The SAS® Viya® Platform

Note: This page covers only the SAS Viya platform. See the Support for SAS® Viya® 3.x and Support for SAS® 9.4 & Earlier Releases pages 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. Stable version numbers follow this format: Stable yyyy.mm (example: Stable 2022.09 was released in September of 2022). 

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. Long-Term Support version numbers follow this format: Long-Term Support yyyy.mm (example: Long-Term Support 2022.09 was released in November of 2022 and based on the Stable version from September plus bug fixes). 

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 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.¹ 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.     

¹For additional details, see the SAS® Viya® Platform Releases That Have Been Declared under Limited Support section. 

Standard Support for a qualifying SAS Viya platform release is provided in accordance with the following:

• The SAS Viya platform release meets the system requirements. Note that customers who run their SAS Viya platform release on an alternate Kubernetes distribution are covered by Limited Support.
• The supported vendor's Kubernetes release is not at end of life.

If a vendor's Kubernetes release moves to end of life during a Long-Term Support cycle, SAS may not be able to secure and patch the software. In this scenario, the SAS Viya platform release may be declared to be under Limited Support per the Third-Party Vendors policy. Refer to SAS® Viya® Platform Releases that have been declared under Limited Support for additional information. 

Limited Support

Limited Support is provided for (a) Stable and Long-Term Support versions that are older than the versions covered under Standard Support, (b) versions running on a Kubernetes version that is not supported for the SAS Viya version, and (c) versions declared in SAS® Viya® Platform Releases that have been declared under Limited Support. 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.

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.  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. Limited Support lasts until the SAS software product is retired.	Not provided.
*Notes: Self-help resources include the SAS Customer Support and SAS Support Communities websites. Customers can search these resources for potential circumventions to issues that are similar to ones that they are experiencing. To ensure that SAS customers have the latest security updates for SAS software, SAS recommends that customers install the most current version of the software.

SAS® Viya® Platform Releases that have been declared under Limited Support

SAS may no longer be able to deliver security updates and patches for SAS Viya platform releases that are in their support window but no longer meet the criteria for Standard Support. In cases where SAS cannot secure and patch the SAS Viya platform release on a specific vendor’s Kubernetes version, that release (on the vendor’s Kubernetes version) is declared under Limited Support and listed here. Customers running these releases might qualify for uninterrupted access to SAS Technical Support through Extended Technical Support while they are in the update process.

Note: If no releases are listed here, then all releases in the support window are covered under Standard Support.