Policies for All SAS Products
Support Eligibility
Generally, technical support is available to all customers during the term of their agreement for SAS software or SAS cloud offerings that include access to SAS software. However, customers are encouraged to engage their designated on-site SAS support personnel as their first support contact. If the on-site SAS support personnel cannot address the request, customers should contact SAS Technical Support to submit the support request. When customers contact SAS Technical Support, they might be required to provide information (for example, their SAS site number, company name, email address, and telephone number) that identifies them as a SAS customer. Failure to provide this information might preclude SAS Technical Support from taking action on the support request.
Support Cost
For most SAS software and SAS cloud offerings, technical support is included in the fee set forth in the customer's agreement. Charges for any fee-based Enhanced Technical Support services are outlined in the license agreement.
Support Hours
For Customers in North America during Normal Support Hours
Support is provided in English from SAS corporate headquarters in Cary, North Carolina.
- Support hours for new requests are Monday through Thursday 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time and Friday 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.
- Support hours for requests with an assigned tracking number are Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time.
For Customers Outside of North America
Local-language technical support is provided through the local office in the customer's country. If customers are outside of North America, they should contact their local SAS office for specific support hours. In general, SAS provides technical support from the technical-support center closest to the country where the software is installed or where the customer resides. However, SAS reserves the right to refer technical-support requests to other SAS technical-support centers, as needed.
For Critical Support Requests after Normal Support Hours
Calls to SAS Technical Support for unscheduled critical production incidents after normal support hours are directed to one of the SAS worldwide support centers in North America, Europe, or Asia/Pacific, thus providing 24-hour, follow-the-sun support. Customers can update tracks electronically 24x7. However, for new incidents or for existing tracks with situations that become critical (Severity Level 1 or 2) outside of normal business hours, customers must also call SAS Technical Support. The phone number is available on the Contact SAS Technical Support web page. When customers call, they must listen to the greeting in its entirety and follow the instructions to start follow-the-sun support. For example, for calls to SAS corporate headquarters, press 2 for Technical Support, listen to the greeting, and then press 0 to start follow-the-sun support.
Note: After-hours support is available only in English and is limited to critical production incidents for software products under Standard Support. Because the support is provided in English, it is important that customers are able to adequately discuss their situation in English. SAS provides self-help resources such as support.sas.com and the SAS Support Communities for software products under Limited Support. Customers can search these resources for potential circumventions to issues that are similar to the one that they are experiencing.
SAS Technical Support provides 24x7 support for critical situations in which a SAS production software is down due to an unscheduled event. The goal is to remedy critical situations encountered with the software. Before customers perform updates or maintenance for SAS software, customers must have a validated, repeatable, and completely tested backup-and-recovery process. Note: A complete SAS software restore is a viable recommendation for the on-call team member to make in order to resolve an after-hours issue that arises from planned system maintenance activities.
In addition, customers can access the SAS Support Site website and email support services 24 hours a day.
Support Request Response Time
For Support Requests That Are Reported by Telephone
All support requests that are reported to Technical Support are initially handled by a team member who works with customers to identify and (in many cases) address their reported request. If the request is not addressed during the primary contact, the team member assigns a tracking number to the request and performs additional research, or the team member might pass the request to a specialist.
The following table displays the targets for initial follow-up and frequency of updates for support requests with different severities and conditions. The goals for initial follow-up after a request about production software is first reported are based on the nature and severity of the request. The Technical Support team member will attempt to contact the customer who submitted the request within the response time goals described below.
| Severity Level | Condition | Initial Follow-up* | Frequency of Updates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A critical SAS software production environment is down or does not function at all, and there is no circumvention; | 2 hours | Every day |
| 2 | A component of SAS software is not performing, | 4 business hours | ** Every 2 business days |
3 | A component of SAS software is not performing as documented; there are unexpected results; | 1 business day | Every 3 business days |
| 4 | Support requests pertain to usage questions or | 1 business day | Every 10 business days |
| 5 | Customer offers suggestions or requests for new | 1 business day | Every 30 business days |
*For support requests that are assigned to a Technical Support team member, initial follow-up is defined as the time between when the request is initially submitted and the team member contacts the customer. For support requests that require further research by the team member who initially received the request, initial follow-up is defined as the time between the initial contact with the team member and a follow-up call.
**Follow-up as agreed upon by Customer Management and SAS Technical Support Management
For Support Requests That Are Submitted Electronically
Severities are assigned to support requests that are reported via the web or email based on the guidelines shown in the table above. All requests that are submitted electronically receive an immediate, automated email confirmation and a tracking number. A Technical Support team member will respond to the customer who submitted the request by telephone or email within one business day. Because SAS cannot guarantee less than a one business day response for requests that are tracked electronically, customers should report Severity 1 or 2 problems by telephone.
Escalating Support Requests
If the standard support process does not produce the desired results, or if the request has changed in severity, customers can escalate the request as follows.
- Contact the Technical Support team member who is working on the request and ask that the severity be escalated.
- Ask to speak with a Technical Support Manager if additional escalation is required.
Addressing Support Requests
Because of the complex nature of software development and operating environments, SAS cannot guarantee the amount of time that it will take to address a support request. In addition, response times might be affected if SAS Technical Support does not receive the requested information and/or is not allowed remote access to the relevant network(s) or system(s), as applicable. SAS endeavors to address support requests as expeditiously as possible.
