Hot Topics

Updates for SAS 9.2 (March 2008)
See the compatibility calculator to determine whether you need to migrate your libraries to SAS 9.2. Use the PROC MIGRATE calculator to find the right example code for your migration.
Get a Smarter COMPARE
Validation tools for the MIGRATE procedure now work with CEDA and provide additional details about catalogs, indexes, and integrity constraints.
Start Planning
See Getting Started for the most efficient pathway through all of the SAS®9 migration documentation.
Coexistence
Many SAS®9 products can install side-by-side with SAS 8.2 with very good compatibility. See Peaceful Coexistence: SAS®9 and SAS 8.2 for details.
Sample Validation SOP
See an example SOP: SAS Installation Qualification / Operational Qualification (PDF) for the pharmaceutical industry.

Migration

Execution: Install SAS

Step 1: Set Up the Target Operating Environment

Before you install SAS, ensure that the computer operating environment meets your needs.

Confirming System Requirements

Read the System Requirements document, which is shipped along with other essential documents in the Installation Kit (either in hard copy or on a CD) and is also available at the Install Center. Verify that the following are are the correct versions and are sufficient for all of the SAS products that you have licensed:

operating environment
computer hardware
HTML browser
Java environment
hard disk space and memory.

Here are some reminders from our Technical Support teams:

Identify any changes in the operating environment such as new or obsolete commands. In a later stage, you'll edit those commands wherever they are hard-coded in SAS or SAS Component Language (SCL) code.
Determine whether you are migrating from a 32-bit operating environment to a 64-bit operating environment. See our Planning stage for issues associated with upgrading to a 64-bit environment.

Budgeting Disk Space for PROC MIGRATE with Validation Tools

If you are migrating SAS data libraries forward to the target environment, you need enough disk space to store both the source and target libraries during migration. When you use PROC MIGRATE with validation tools, you can verify that the library members migrate successfully. Migrating "in place" is not directly supported by PROC MIGRATE. That is, you cannot replace a source library with a target library. The source and target libraries must be in two distinct locations. You can delete the source library during migration by using the MOVE option, but it will greatly reduce your validation, and you should first make external backups. See also the step about migrating data.

Best practices

Keep the operating environment "as is" if possible. Ideally, at the outset, your target operating environment should be identical to your source environment. It's likely that the SAS system requirements have changed. However, aside from those required upgrades, don't introduce changes until the initial validation of step 3 is complete and you advance to the customization steps. Whenever you do apply operating environment upgrades or patches, determine whether associated changes are necessary in SAS system options and so forth.

Physically isolate the target environment from the source environment. That is, set it up on a different computer system. This is the easiest way to avoid inadvertently running against the source installation. At worst, such an error could corrupt source data. At best, during validation you might be running a source process when you think you're running a target process. Physical isolation is also a best practice for validation. If physical isolation is not possible, you can

prevent the source version from running
prevent access to the source system
ask users to close any existing SAS sessions.

Proceed to step 2.

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