Maintenance Release Announcement for SAS 9.3

Note: If your site is applying a maintenance release to a SAS 9.2 deployment, see the Maintenance Release Announcement for SAS 9.2.

Overview

The first maintenance release for SAS 9.3 (TS1M1) shipped in December 2011. This maintenance release is to address some issues in SAS 9.3 and to support future releases of SAS products.

Assess Your Current SAS Deployment

Before you apply any maintenance release, complete these steps to assess your current SAS deployment, and review the maintenance documentation to determine how this upgrade impacts your site.

1. Determine what product releases are currently installed at your site. You can obtain this information by running the ViewRegistry tool. For more information, see SAS Note 35968.

2. Based on your SAS release, review the information to understand what changes were made in the maintenance release.
   • Issues Addressed in SAS 9.3 (TS1M1)
     The Issues Addressed Web site for a SAS maintenance release is compiled by SAS Technical Support and lists the SAS Notes that were addressed in a specific maintenance release.
      
   • What's New in SAS 9.3 [PDF]
     The What's New document combines the What's New topics for each product that was updated in SAS 9.3 or in a subsequent maintenance release. In general, the What's New topic for each product contains all of the features and enhancements for SAS 9.3. Features and enhancements that were part of a maintenance release are labeled.
      
   • Deprecated Functionality in the SAS 9.3 Guide to Software Updates
     

     Before applying a maintenance release, determine whether any products at your site have been deprecated. For example, SAS Web OLAP Viewer for Java will have no new releases. It has been replaced by functionality that is available in SAS Web Report Studio 4.3.

3. Review the SAS 9.3 Guide to Software Updates [PDF] to determine what preparation, installation, and configuration steps need to be completed to apply the maintenance release at your site.

Request a Maintenance Release

Maintenance releases are available via electronic or physical media. You must have installed SAS 9.3 in order to apply a maintenance release to SAS 9.3. You can add maintenance updates to an existing SAS software depot, or you can create a new depot with a full software release. Use the self-service application for maintenance to identify orders at your site for which maintenance is available. A SAS Installation Representative from your site can request maintenance.

If you have not yet deployed SAS 9.3, then contact your SAS account executive. If you need help identifying your account executive and would like to start the request process now, call SAS at 1-800-727-0025, menu option 2. All of the latest maintenance updates are included with an initial delivery of SAS 9.3.

Maintenance Release Announcement for SAS 9.2

Overview

The third maintenance release for SAS 9.2 shipped in May 2010. All of the features and enhancements from previous maintenance releases for SAS 9.2 and several product hot fixes are included in this latest update. Highlights from the third maintenance release include the ability to change the host names (including network domains) or server machines in your deployment, performance improvements in SAS/ACCESS software, the availability of SAS Scoring Accelerator for Netezza and the SAS/GRAPH ODS Graphics Designer.

In addition, new releases of SAS/ETS, SAS/OR, and SAS/STAT are shipping in conjunction with the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2. When you apply the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2, these products are updated to SAS/ETS 9.22, SAS/OR 9.22, and SAS/STAT 9.22. For more information, see SAS 9.22 Analytical Products.

Assess Your Current SAS Deployment

Before you apply any maintenance release, complete these steps to assess your current SAS deployment and review the maintenance documentation to determine how this upgrade impacts your site.

1. Determine what product releases are currently installed at your site. You can obtain this information by running the ViewRegistry tool. For more information, see SAS Note 35968.

2. Review the following information to understand what changes were made in the maintenance release.
   • Issues Addressed
     The Issues Addressed Web site for SAS 9.2 maintenance releases is compiled by SAS Technical Support and lists the SAS Notes that were addressed in the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2.
      
   • What's New in SAS 9.2
     The What's New document combines the What's New topics for each product that was updated in SAS 9.2 or that was in a maintenance release after SAS 9.2. In general, the What's New topic for each product contains all of the features and enhancements in the SAS 9.2 release. Features and enhancements that were part of a maintenance release are labeled.
      
   • Future Plans to Deprecate Functionality in Planning for Maintenance Releases and Product Upgrades in SAS 9.2
     Before applying a maintenance release, determine whether any products at your site have been deprecated. For example, SAS Web OLAP Viewer for Java will have no new releases. It has been replaced by functionality that is available in SAS Web Report Studio 4.3. To help you plan for future upgrades, this document also notes plans to deprecate or significantly change functionality. For example, SAS Visual Data Explorer is deprecated in SAS 9.3.

3. Review the Planning for Maintenance Releases and Product Upgrades in SAS 9.2 [PDF] documentation and determine what preparation, installation, and configuration steps need to be completed to apply the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2 at your site.

   Note: Customers are encouraged to apply the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2 at their site. For more information, see "Request a Maintenance Release." If your Software Order E-mail lists SAS 9.2 TS2M3 in the Product field, then you have received the third maintenance release.

   However, if you requested a maintenance release before the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2 shipped, then your site might be applying the second maintenance release for SAS 9.2. The Technical Support Number for this release is TS2M2. To apply the second maintenance release at your site, see Maintenance Planning for SAS 9.2 (TS2M2) [PDF].

Request a Maintenance Release

Maintenance releases are available via electronic or physical media. You can add maintenance updates to your existing SAS 9.2 software depot, or you can create a new depot with a full software release. Use the self-service application for maintenance to identify orders at your site for which maintenance is available. A SAS Installation Representative from your site can request maintenance.

If you have not yet deployed SAS 9.2, then contact your SAS account executive. If you need help identifying your account executive and would like to start the request process now, call SAS at 1-800-727-0025, menu option 2. All of the latest maintenance updates are included with an initial delivery of SAS 9.2.