Linux & Open Source - eWeek

Linux & Open Source: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Covers a Lot of Ground


Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 covers a lot of ground, offering organizations a menu of server roles that range from hosting traditional LAMP-type workloads to taking on Microsoft .NET applications and acting as both a host and a guest for server virtualization tasks. While eWEEK Labs found that SLES 11's feature ambitions result in a product that's stretched thin in some places, we found SLES 11 an apt building block for many organizations' server platform needs. Following is a tour of SLES 11 based on eWEEK Labs' tests. Read my review here.
 
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Covers a Lot of Ground
    by Jason Brooks
  • Host and Guest for Virtualization
    SLES 11 offers install-time options for deploying virtualization guest or host systems, as well as for setting up regular bare-metal servers.
  • VM Manager
    SLES 11 includes code from the Red Hat-driven virt-manager project for keeping tabs on virtual machines. The tool is appreciably more basic than the comparable virtualization tools from VMware or Citrix.
  • Installation Server
    SLES 11 makes it fairly easy to configure an installation source that's discoverable on one's local network through SLP.
  • VM Install Tool
    SLES 11's VM creation tool, however, didn't detect the service.
  • PolicyKit Configuration
    I was able to delegate specific system rights, such as those for monitoring VMs on a SLES host, with PolicyKit.
  • PolicyKit on SLES
    When running SLES 11 in graphical mode as a limited rights user, PolicyKit prompted me for an administrative password before carrying out certain operations.
  • VM Install Snag
    I ran into a snag while installing an rPath Mediawiki appliance under SLES 11's Xen hypervisor.
  • Supportability
    Novell has integrated into the system's software management toolset information about the support level that customers can expect for the various components that ship with SLES 11.
  • Unsupported Experimental Features
    The packages for experimentally offered SELinux and KVM functionality are marked as "unsupported," while a package I installed from SLES sister distribution OpenSUSE was marked with a support level of "unknown."
  • Supported Kernel Modules
    I had to modify a configuration file to allow my SLES 11 test machines to use unsupported kernel modules.
xڽZ[s۸~~d_nw7ŗXbwIHB ,JVeSjy|8oi&4oAuB>K9lHbc.!KvfzC7o``ƛVYQ|v$UK*7-;RLDL1OwҨxLO^>.B࿎F:|=F#mX021q #yF.#An{R7Yh[((6j{A،LQLDruzH&$fvȿ+|>o~QLg\M<4#9 "L7'f*Ή{'_tt6g4Wln(3сױ1,?ۈnS3aܰ)M)vtZ4ܪwP臑WhNdm\)I;-<><:1)+Vʢ M&x9tKS:f:bLÃnF1>PC ';!{0#p\V5Ra5G\攪1O|؈{G{(a(;}eq+)P0nC-U̥zU\Ɋn'p` Ձ ^2R`-*T հq셜Þݙo&)?>d R_E!*aR= ׼>Iqv* .[1aCuTD,O4͌3Ky W&?׀c:sBrZ)ĺQĴdv-[9Ϛ 7s.9n ٝօrI/ ah~I%_zlgŎvjf]ffSO0[h>\ !I$STؖN ik'?aWyQq& XR?Ó,)uN~t@|@>c/1)rd|>s\MbSH;{$+}7icqD8 +9 (< ^0ZV {7VeLt"dY> "6#h9p\+ɻtqO@"f.[㑙CB0e_.Ն^ovﶍ#+𫄐Х$^Xr:= vA͘wsN%!JfI+knsqeQapS#Z7>g67c 3O#$vjڧDw% vӂֽWˆלWestOuO~)\9c.4ga-q a cp+)=jѤ:>*7p}SUA^8/VK@V ncFјfTT>g_Y#xO3+(XP.u1sgֽ]0? V|țjUxמo4g{l qEig`oiXI%k#׉x`+,B!S]OLmSgNVӪ2讞]BU:m-.U3g`GG*ar;LmTkqء9j[Xo2cQ JvV_ܔ&˼C]`I`z#p7PD'RMApuPy#y&յy8$Pc.kEb oDz j*cnW~#Z3H䈘 M؞(.D-bt7")th8ɗn &5 ;όF)xp98R.'2]([yw~ޑZuU )RX^c݆̪f;OY*@Λ5`(3<>яv&NXyB)@ SPpxdMADfTaz8ak`9 &*nZS4,PB qٓu"fˆI^KerDdTF-V% yD&'.mϹZ4%f5!jC΅knVuoP7`Tcy^d `. )3_Qg dw %+7L>x G?>HA W{1q;b!+lGrČaUjDOaXnI hNjqE,~BA{S(Ж 3:E !hw==]},w<5Daهy:5wht;iG^xGwpґZ-h%fnHb,