SAS 9.2 software can be deployed quietly. As Chapter 1, "Overview of the SAS^® Deployment Wizard and the User’s Guide," in the SAS^® Deployment Wizard User's Guide states: "The SAS Deployment Wizard is the common interface used to install and deploy all SAS 9.2 software."

Various methods can be used to install SAS 9.2 software using the SAS^® Deployment Wizard. This note offers some basic tips and techniques for installing SAS in quiet mode, which is the highest level of automation available for installing SAS.

In a quiet deployment, there is no need to run a separate system-requirements job before the actual deployment. The system requirements are run as part of the entire quiet installation job and reboots are not required in most cases.

The following is an example of a quiet installation command:

See the SAS^® Deployment Wizard User's Guide for additional information, options, and examples. Chapter 4, "Command Line Options" provides detailed information about using command-line options.

Creating Response Files

To get started, you must first record a response file. The SAS Deployment Wizard uses the response file in performing the deployment. When you record the response file, it seems to look very much like an actual manual installation. However, there is no installation created at this time; only the response file is created.

Note: In order to create a response file, you must have a working SAS Software Depot available. In the following examples, path-to-depot refers to the directory path of your SAS Software Depot location and path-to-response-file refers to the directory path of your response file.

The following command is an example of a -record command:

Important Information about Response Files

You need to know the following information about response files:

• The response file can have a name other than sdwresponse.properties. For example, response.txt is a valid name for a response file.
• If you have copied a command from a PDF file, be sure you delete the hyphen (-) that was copied in and then manually retype the hyphen.
• When you record the response file, record it on a machine that represents the target machines of the deployment. Failure to do so could result in a response file that seems to work on the original machine but which could fail on target machines. An example would be where the Java Runtime Environment to use with SAS software is present on the original machine used to do the recording and therefore the response file lacks the section for this needed component. When the resulting response file is used on target machines, it fails because the section for the Java Runtime Environment was omitted.
• You can have multiple response files, if necessary. Multiple response files might be necessary when there are target groups that have different needs for specific deployments.

For example, suppose you have three groups. Group A needs SAS^® Enterprise Guide^® only, whereas Group B requires SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS^® Add-In for Microsoft Office. Group C requires only SAS^® Foundation. In this case, you could record multiple response files and name the response files accordingly; one file for each group to specifically install only the required products. For example, you could record three files with the names EGresponse.properties, EGAMOresponse.properties, SASresponse.properties if you wanted the names to reflect which products were being installed. You could also name the files to reflect the group name, as in GroupAresponse.properties, GroupBresponse.properties, GroupCresponse.properties.

Using Provisioning Software

Provisioning software such as SMS, SCCM 2007, LANDesk, Tivoli, and others, requires that you use the -provision command line option because the system account is used with quiet deployment jobs.

The following is an example of a command with the -provision option:

Troubleshooting the Quiet Deployment

If the quiet deployment is not behaving as expected, troubleshoot the installation by taking the quiet part out of the deployment. Test a manual installation with the same response file to see where the problem occurs.

Here is an example of a command without the -quiet option:

Testing a manual installation with the same response file should help you determine where the problem occurs. Correct the issue that you find, and then test the manual installation again. Continue to test the manual installation until it is not problematic. Then test the quiet installation again adding the -quiet option back into the command. If there are remaining issues, then examine the SDW.log file.

Finding Additional Information

You can find more information about the topics in this note in the following locations:

• Chapter 4, "Command Line Options," in the SAS Deployment Wizard User's Guide.
  
  
• "Installing and Configuring Your SAS Software: Automating the SAS Installation on Multiple Machines" in the SAS^® 9.2 Intelligence Platform: Installation and Configuration Guide.
  
  
• "Provisioning Systems and Other Ways to Share the Wealth of SAS^® Across a Network." This paper discusses provisioning systems for SAS deployment and is available as a SAS^® Technical Paper on SAS Customer Support. The paper shares techniques that are used with Microsoft System Management Server (SMS) 2003 Service Pack 2 provisioning software. The principles in the paper can also be applied with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM 2007) provisioning software.



• For SAS 9.3, SAS Note, 50815: "Quietly deploying SAS® 9.3 in the enterprise using provisioning software"



• For SAS 9.3, Chapter 3, "SAS Deployment Wizard: Command Line Options" in the SAS® Deployment Wizard and SAS® Deployment Manager 9.3: User's Guide.



• For SAS 9.3, see "Installing and Configuring Your SAS Software: Automating the SAS Installation on Multiple Machines" in the SAS^® 9.3 Intelligence Platform: Installation and Configuration Guide. Scroll down to the section "Installing SAS in Quiet Mode."

Operating System and Release Information