SAS 9.2 Mid Tier Support for Windows 2008 R2

To date I had avoided Windows 2008 R2 because, until recently, it was not supported for the SAS 9.2 Mid Tier. I had read in SAS Installation Note 36616: SAS® 9.1.3 Service Pack 4 and SAS® 9.2 support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 that support for 2008 R2 was coming with the release of the version 4.3 mid-tier apps. Now that release has happened I checked back with the usage note to see if it had been updated and was pleased to see the following:

“The subsequent delivery, SAS 9.2 (TS2M3), Revision 10w46, is now available. This delivery includes the remainder of the 4.3 release, which is the SAS Content Server and SAS Web-based clients (for example, SAS Web Report Studio and SAS Information Delivery Portal).”

Something I also noticed at the bottom of SAS Note 36616 was a link to SAS Installation Note 40501: Java 6 Update 14 or later is required when you install SAS® 9.2 in the Microsoft Windows 7 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 operating environments. That note points out that for Windows 2008 R2 you also have to use Java 6 (rather than Java 5) and provides the following information on when Java 6 support started:

“Prior to SAS 9.2, Rev. 09w51, JRE 1.6 was not supported. In order to use JRE 1.6, you need to install SAS 9.2 09w51 or later.”

There is an explanation of the meaning of the revision number in SAS Installation Note 35627: Determining your SAS® 9.2 release. SAS 9.2 Revision 10w46 as mentioned in 36616 is more recent (being 2010 week 46) than SAS 9.2 Revision 09w51 mentioned in 40501 (which is 2009 week 51).

So it looks like I can try out Windows 2008 R2 now – as long as I also remember to use Java 6 and get SAS 9.2 Revision 10w46 or later. As a bonus I now understand SAS 9.2 revision numbers. :)

Found some SAS Enterprise Guide Custom Task development resources

I just saw an interesting SAS Discussion Forum thread relating to the development of custom tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide 4.2 & 4.3. Chris@SAS posted a reply containing a number of links to resources. Looks like a very useful list so I’m filing it away in case I have a need to do any custom task work at a later date.

I saw there is also a SAS support site page on Creating Custom Add-In Tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide with examples, templates and documentation at http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/guide/customtasks/

New Targeted Admin Courses from SAS

Checking my inbox today I saw an email from SAS Education with new course dates for 2010/2011. What really caught my eye was the addition of these new short (1-2 day) targeted admin courses:

It’s great to see more admin training available from SAS Institute, especially these targeted courses. I was often asked by people what training was available to help them administer their SAS Enterprise Guide or SAS Enterprise Miner installations. These new courses seem designed just for them. Of course, there’s still the 5 day SAS Platform Administration: Fast Track course too.

Now there are even more resources to help those who might want to become a certified administrator.