The SAS® Viya® Platform
Note: This section covers only the SAS Viya platform. See the Support for SAS® Viya® 3.x and Support for SAS® 9.4 & Earlier Releases sections for more information about those releases or go to the main page to access all Technical Support policy links.
What is Continuous Delivery?
Continuous Delivery is a software engineering approach in which Research and Development teams produce software in short cycles, ensuring that the software can be built, tested, and delivered faster and more frequently. The release cycles in continuous delivery systems are called cadences.
SAS offers the following release cadences for the SAS Viya platform:
Stable Cadence
This is a monthly release that provides any of the following: New features, changes or enhancements to features, or bug fixes. The latest Stable version contains the most up-to-date features and bug fixes. Beginning in September 2022, Stable version numbers follow this format: Stable yyyy.mm (example: Stable 2022.09 is released in September of 2022). Before September 2022, Stable version numbers followed this format: yyyy.n.n (example: 2021.1.1).
Long-Term Support Cadence
This release occurs once every six months and contains an aggregate of features and bug fixes produced for the Stable version from two months prior. Beginning in November 2022, Long-Term Support version numbers follow this format: Long-Term Support yyyy.mm (example: Long-Term Support 2022.09 is released in November of 2022 and based on the Stable version from September plus bug fixes). Before November 2022, Long-Term Support version numbers followed this format: yyyy.n (example: 2021.1).
Note: Software as a Service customers do not choose a cadence.
Selected critical bug fixes and security vulnerability fixes will be delivered as soon as they are ready rather than waiting for a scheduled update.
To understand the typical release schedule, see Release Schedule and Versions in SAS® Viya® Platform Operations. You can change between cadences, but your support level will also change. For guidance, see Guidelines for Updating to a New Version in SAS® Viya® Platform Operations.
Support Levels for the SAS® Viya® Platform
With the accelerated pace of software development in the marketplace, SAS is releasing products much faster. As a result, SAS recommends that customers install the most current release of their SAS software products. Current SAS software means that customers have the latest and best technology, and they are better protected from potential vulnerabilities.
SAS Technical Support follows this two-level support policy:
Standard Support
- Stable: Standard Support covers the current Stable version and the three previous Stable versions. Therefore, to ensure that their SAS software is covered by Standard Support, customers are required to update to the latest Stable version at least every three months.
- Long-Term Support: Standard Support covers the current Long-Term Support version and a maximum of* the three previous Long-Term Support versions. Therefore, to ensure that their SAS software is covered by Standard Support, customers are required to update to the latest Long-Term Support version at least once every two years.
Standard Support for a qualifying SAS Viya platform release is applicable as long as the SAS Viya platform release is deployed on a supported Kubernetes platform. For details, see SAS® Viya® Platform Releases That Have Been Declared under Limited Support.
Limited Support
Limited Support is provided for (a) Stable and Long-Term Support versions that are older than the versions covered under Standard Support, and (b) versions running on a Kubernetes version that is not supported for the SAS Viya version. Limited Support includes only access to the product documentation and self-help resources. Software in Limited Support does not qualify for Severity Level 1 or Severity Level 2 critical support requests.
Note: Customers whose SAS Viya platform deployments are in Limited Support cannot download patches for those versions, but they can download assets for a supported version so that they can upgrade or redeploy.
*For additional details, see the SAS® Viya® Platform Releases That Have Been Declared under Limited Support section.
In addition to providing the latest technology and security for customers, this support structure provides customers with a predictable date for when a SAS software version moves to Limited Support. This information enables customers to plan their SAS software upgrades accordingly.
To determine whether their software is still supported by Standard Support, customers should reference the View the Update Checker Report section in SAS® Viya® Platform Operations. Customers can use the update checker to determine when the support window ends and whether there is another update available.
Note that there might be some exceptions to the following policy. See the SAS® Viya® Platform Releases That Have Been Declared under Limited Support section for more details.
| Support Level | Methods for Contacting Support | Activity by the Technical Support Team | Support for Patch Updates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Support | Telephone, Email, Web Interface Technical Chat (where it is available) | Provides full support, including select security and defect fixes, for the SAS software version as defined in the Support Levels for the SAS® Viya® Platform section. Standard Support includes investigating all submitted support requests and providing circumventions, whenever it is possible. | Provided for selected critical support requests. |
| Limited Support | Telephone, Email, Web Interface Technical Chat (where it is available) | Provides access only to the product documentation and self-help resources*. Software in Limited Support does not qualify for Severity Level 1 or Severity Level 2 critical support requests. Limited Support lasts until the SAS software product is retired. | Not provided. |
*Notes:
| |||
SAS® Viya® Platform Releases that have been declared under Limited Support
Standard Support for a qualifying SAS Viya platform release is applicable as long as it is deployed on a supported Kubernetes platform, such as Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and that platform is running on one of the specific Kubernetes versions documented by SAS. In the event that the Kubernetes platform no longer supports any of the documented Kubernetes versions required by a specific release of the SAS Viya platform, SAS reserves the right to declare Limited Support for that release on that Kubernetes platform. For more information, see SAS Support for Alternative Kubernetes Distributions.
If any SAS Viya platform releases are declared to be under Limited Support for one or more Kubernetes platforms because the documented Kubernetes versions are no longer supported by some cloud providers, SAS will list them via a table below. In this scenario, SAS recommends that you check with your cloud provider to determine when the support date for the Kubernetes versions required by your SAS Viya platform release will end and plan an update accordingly.