Preparing to Deploy SAS Visual Analytics

SAS LASR Analytic Server was originally developed to operate in a distributed computing environment and to perform analytic tasks on data that is loaded in memory. This is referred to as running the server in distributed mode.

The server can also run on a single machine or in non-distributed mode.

SAS enables you to license SAS LASR Analytic Server to run in distributed mode, non-distributed mode, or both modes. The mode that you deploy and run is driven by the license that accompanies your order. For more information, consult with your SAS representative.

SAS Visual Analytics that uses SAS LASR Analytic Server running in distributed mode is dependent on the SAS High-Performance Analytics environment. Before you proceed, make sure that you have consulted the SAS High-Performance Analytics Infrastructure: Installation and Configuration Guide.

The SAS Deployment Wizard is a cross-platform utility that installs and configures many SAS products. Using a SAS installation data file and a deployment plan for its initial input, the wizard is designed to prompt the user for the remaining input at the start of the session so that the user does not have to monitor the entire deployment.

A deployment plan describes what software should be installed and configured on each machine in a SAS deployment. A deployment plan is an XML file that is used as input to the SAS Deployment Wizard. A deployment plan for SAS Visual Analytics is created by a SAS representative specifically for a site. Each deployment plan also contains a corresponding architectural diagram and a pre-installation checklist. At the end of the SAS deployment, the SAS Deployment Wizard makes a copy of the deployment plan that it used. The deployment plan can be helpful when you want to add a SAS product or change your SAS configuration. The wizard stores a copy of the deployment plan in the SAS configuration directory in the Utilities directory, and it appends a date and time stamp to the deployment plan filename. Here is an example:

In the third maintenance release for SAS 9.4, the SAS Deployment Wizard enables you to reduce the number of password prompts for the required, SAS internal, metadata-based server accounts and SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Data Server accounts.

When you select the Set passwords using the Unrestricted Administrator password check box on the SAS Internal Account: Unrestricted Administrator page, the SAS Deployment Wizard reuses this password for the following accounts:

When you select the Express prompting level for the SAS Deployment Wizard, you are not prompted for the required, SAS internal, metadata-based server accounts and SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Data Server accounts. When you select the Typical or Custom prompting levels, you do see password prompts for these accounts. However, their password fields are pre-populated with the SAS Internal Account: Unrestricted Administrator password.

In the third maintenance release for SAS 9.4, a re-entry feature has been added to the SAS Deployment Wizard.

If, for any reason, the SAS Deployment Wizard is interrupted during the installation phase, when the wizard is restarted, it installs only those SAS products that it has not already installed successfully.

The SAS Deployment Wizard works in a similar way if it is interrupted during the configuration phase. However, the wizard does not retry any skipped configuration steps (in other words, steps that failed and then the user intentionally directed the wizard to continue anyway).

In the past, if the SAS Deployment Wizard was interrupted, it would attempt to install and configure all of the products in a SAS order when it was restarted. (The wizard behaved in this manner because it kept no record of which products had errors during the installation or configuration or of the point in the installation or configuration chain at which the user terminated the wizard.)

To provide values specific to installing and configuring SAS Visual Analytics, choose the wizard’s Typical or Custom prompting level.

The following table lists SAS Deployment Wizard pages that are specific to SAS Visual Analytics and the prompting level under which you can find them. For a list of the other configuration options associated with the SAS Intelligence Platform, see Configuration Options by Prompt Level.

In addition, there are JVM settings that are recommended for SAS Web Application Server and SAS Remote Services. For more information, see SAS Remote Services Application: JVM.

The SAS Deployment Agent and its remote clients are required for deployments that run remote processes. SAS uses the SAS Deployment Agent to copy content and to perform configuration management operations associated with creating new servers and clustering. It is also used for server administration tasks such as deployment backups.

A metadata server cluster is a group of three or more host machines (nodes) that have been configured as identical metadata servers. Each node runs its own server process and has its own server configuration information, journal file, and copy of the repository data sets. In addition, each node maintains a complete in-memory copy of the Metadata Repository. The nodes work together as if they were a single metadata server.

Clustering provides redundancy and high availability of the metadata server.

Client applications and users interact with the cluster in the same way that they would interact with a metadata server that is not clustered. A load-balancing process automatically distributes work among the nodes. If a node ceases to operate, the metadata server continues to be available using the remaining nodes.

On Windows you need an external, Windows domain-based user account that will start all of the nodes. The suggested user ID for this service login is myWindowsDomain\sassvlgn. On Linux, the nodes are started by the SAS Installer account. For more information, see For more information, see Configuring a Metadata Server Cluster in SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide.

All of the nodes in the cluster must have the same operating system.

