Providing software solutions since 1976
SAS® Third-Party Software Requirements - Baseline and Higher Support
In order to keep pace with changes to third-party technologies and meet the needs of our customers, SAS has adopted a general policy of supporting one or more baseline major versions and subsequent minor updates for each third-party product. The supported baseline major versions are documented on support.sas.com.Beginning with SAS 9.2, in order to add support for major version changes in third-party software that the "and higher" process does not address, SAS has a formalized process for evaluating and adding support as appropriate. SAS will add support for major versions of third-party software either at maintenance boundaries or sooner, depending on the impact of the change needed to SAS software. This support process is in addition to the "and higher" support policy described in this document. Support for newer major versions will be documented on support.sas.com.
A minor update that is found to produce significant problems with SAS software would be treated as an exception to this policy. SAS will document such findings on support.sas.com. If problems are found in the field with a specific third-party minor update, SAS will work with the vendor to gain resolution, which might include requiring an upgrade to a later minor release of the third-party software that includes the correction.
These third-party technologies are at various stages of maturity in terms of backward compatibility, stability, and robustness. We have broken out these third-party dependencies into discrete groupings based on technology and the level of software maturity.
Operating Systems
Beginning with the minimum system requirements for that release of SAS software, SAS will support both major and minor versions, as defined by the Independent Software Vendor (ISV), unless the operating-system upgrade also necessitates an unsupported third-party product change. SAS will also support vendor-supplied patches to any supported version of the operating system.For example, if the baseline for SAS >version x is Solaris 8, SAS version x will support Solaris 9 and 10 under this policy. However, if a SAS software product or component requires version y of a third-party product but version y is not yet supported on Solaris 10, then that SAS product or component will not be supported yet on Solaris 10.
Java Development Kits (JDKs)/Java Runtime Environments (JREs)
Beginning with the minimum system requirements for that release of SAS software, SAS will support minor updates, as defined by the ISV. This covers all fix packs, maintenance packs, service packs, minor versions, and security patches.Feature packs are new functionality that SAS does not necessarily commit to support until a new release point.
For example, if the minimum system requirement is Java 5, update 12 for a release of SAS software, then Java 5 update 15 is supported. SAS extends support for major version upgrades (such as Java 6) as appropriate and described above. (Major version-upgrade support is not a direct effect of this policy.)
Java Application Servers
Beginning with the minimum system requirements for that release of SAS software, SAS supports minor versions within a major version family, as defined by the third-party vendor. This covers all fix packs, maintenance packs, service packs, feature packs, minor versions, and security patches.For example, suppose the minimum system requirement for SAS version x is IBM WebSphere 6.1.0.17. Then, "and higher" means that for SAS version x, all WebSphere minor versions, fix packs, security fixes, and such that are issued subsequent to version 6.1.0.17 will be supported under this policy.
Web Browsers
Beginning with the minimum system requirements for that release of SAS software, SAS will support minor versions as defined by the ISV. This covers all fix packs, maintenance packs, minor versions, and security patches.For example, suppose the minimum system requirement for SAS version x is Internet Explorer 8. Then, "and higher" means that for SAS version x, all Internet Explorer minor versions, security fixes, and such that are issued subsequent to version 8 will be supported under this policy. SAS extends support for major version upgrades (such as Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 9) as appropriate and described above. (Major-version upgrade support is not a direct effect of this policy.)
Notes:
- Only the 32-bit versions of the Web browsers are supported.
- Starting with the first maintenance release for SAS 9.3 (TS1M1), "and higher" support for Firefox includes major versions as well.