Archiving Support Requests
A support request is archived upon mutual agreement between the team member who is responsible for the request and the customer who submitted the request. If the team member is awaiting further information from the customer, the team member makes at least one attempt either by telephone or email to contact the customer within a few business days. During this contact, the team member communicates a time line for archiving the support request if further information is not provided.
Information is not lost when a support request is archived. Data is handled in accordance with the SAS Privacy Statement. In the future, if customers need to discuss the specific request that is documented in an archived track for any reason, a new track will be opened with a new tracking number, and all information from the archived track will be copied into the new track.
Remote Support Sessions
Under certain circumstances, SAS Technical Support team members use remote support sessions to troubleshoot and diagnose submitted support requests. In such a situation, SAS Technical Support will, with the customer's agreement, initiate the remote session and provide connection instructions. Parameters defining the length, audience, and goals of a remote support session are jointly agreed upon before the remote session is initiated.
Remote support is not appropriate for all technical-support tracks and is used only for the types of services described in the General Support Services section.
SAS Support for Alternative Kubernetes Distributions
In order for releases on the SAS Viya platform to remain under Standard Support, SAS requires that customers run them on a supported distribution of Kubernetes. For detailed information about the Kubernetes distributions that SAS supports, select the documentation for the release in Kubernetes Cluster Requirements in SAS® Viya® Platform Operations.
Variants of Kubernetes distributions exist that are alternatives to the list that SAS identifies as officially supported. In addition, SAS software uses technologies from various third-party vendors, which might or might not support these alternative Kubernetes distributions at the same level as SAS software.
SAS provides Limited Support when the SAS Viya platform is deployed on an alternative distribution that the customer has selected. If issues occur with the Software or System running on an alternative Kubernetes distribution, the customer must perform further diagnostics on their own to isolate the problem. This investigation should include reproducing the problem on a supported Kubernetes distribution and third-party vendor software stack.
Note that, if a customer elects to use an alternative Kubernetes distribution, SAS expects that they have the appropriate skills to resolve differences between the supported Kubernetes distribution and the alternative Kubernetes distribution that is being used. By electing to use an alternative Kubernetes distribution, the customer acknowledges that they have made the appropriate investment into resolving the differences inherent in that alternative Kubernetes distribution.
SAS Support for Alternative Operating Systems
There are variants of operating systems that are alternatives to the list that SAS identifies as officially supported. These variants are sometimes derived from a supported distribution’s source code that might be destined to become part of a future release of a supported distribution.
SAS provides Limited Support for SAS software when it is deployed on an alternative operating system that the customer has selected. Further, SAS software uses technologies from various third-party vendors at specific releases, which might or might not support these alternative operating systems as required by SAS software. SAS is not able to assist customers in determining equivalent third-party versions or releases on alternative operating systems. If issues occur with SAS software that is running on an alternative operating system, the customer must perform further diagnostics on their own to isolate the problem. This investigation should include reproducing the problem on a supported operating system and third-party vendor software stack.
Please note that if a customer elects to use an alternative operating system, SAS expects that they have the appropriate skills to resolve differences between the supported operating system and the alternative operating system being used. By electing to use an alternative operating system, the customer acknowledges that they have made the appropriate investment into resolving the differences inherent in that alternative system.
These restrictions do not apply to virtual applications supplied by SAS. For your reference, SAS maintains a list of Supported Operating Environments.
SAS Product Support for Virtualization Environments
For details about the support policy for SAS products that are run in an hardware virtualization environment, see SAS Product Support for Virtualization Environments.
SAS Third-Party Software Requirements - Baseline and Later Support
To keep pace with changes to third-party technologies and to meet the needs of SAS customers, SAS follows a general policy of supporting one or more baseline major versions, as well as subsequent minor updates, for each third-party product. The supported baseline major versions are documented in SAS® Third-Party Software Requirements - Baseline and Later Support.
SAS® Software Support When Third-Party Vendors Drop Support
In some instances, SAS software is supported on an operating system, a Java application server, a Java Development Kit (JDK), a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) level, or a Kubernetes distribution even though the third-party vendor of that software has withdrawn support. When SAS can no longer provide updates to such components or receive updates to the component from the third-party vendor, SAS reserves the right to move affected products to Limited Support.
SAS is committed to helping customers who rely on affected products to receive product updates from SAS whenever possible. Therefore, SAS makes such decisions based on a per-product basis.
For information about SAS support and Adobe Flash Player end of life, see SAS Software and Its Use with Adobe Flash Player.
SAS Disaster Recovery Statement
Disaster-recovery planning is important for any critical business system, including production systems running the SAS® 9.4 Intelligence Platform, SAS Viya 3.x, and SAS® solutions. SAS customers should have disaster-recovery plans for their SAS software and related data. For information about SAS support in this area, see the following pages:
- SAS Disaster Recovery Policy for SAS Viya 3.5
- SAS Disaster Recovery Policy for SAS Viya 3.4
- SAS 9.4 Disaster Recovery Policy
Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS)
The Telecommunications Relay Service enables calls to be placed and received by people with hearing or speech disabilities who use a teletypewriter (TTY) or other text-input device. It enables SAS Technical Support staff to communicate with customers who have hearing or speech disabilities. The availability of this service may vary by country or region.
Sending Sensitive Data
SAS safeguards data that is sent to SAS Technical Support in the same manner in which SAS protects its own similar confidential information. For details, see SAS Technical Support Policy Regarding Customer Materials in Support Files.
Termination
Effective October 1, 2023, SAS provides the termination rights detailed in www.sas.com/termination.