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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: Migrate Files

Step 1: Update SAS Programs and Custom SAS Applications

Updating SAS Code

Read the Updating SAS Code topic in the Planning stage to learn about changes to make in SAS and SAS Component Language (SCL) code. These changes might be necessary for the code to perform correctly in SAS®9 or to perform correctly under a different operating environment. For example, you might have to update hardcoded pathnames or system options.

Best practice

Use librefs, filerefs, and macro variables instead of hardcoded pathnames. You can execute multiple global LIBNAME and FILENAME statements in an autoexec file. You can define a pathname or any other environment-specific value in a macro variable. Then when you need to change a pathname, you can edit it in that one centralized location. If you assign a libref with the New Library window in the SAS®9 windowing environment, you can make it permanent by selecting the Enable at Startup checkbox.

Validating Custom SAS Applications

Before you proceed to the next step (a full data migration), you must validate that any custom SAS applications are working correctly. You'll especially want to check the behavior of third-party software, for example, Java or an HTML browser.

Use the same sample data and validation tests that you used to create benchmarks in the source installation. For help with migrating the sample data, see the topic about migrating data. To be sure that your sample data has not changed, use PROC MIGRATE with validation tools. If you don't migrate the sample data with PROC MIGRATE, then use PROC COMPARE to manually verify the integrity of the sample data.

After you move your custom validation tests and sample data to the target installation, run the tests and compare the behavior to the benchmarked source behavior. For more information, see the validation topics in the Planning stage.

Proceed to step 2.