How to install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

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If you are planning to use Suse Linux or already using it, then this short guide can put more highlight on the usage. The guide is based on setup and installation of Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11. I had tried my best to find the most intact answer for various aspects of setup. The configuration and setup are not meant for novice. You should have a technical understanding how a server environment actually works. Suse Linux server is considered as one of the most reliable server available to handle ample of task. They can be deployed easily and provide effective solution in comparison to others. Meant for critical IT app the distro let you to work in more complicated environment. The new version provides you better cloud environment. It is designed to give you better option related to third party app support. Because of third party app support the server are capable of running any type of app available worldwide.

There can be certain limitations related to some application. Also you will get ample of technical support on purchase. I had not used many images, as it will make the guide more bulky. I had tried to cover all necessary steps that are required for setting up the service. The guide is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 installation. Due to improvement in GUI based installation it is become much easier to guide anyone for setup. There are no complex commands or code used.

Installation Steps: It is not require having a very high end system for installing suse. A CPU above 2.4 GHz, 1GB ram, 2 GB of free disk space is quiet enough.

To install boot your system with Suse Linux Enterprise Server DVD:

• At the boot screen you will see 6 options. They are Boot from Hard Disk, Installation, Repair installed system, Rescue system, Firmware Test and Memory test. If you had install any Linux distro before then the job will be easier. Choose Installation and hit enter.
• Now you can see the welcome screen where you need to change the language settings. By default English is reflected on both the drop boxes. Agree the license term and then click on Next.
• After a small system analysis you will land on the installation window. This window offer you three way of installing Suse Linux Enterprise Server. They are New Installation, Update and Repair Installed system. Also an additional box in the end allows you to choose any add-ons you want to install. Choose New Installation and hit Next.
• Now choose your Region and time zone. Hit Next.
• The option that appears now is important. It ask you your sever scenario. The option under this is Physical Machine, Virtual Machine and Xen Virtualization host. Choose Physical Machine means your existing system. The base operating system will be Suse Linux. Other client can connect to the server. Second Virtual Machine will create a virtual partition in your system on which this will be installed. It will work within your existing operating system. And the last option Xen Virtualization host is a bit advance options based on configures multiple host operating systems on the server. Click on Physical Machine and hit Next.
• Now you can see installation settings windows. Here there are two modes. First the default one which is listed under Overview. The information is taken by default based on pre-configured settings, while expert mode can help you to modify the system partition and installation options. Click on Install. Again in the new confirmation window click on install. This is the place where the server is installed in your system. The next part consists of configuring the server.
• The first window that you can see after installation is configuring the admin account. Type the password and do not forget the same. Then next window will ask for hostname and domain name. Provide the necessary information and click on next.
• The next page is now network configuration window. You can add up your network details here or simply skip it for later. But it is good idea if you can configure that here so that you can test the connection. Click on Next. Here you can test internet connection. Once done click on next.
• The next option to configure customer center here. This is recommended as this will recommend you to get help from tech support based on various issue. Click on configure and choose the options that you want for tech support. Click Next.
• This step consists of configuring the Network service. This is another important aspect that you have to check properly. Click on Use following configuration. This is the settings that are set by default. Click on Next.
• The upcoming window will tell you the process how users will be authenticated. Here you can choose options from Local / LDAP / NIS / Windows Domain. Click Next. Add a local user to the server. Fill all the details here. For more advance options you can click on User management. This will display more detailed things that you can check for user account configuration. Click Next then.
• This the second last step where you can go through release note for once. If not then click on Next. The last step is hardware configuration. It is not recommended to skip this process. It will show up the hardware in your system. As you find all correct, keep on clicking next. Once done tick on clone this system from AutoYast. This will be helpful for your future recovery purpose. Click on Finish. The installation process is now completed.

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Now the setup is completed. What come next is managing the server properly by settings up appropriate settings. There are many more things that are pending do after installation. It is important that you go through all this steps that I had mentioned below to get more stable features. There are something that you can avoid on your choice. Also there are some parts that you will only come to know after understanding it. So go through the below option and configure on your choice. Like it is your choice whether you need online updates or not. But I will recommend you to turn that feature on so that does not lose any important security update. This not only protects your system but also make it far more stable. Every time there are certain patches which are released and needed for your system. The update also helps to keep your repository upto date. You can run online update by running the command yast2 online_update.

