Does your organization have its own hosting platform, or do you use a public cloud? No problem! We can also make our applications available in your own environment.

At Notilyze, we are committed to reliability and consistency when managing quarterly updates for SAS Viya environments. Our update process is carefully designed to minimize disruption and maximize stability for both our internal systems and customer environments. Below is an overview of our approach, from preparation to post-update validation. 

Testing in Our Own Environment First 

Validation is a cornerstone of our update process. A week before updating customer environments, we deploy the new release on our own systems. This allows us to: 

• Test the update, 
• Identify and resolve potential issues, 
• Refine our process for production environments. 

By addressing challenges in-house first, we reduce risks and ensure a smoother experience for our customers. 

Preparation: The Day Before Update Day

To ensure efficiency and minimize downtime, we follow a comprehensive pre-update routine:

1. Full Backup: We back up the viya_install directory to restore components if necessary.
2. Asset Preparation: All required assets for the update are downloaded in advance.
3. Environment Setup: We configure the container runtime to match the environment.
4. Container Preloading: Necessary containers are preloaded into the Kubernetes cluster to reduce downtime.

Execution: Update Day

On update day, our cloud team follows a meticulously planned process:

• Snapshot Creation: We take a snapshot of the environment to safeguard against issues.
• Configuration Updates:
• Update YAML configuration files.
• Ensure Kustomize configurations meet version requirements.
• Generate a new Site.yaml file reflecting the updated settings.
• Service Management: SAS services are temporarily stopped to avoid conflicts.
• System Updates:
• Apply patches to the operating system for security and compatibility.
• Update the Kubernetes orchestrator to the latest stable release.
• Refresh Helm charts to ensure proper deployment configurations.
• Deployment: SAS Viya is updated using the prepared assets.
• Validation: Post-update checks ensure all components function as expected.
• Cleanup: Once validation is complete, the snapshot is removed to free up resources.

Following successful updates to our own environments, we apply the same process to customer systems, guaranteeing minimal downtime while delivering the latest features and improvements.

Automation: Enhancing Efficiency

To further optimize our update process, we have focused on automating updates for our SAS Viya 4 environments, which comprise most of our infrastructure. Automation reduces the risk of human error and enhances efficiency, particularly for environments that are:

• On the same stable release version,
• Equipped with uniform software components,
• Running on identical operating systems.

Automation in Action

Similar to the manual process, automation occurs in two phases:

1. Pre-update Tasks: Necessary images are downloaded beforehand to minimize downtime.
2. Update Execution: The update process is executed using Ansible playbooks, which:
• Define each step as a separate task,
• Provide flexibility to update all or select environments,
• Accommodate environments with different configurations (stable vs. long-term support cadences, single vs. multi-node setups).

Currently, updates are conducted during the day to allow team members to address any issues promptly. However, our goal is to achieve full automation, enabling updates to run independently during weekends, evenings, or nights. Eventually, we aim to offer customers the flexibility to initiate updates at their convenience with the press of a button.

Our dedication to continuous improvement and automation reflects our commitment to delivering seamless and efficient SAS Viya updates, ensuring our customers benefit from the best performance and security.