Overview of Designing Your Migration

Designing your migration is the first of five steps required to install SAS 9.3 and migrate your current SAS content:

1. Design your migration

2. Perform pre-migration tasks.

3. Install SAS 9.3 and migrate your content from an earlier SAS version.

4. Perform post-migration tasks.

5. Validate your migration.

Designing your migration means reviewing the SAS 9.3 requirements (hardware, software, and migration) against your current SAS deployment, and developing a plan for how to get your SAS content (your data and configuration) integrated into a SAS 9.3 system. Depending on your SAS deployment, you might find these documents helpful:

For a discussion of functionality changes in SAS 9.3, see SAS 9.3 Guide to Software Updates.
For SAS solutions, see the product's documentation for additional information about migration and promotion. For more information, see Migrating SAS Solutions.
If you are migrating to SAS Enterprise Miner 7.1, then you should also consult the SAS Enterprise Miner: Administration and Configuration.
If you are migrating to SAS Model Manager 3.1, then you should also consult the SAS Model Manager: Migration Guide.

One of the migration tools that SAS provides, the SAS Migration Utility, generates a migration analysis report. Using this report, you can analyze every machine in your current SAS deployment to answer these crucial design questions:

Which SAS products reside on each machine?

Knowing exactly which products reside on which machines is essential for your SAS representative to know in order to provide you with the correct SAS 9.3 deployment plan (required to install SAS 9.3).
If I am migrating from 9.1.3, are all my SAS 9.1.3 products at the correct maintenance level?

All your SAS 9.1.3 products must be at the correct maintenance level in order for the SAS Migration Utility to generate a valid migration package for migrating to SAS 9.3. (There is no particular maintenance level requirement for SAS 9.2 deployments.)

At the end of the migration design phase, you will have accomplished the following:

Migration Design Goals and Actions

Migration Design Goals	Actions
Understand the high-level SAS migration requirements.	Review High-Level SAS Migration Requirements. Decide the proper time for you to migrate to SAS 9.3.
Understand migration requirements and processes specific to your SAS solution.	See Migrating SAS Solutions. Read the migration guide for your SAS solution.
Ensure that your hardware and third-party software meet the SAS 9.3 system requirements.	See Assess Your Hardware and Third-Party Software. Plan to address hardware and software gaps as necessary.
Choose whether to use internal SAS accounts	Review Choose to Use SAS Internal Accounts. You might have to inform your IT department that you need fewer operating system accounts for SAS 9.3.
Determine which SAS products reside on each machine.	Run a SAS migration analysis report. For more information, see Inventorying Your Current SAS Deployment.
If you are running SAS 9.1.3, verify that your SAS software meets the migration tools requirements.	Run a SAS migration analysis report. Bring all SAS 9.1.3 products into compliance by applying maintenance as necessary. For more information, see Inventorying Your Current SAS Deployment.
Consider how to migrate your middle tier.	Review Middle-Tier Considerations. Decide whether to enable the SAS Deployment Wizard to automatically configure your Web application server. There are other considerations such as whether to add additional middle-tier machines.
Obtain a SAS 9.3 deployment plan.	Having a recent migration analysis report at hand, contact your SAS representative to obtain a valid SAS 9.3 deployment plan that represents your current SAS deployment. For more information, see Obtain a Valid SAS 9.3 Deployment Plan.
Plan SAS user downtime at your site.	You will need to schedule a window of time when your SAS deployment is down in order to install and configure SAS 9.3 and migrate your SAS content.