With that you can see a window on your screen which will show you recommended updates. Next to that there is a summary box which will provide you more detail on the current mentioned update. You can click on Accept to run the patch installation. To install a new patch in your system run YaST. In that choose online update. You can also select software along with that. The patch installation depends on your choice, whether you want or you do not want to install it. Sometime a single patch comes with many patches inside it. So it might take time to install completely.

One more important thing that you have to check is disabling Delta RPMs. In SuSe the updates which are available for download or which are downloaded come in the form of deltarpms. So to install them the system might rebuild rpm from them which can make your system a bit slower. So you can simply disable that and download the update directly for installation. For that you need to modify the file zypp.conf. This file is located in /etc/zypp. Go in the folder open the file and set value false for download.use_deltarpm.

If you want to set the updates on automatic mode then there is one more option for that. It is possible to schedule the update as per your need. For that you will have to download and install an additional module called as YOU (yast2-online-update-configuration). You can get this tool from your software repository or you can download it. Or you can simply use YaST Software Management tool to get any utility related to YaST configuration. Install that and when you are done with this you can run yast2 online_update_configuration command to get the update configuration window.

Click on Activate and then choose the time period you want to run updates. Once you are done with this you do not require to worry about automatic updates. Another important thing that is needed to configure is Novell Support Link.

This is a kind online customer care support, which can help you to find various troubleshooting help based on hardware and other issues. I will recommend you to configure this. For that you have to setup NSL in your server. This is an additional tool which is responsible to collect your system information. This information is then use to analysis any issue generated by them. This is a very nice and easy to use troubleshooting help available for Suse Linux Server. You can get NSL via YaSt or by running supportconfig command. When you run supportconfig a log file is generated in the system which is located in /var/log. The file consists of your system name time and tbz extension. You can then submit this log file to Novell by generating a ticket number related to your issue. This ticket number is a kind of service request number which is needed in your every reference. To upload the log file run the following command -

supportconfig -ur typeyourserviceticketnumber.

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One more thing that I want to add here is some backup or restore helps for the server. Many time it happens that your server behave improperly and to easy restore you do not have any option. Suse Linux has a feature called as Snapshots or Rollback. This feature allows you to restore some of the most recent settings to fix the server issue. The tool keeps a snapshot of your existing file system. Called as Snapper it helps to restore the old settings within seconds. The file associated with this is btrf.

You can keep a close watch on the changes done to your system. You can compare two different snapshots and revert your settings as and when needed. The good thing to know about this feature, that the file created by this does not occupy much of your server space. Also it does not touch your data. It is recommended that you must keep an eye on file generated, because in due course if this tool works actively in the background, it is possible that a major part your disk is utilized. When you run Snapper you can see the list of changes that are made to the system partition. You can choose and click on show changes. Then from the next window you can tick on changes done and click Restore Selected. Snapper is an advance app which comes with many more features. You can set backup based on time period and restore your system as you want.

After that one more thing you have to do. That is to setup VNC. VNC helps you to access your server from remote location in GUI interface. It is much better if you can configure a session so that you can access the server from anywhere you want. You can make changes or troubleshoot problems. There are two modes available here for VNC setup. The first is Live and the second one is one time. In Live you stay connected to the server and the connection is terminated automatically after a specific time, while in one time you end the connectivity once and for always. All applications associated with the same are also stopped. So that normally depends on your choice. To configure One Time connectivity you will need to run YaST and run VNC module. Ensure that you allow Remote configuration. Another thing if your firewall blocks VNC connectivity then you must add an open port or else the connectivity will be blocked.

Troubleshooting:

Here are certain troubleshooting tips that might help you to deal with number of server issues. I had not mentioned very long steps here but some easy to find log files which are filled with all errors that you need to know. At number of place you might get error. For that you have take help of log files generated and find why the error has caused. You can also send the log file to support team to get solution on it. Mostly the error file lies in /var/log/ folder. But the name differs based on various servers operating. To find issue related to any desktop application you will need to check /.xsession-errors. Check the list of log file names:

• apparmor - The files contains error related to apparmor. This application is responsible for restriction application based on different security policies. The system admin can control the program behavior here.
• audit.log - It contains information related to files and other resources of your system. This file is another important thing to check in case of errors.
• boot.msg - The file contains log of errors which are reported at the time of booting. So any issue appeared at the time system boot can be found here.
• NetworkManager - Log file related all network connectivity failure.
• samba - log files related to issue appeared in samba server.
• wtmp - User login record information.
• YaST2 - information related to modification done by YaST.
• zypper.log - log file based on activities of zypper.