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SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Covers a Lot of Ground
by Jason Brooks
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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.
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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.
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Installation Server
SLES 11 makes it fairly easy to configure an installation source that's discoverable on one's local network through SLP.
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VM Install Tool
SLES 11's VM creation tool, however, didn't detect the service.
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PolicyKit Configuration
I was able to delegate specific system rights, such as those for monitoring VMs on a SLES host, with PolicyKit.
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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.
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VM Install Snag
I ran into a snag while installing an rPath Mediawiki appliance under SLES 11's Xen hypervisor.
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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.
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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."
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Supported Kernel Modules
I had to modify a configuration file to allow my SLES 11 test machines to use unsupported kernel modules.
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