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Product Information

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a server operating system that provides high reliablity, scalability and security. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has been designed to provide data centre applications, web services and networks. With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server you can deliver misson-critical services in physical and virtual environments at a fraction of the cost of other options.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 11 includes several exciting new features such as improved application/package management, improved Reliability, Availability and Serviceabilitiy (RAS), green IT innovations and new modular extensions - the High Availability extension and the Mono extension.

New Features

There are several exciting new features in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, all designed to give you ultimate control over your systems. From advanced systems management, to enhanced RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability), to new levels of power management, these features give you a Linux server you can count on and control. It is also complemented by optional new extensions that provide advanced capabilities for specific needs.

Fast Update Stack

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 includes a new set of technologies that let you rapidly update systems and install new packages. ZYpp, the software package management subsystem in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, automates the process of installing, removing, upgrading, and configuring software packages. It includes new versions of the libzypp library and ZYpper, a new, easy-to-use command line tool. Together, they dramatically accelerate the resolution of dependencies, improving update speed by over 100 times and providing the fastest performance of any enterprise Linux distribution. Systems that might have taken hours and minutes to update now take minutes and seconds.

Furthermore, improvements to the YaST systems management and configuration framework, including the YaST partitioner and AutoYaST, give you faster deployment of systems. The inclusion of CIM providers in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, together with a new cross-platform debugger, also provide more cost-effective and efficient administration, issue resolution, and management of these systems in mixed IT environments.

Reliability, Availability and Serviceability Advances

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 now supports swap over NFS, or support for using network file system (NFS) over Internet protocols (IP) to use remote storage for local server needs. With swap over NFS, you can use less costly “diskless' server systems. This simplifies your Linux server administration dramatically. It also reduces acquisition, implementation, and management costs, and protects your systems against application restarts and expensive downtime.

Also new in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 are control groups for more fine-grained management of CPU, memory, storage and networking resources. Control groups allow you to assign specific hardware resources to applications, processes and threads. This provides you with more granular control of resources and prioritised processing. The result is greater performance and availability of critical threads and processes.

Green IT Innovations

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server delivers some innovative power-saving features that let you get more from your systems for every watt of energy used. “Tickless idle' is a new kernel feature that eliminates the periodic timer ticks that occur when system CPUs are idle. When systems are idle, timer ticks can cause unnecessary power consumption when systems repeatedly wake up and come out of their power-saving “sleep' states. Eliminating these timer ticks when systems are idle allows the CPU to remain in power-saving states for longer periods of time. This simple change lowers your system power consumption and reduces costs. You'll also find enhancements that eliminate unnecessary timer events, as well as improved, more granular, file-based power profiles that you can use for easier enterprise-wide power management.

Modular Extensions with Advanced Capabilities

New extensions are available for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 that offer advanced capabilities for high availability clustering and running .NET applications on Linux.

SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension is an integrated suite of open source clustering technologies that help you implement enterprise-class clusters at the lowest cost. This makes high availability more affordable than ever. Included is a POSIX-compliant cluster file system, a clustered logical volume manager, policy-based health monitoring, membership layer and clustering software, distributed remote block device management, and tools to increase administrator efficiency. You can use this extension with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to create highly available services, ensure continuous access to your systems and data, and reduce unplanned downtime.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono Extension lets you run Microsoft .NET-based server applications on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. You can keep using your existing .NET-based applications, build new ones, and run them all on Linux to reduce cost, increase performance and improve productivity. These new extensions complement an existing extension—SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time.

Features

Integrated Systems Management - Efficiently set up, configure and manage your IT environment

Reliability, Availability and Serviceability - Get the most from your systems and reduce expensive downtime

Cross Platform Virtualisation - Increase resource utilisation and provision services faster

Interoperability with other Platforms - Make the most of, and simply the management of your heterogeneous IT infrastructure

Green IT - Get maximum server performance per watt of energy used

Comprehensive Security - Effectively protect your critical systems and data from external and internal threats

Advanced Networking - Get better performance by using the latest, optimised open source networking stack

High Performance Computing - Cost effectively solve the most demanding computational and data-intensive problems

Modular Extensions - Add advanced capabilities to your existing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Simplified Subscription Management - Efficiently manage your server support subscription entitlements

World Class Service and Support - Deploy with confidence knowing that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is backed by Novell and comes with innovative support diagnosis and reporting tools

System Req.

Minimum Linux server system requirements for installation

• Local Installation: 512 MB RAM
• Secure Shell (SSH)-based network install, graphical: 512 MB RAM
• Virtual Network Computing (VNC)-based network install using File Transfer Protocol (FTP): 512 MB RAM

Minimum Linux server system requirements for operation

• 512 MB RAM
• 750 MB hard disk space for software
• 750 MB hard disk space for user data

Recommendations for specific uses

• 512 MB to 4 GB RAM, at least 256 MB per CPU
• 4 GB hard-disk space
• Network interface (Ethernet, wireless or modem)
• For Xen virtual host server – At least 512 MB RAM for each virtual host server
• For Xen virtual machines – At least an additional 256 MB RAM for each virtual machine
• For print servers – A relatively faster processor or additional processors to improve server-based printing
• For web servers – Additional RAM to improve caching, and additional processors to improve Web application performance
• For database servers – Additional RAM to improve caching, and using multiple disks for parallel I/O
• For file servers – Additional memory and disks, or a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) system to improve I/O throughput

Supported processor platforms

• x86
• x86_64 (AMD64 and Intel EM64T)
• IA64 (Itanium 2)
• IBM POWER
• IBM System z (64-bit)