our put in a request to IT to schedule the upgrade.)


Upgrade to SAS 9.4M6 now to enhance access to and direct interoperability with SAS Viya.

• The SAS Platform encompasses SAS 9 and SAS Viya, and developers have worked hard to enable customers who are familiar with SAS 9 to be able to extend the programming environment to take advantage of the innovations in SAS Viya.

• The CAS-enabled PROCS provide direct interoperability with Viya capabilities, thus enabling programmers to choose a familiar SAS 9 tool to solve a business problem which requires SAS Viya innovation and processing options.


Upgrade to M6 now to enable on-going Security Updates

• Regular Security Updates help keep embedded third party components current. SAS releases Security Updates only for the latest maintenance version of SAS 9.4.

• New security capabilities and enhancements will be released only for the latest maintenance release of SAS 9.4.

• New updates to solutions will require an upgrade to SAS 9.4M6.


I run solution X, and it doesn’t have a new version yet.

• If the solution has not yet released a new version, you can still upgrade to SAS 9.4M6. You must be running a version of the solution that is supported on SAS 9.4M5. You can upgrade the solution later.

• It is ok to wait and upgrade SAS 9.4M6 and solution at the same time –but you will be delaying some important security fixes and updates in the platform and infrastructure.

• If the solution has released an upgrade for M6, you need to upgrade both the platform and the solution at the same time.


What about compatibility with “older” clients?

• Do I have to upgrade all of my desktops when I upgrade to SAS 9.4M6?

• Depends. We continue to clarify the extent of cross-version compatibility. See http://support.sas.com/kb/51/162.htmlWe encourage you to keep desktop clients up-to-date! Cross-version compatibility is designed to make it easier to rollout changes to a large audience of users.

• You will want to upgrade your desktop clients such as Enterprise Guide, Enterprise Miner, and Data Integration Studio to enable direct interoperability with SAS Viya.

http://support.sas.com/kb/51/162.html


You don’t need to wait for M6 to be stable: it’s ready now!

• SAS 9.4M6 is production ready. Quality has been assessed suitable for general release. Upgrade now.

• Don’t get left behind!

• Consider your customer’s level of interaction with SAS Viya, and order and install updates as needed.

• Some installation issues have been encountered. See the note at the top of this document.


SAS 9.4M5 capabilities enhance integration with SAS Viya

SAS Studio enhancements

• New tasks to aid in connecting to, uploading data to and running analytics in a SAS Viya VDMML environment


Direct interoperability enhances connections in Enterprise Miner, Model Manager

• Incorporate SAS Viya Actions within an existing process flow inside Enterprise Miner.

• Leverage the power of SAS, HP SAS, SAS Viya and Open Source models all in a single unified interface within the same analytics process flow in Enterprise Miner.

• Community post: Want to incorporate SAS Viya code into SAS Enterprise Miner? This node is just for you.

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Data-Mining-and-Machine/bd-p/data_mininghttps://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Tip-Using-the-SAS-Viya-Code-node-in-SAS-Enterprise-Miner-14-3/ta-p/401829


Data Integration Studio

• CAS tables created on SAS Viya can be registered in SAS 9.4 (through SAS Management Console and/or through SAS Data Integration Studio)

• See the Register Tables panel; choose SAS Cloud Analytic Services Server.

• Users can view CAS tables within a SAS 9.4 client.

• Users can upload and download SAS Viya – CAS tables using the Cloud Analytic Services Transfer transformation.

• Users can author data flows that push data to and pull data from a SAS Viya – CAS table.


Enterprise Guide

• New “upload to CAS” task


General Data Management

• Updated Data Management capabilities make it easier to move data to and transform data in other environments – including SAS Viya


Bridges to SAS Viya using SAS/CONNECT are still available

• SAS 9.4M5 continues to support code exchanges using SAS/CONNECT (on both SAS Viya and SAS 9 implementations), and adds enhancements for authentication.

• “write-back” to SAS 9 uses SAS/CONNECT.

sas 9.4 m6...•customers can upgrade directly to sas 9.4m6 •from any release of sas 9.4 –m0,...

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