SLE-12-Server

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12

Compete more effectively though improved uptime, better efficiency, and accelerated innovation using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, a versatile server operating system for efficiently deploying highly available enterprise-class IT services in mixed IT environments with best-of-breed performance and reduced risk.

Increase Uptime
Full system rollback
The Full System Rollback feature gives you better resiliency by allowing you to take snapshots of the system, including the kernel files, and roll back. Because the bootloader is now integrated into the rollback process, system administrators can boot from a snapshot, enhancing fault recovery and change tracking and comparison, and improving data safety.

Exploiting hardware RAS
Enhance your system reliability and reduce service costs by exploiting the RAS features of your hardware platform in ways only SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 can.

Ready for SUSE linux enterprise live patching
Improve your service availability by reducing planned downtime. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 includes infrastructure for a live kernel patching technology delivered through SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching. With it, you can update security patches without rebooting machines and without waiting for your next service window. As a result, it improves the availability of your mission-critical workloads and virtual hosts to increase business uptime. More >

Extensions for clustering
Achieve higher service availability by clustering servers together and removing single points of failure. SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension offers an industry-leading, mature high availability solution. Further enhance your business continuity by connecting data centers across unlimited distances with Geo Clustering for SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension.

Security standards compliance
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 is in evaluation for a Common Criteria Certification, and multiple security modules are in process for a FIPS 140-2 Validation with the NIST. Among those modules are OpenSSL, OpenSSH client and server, Strongswan (IPSec-based VPNs) and the Kernel Crypto API. See the NIST list of modules in review.

Improve Operational Efficiency
New YaST
Save time and effort in managing local systems with a tool that’s easy-to-use and consistent in its user experience. In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, the popular, user-friendly YaST® gives you the capability to customize your system quickly during and after the installation. YaST is now written in Ruby so it’s more open and easily customized.

New installer
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 introduces a new installer that saves time with faster installation and fewer reboots in the workflow. Its Ruby scripts allow partners to embed SUSE Linux Enterprise Server into their solutions more smoothly.


Wicked
Wicked is a local network management tool that makes it easy to manage ever-more-complicated network configurations such as VLAN, virtualization, bridging, bonding and IPv6. Wicked, which originated in the "wicked" project, enables you to change configuration dynamically, thus providing network configuration as a service. Wicked allows you to import existing configuration files from older Linux operating system versions. You can perform standard configurations via the easy-to-use YaST interface.

SUSE customer center (SCC)
SUSE Customer Center is the new portal to centrally manage your SUSE subscriptions, access software updates and contact SUSE Customer Support. The user-friendly interface gives you a central view of all your SUSE subscriptions, allowing you to easily find the information you need. The streamlined registration flow gives you faster access to your patches and updates. And if you have any support requests or feedback, SUSE Customer Center is the place to go.

The subscription management tool (SMT)
The Subscription Management Tool is our proxy solution to help large organizations centrally receive patches and updates for their SUSE Linux Enterprise software. It provides our customers a way to easily migrate from Novell Customer Center to SUSE Customer Center and gain much simpler and faster access to updates and patches. SMT is also the prescribed way for large organizations to gain the benefits of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Modules. Systems management functionality beyond a pure proxy is provided by SUSE Manager.

IPv6
The next-generation Internet Protocol version 6 specification (IPv6), the successor to IPv4, can provide far more address space for device connection. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 natively supports IPv6, such as during installation. With IPv6 support, you can connect to next-generation network equipment.

Flexible deployment options
You can deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 anywhere in physical, virtual and cloud environments. You can deploy it on different hardware architectures like Intel 64, IBM System z and IBM POWER. It is a "perfect guest"―optimized for various hypervisors like Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, Xen and KVM. You can also find it in 50-plus public clouds, including Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

Full support for KIWI
KIWI is a tool that helps you simplify your "golden image" creation process and is now included in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 subscription. With one configuration, you can use KIWI to create OS images for physical deployments (DVD, USB) as well as provision it into virtual hypervisor environments (Xen, KVM, VMware, HyperV), container frameworks (Linux Containers, Docker) and public and private clouds. In fact, KIWI is the "engine" behind the well-known SUSE Studio. KIWI is used by the Advanced Systems Management machinery for image creation as well.

Linux containers
Since 2012 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has included commercial support for Linux Containers—for highly efficient, low-overhead OS virtualization. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 improves the manageability of Linux Containers with better integration into the common virtualization framework (libvirt). As a result, you can manage hypervisors (Xen, KVM) and Linux Containers using the same tools and integrate them into business processes equally. The libvirt interface also helps integrate Linux Containers into higher level frameworks, such as the

OpenStack-based SUSE OpenStack Cloud.
Docker
Docker is an open source technology that automates the deployment of applications inside software containers. It provides an additional layer of abstraction and automation of OS-level virtualization on Linux. Docker and Linux Containers are great ways to build, deploy and manage applications. Docker is supported in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 for your production environments. Learn more >

Samba 4 with server-side copy improvements
Samba allows you to easily and securely interoperate in the Microsoft Windows environment. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 includes support for the latest version of Samba 4, which provides better integration with Windows Active Directory Domains. When SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 is used as the file server in the Windows environment, you can leverage the copy-on-write btrfs file system to implement true "server-side copy" and improve copy performance for Windows users. You can also handle File Server Remote VSS Protocol (FSRVP) snapshot creation with btrfs and the Snapper tool.

Interactive and unattended upgrades
Using this feature, system administrators can quickly and easily upgrade their SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating systems, reducing downtime, lowering administrative costs and improving quality. In fact, SUSE Linux Enterprise supports (manual) major version upgrades for 10 years. With YaST, you can interactively prepare a suitable profile and then use AutoYaST to automatically upgrade groups of servers.

VMware tools integration
Save the time of downloading and installing VMware drivers and tools (open-vm-tools) separately. These tools are now fully supported and integrated into SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 in an all-in-one package with their performance fine-tuned. Updates use the same mechanism as the other packages in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Accelerate Innovation
Modules
Modern innovation can outpace the traditional enterprise software delivery model. The modules available in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 meet this need by providing faster integration with upstream updates. This design approach lets you balance the flexibility of the modules and stability of the infrastructure. More ›

Certified applications
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server supports a wide variety of third-party ISV applications, from mission-critical databases, e-commerce applications and ERP system, to email, file and print servers and web application servers. For the complete list of certified software applications for SUSE Linux Enterprise (all versions), please visit www.suse.com/partner/isv/isvcatalog.

Certified hardware
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is right at home in today’s data centers, which house a wide range of systems and platforms. Most leading hardware vendors support our Linux server OS, so you can save money by using your existing physical servers or new, low-cost commodity hardware.

SUSE SolidDriver program
The SUSE SolidDriver program accelerates the adoption of new technologies by removing complexities and risks associated with deploying kernel drivers. It gives customers an easy way to identify fully compatible and supported software code. The program offers system and component vendors' tools, specifications and processes that help ensure their kernel drivers are easy to deploy, secure, compatible with SUSE Linux Enterprise, and supported by SUSE and the hardware and component vendors.