Installing and Renewing SAS


SAS (Windows only, not for Mac OS)

More information about SAS availability and version options at Northwestern is listed here: https://services.northwestern.edu/TDClient/30/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=134

  • New SAS licenses are procured through CDW via iBuyNU. The license period aligns with Northwestern University’s fiscal year, running from September 1 to August 31.
  • Northwestern IT recommends avoiding new or renewal license purchases in August due to the renewal schedule. Purchases should only be made in this period if the user's project needs outweigh the timing of the upcoming fiscal year’s license release.
  • For renewals, reinstalling SAS is not required. Please follow the instructions below for detailed steps.
  1. Do not reinstall SAS as instructed in the SAS Order Confirmation doc forwarded to you by your Department Financial Coordinator
  2. Contact KIS to get the SID file (.txt) license file and save it on your computer
  3. Follow the steps below to apply the SID file to get the license renewed
  4. Verify that all SAS sessions are closed or that the SAS expiration message windows is closed
  5. Navigate to c:\program files\SASHOME\SASDeploymnetManager\9.4, right click SASdm.exe and select Run as administrator, select Renew SAS Software, click Next in the SAS Deployment Manager dialog box, “Apply SAS Foundation license file for renewal” is selected by default.
  6. Click Next
  7. Click Browser and navigate to the SID license file
  8. Verify the operating system and SAS products, and click Next
  9. Click Start. A green check mark is displayed if the license renewal is successful.
  10. An error message is displayed if the renewal is not successful.
  11. Click Finish
  1. Open the SAS Order Confirmation doc forwarded to you by your Department Financial Coordinator
  2. Download the SAS installation zip file(~20GB) from the link in the Word doc. It will take some time if you do it over Wi-Fi
  3. Unzip the file with 7-zip (it will take about 5 minutes only to unzip with 7-zip,  can be a few hours with Windows “Extract files”)
  4. Run setup.exe to install “Install SAS Software” first
  5. Run setup.exe AGAIN, on “Install SAS software” screen, click on “Next” then select “Install SAS Foundation and Related Software”
  6. Keep the default selection on the next few screens. For Language Support, select Clear All to keep English only
  7. Launch SAS, and you should see the copyright and site #.
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Graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text messageDescription automatically generated



  1. Open a SAS session
  2. In the SAS Editor windows, enter this code: proc setinit; run;
  3. Select Run > Submit
  4. View the products and expiration date in the SAS log window