You deploy your metadata cluster by installing an initial metadata server, and then moving to another machine and running the deployment wizard to deploy a metadata server node. You indicate which type of metadata server you want to deploy by choosing the appropriate step on the deployment wizard’s Select Deployment Step and Products to Install page.

For more information, see Using Metadata Server Clustering in SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide.

Starting with SAS Visual Analytics 7.1, if the server tier and middle tier are deployed on separate machines, these machines no longer must use operating systems in the same operating system family. (For example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1, x86, 64-bit, and SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1, x86, 64-bit, are both in the same operating system family.) The SAS Visual Analytics 7.1 server tier and middle tier—like the SAS Metadata Server and SAS Web Infrastructure Platform—can be deployed on machines that use different operating system families.

For example, the SAS Visual Analytics server tier can reside on a Windows machine and the SAS Visual Analytics middle tier can reside on a Linux x86 machine.

SAS supports multiple SAS Web Application Servers on the middle-tier machine.

Server clustering provides redundancy and high availability and enhances performance. In SAS 9.4, the deployment model has been enhanced to better support clustering of SAS Web Application Servers. You can easily configure vertical cluster members (additional server instances on the same machine) and horizontal cluster members (servers on additional machines). Combining vertical and horizontal clustering is also supported and can be configured easily.

For more information, see the SAS Intelligence Platform: Middle-Tier Administration Guide.

Be aware that if you are deploying SAS on a multiple-machine distributed system, you must install software on your machines in a particular order.

You should deploy the metadata server on a dedicated server machine. A machine running only the metadata server greatly simplifies tuning, management, and diagnostics.

For more recommendations, see information about the SAS Metadata Server in the system requirements for your SAS product.

Your SAS Metadata Repositories should reside either on a local file system or on a high-performance, high-availability network file system. For more information about metadata repositories, see About SAS Metadata Repositories in SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide.

The SAS Deployment Wizard follows the Internet Host Table Specification and does not allow the underscore character (_) in host names. For more information about what constitutes a valid host name, see RFC 952 at http://www.rfc-base.org/txt/rfc-952.txt.

The deployment wizard creates multiple SAS Web Application Servers as needed based on the products in your SAS order. By default, each SAS Web Application Server is assigned to a specific server for deployment. This distribution helps balance the load on each server and defines a recommended number of servers based on the products in each configuration.

Most of the time, the deployment wizard numbers these servers sequentially (for example, SASserver1, SASserver2, and SASserver3). However, depending on your particular SAS product order, the default names for the SAS Web Application Servers might not be sequential.

If you use the default names (for example, SASservern) in your configuration, then you should maintain the default numbering scheme.

The SAS 9.4 middle-tier software and certain SAS solution software use the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Data Server to store transactions. The data server relies on PostgreSQL 9.1.9 and is configured specifically to support SAS 9.4 software.

Make sure that you follow these general hardware requirements for Postgres:

SAS enables you to use a database management system other than the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Data Server for storing transactional data for the SAS middle tier and certain SAS solution software. (The deployment wizard gives you this option when you choose the Custom prompting level.) In SAS 9.4, the following third-party databases are supported:

Third-party databases often have requirements that you need to know about, such as database name limits, minimum tablespace sizes, and so on. If you have not already done so, make sure that you review Configuring an Alternate Database for SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Services in SAS Intelligence Platform: Installation and Configuration Guide.

If you want to use a third-party database, you must deselect Use SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Data Server on the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Database: Data Server page during SAS installation and configuration.

On the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform: Database Type page, select the database management system type for the database that you plan to use.

The deployment wizard prompts you for additional information about your database, including a database user ID and password. The user ID that you specify must have the ability to insert, update, and delete database records.

For more information, see SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Database: JDBC Properties.

Starting with release 7.2, the SAS Visual Analytics Hub can be deployed in SAS solutions that do not include SAS Visual Analytics or SAS Visual Analytics Administration and Reporting. In addition, you can deploy the SAS Visual Analytics Hub on a machine that does not contain the SAS Visual Analytics middle tier.

If you are deploying the SAS Visual Analytics Hub on a machine that does not contain the SAS Visual Analytics middle tier, note the following:

For more information, see The SAS Visual Analytics Home Page in SAS Intelligence Platform: Web Application Administration Guide.

Starting with release 7.3, SAS Visual Analytics provides sample objects. During installation, the SAS Deployment Wizard prompts you to include sample reports by default:

After a successful initial configuration of SAS Visual Analytics Administrator, you should see SAS Visual Analytics Sample in the Visual Analytics Samples section of SAS Home. After a successful initial configuration of SAS Visual Analytics Explorer, you should see SAS Visual Analytics Sample Includes Exploration Content in the Visual Analytics Samples section of SAS Home.

When you load the SAS data set containing the samples, full reports are available and visible. When neither the administrator nor the explorer are configured, no sample data is available.