Introduction to SUSE Linux Micro deployment
- WHAT?
Basic information about available SUSE Linux Micro installation images and hardware requirements.
- WHY?
To better understand all types of installation images for SUSE Linux Micro.
- EFFORT
Less than 15 minutes of reading and a basic knowledge of Linux deployment.
- GOAL
To choose the right SUSE Linux Micro installation image for a specific target environment and verify that the minimum hardware requirements are satisfied.
1 Installation images #
SUSE Linux Micro is distributed as downloadable installation images. There are multiple types of installation images and each of them is suitable for a specific deployment scenario. This article helps you decide what installation image or images apply for your installation environment based on several criteria.
1.1 Image type #
The following types of installation images are available for SUSE Linux Micro based on the installation type. Keep in mind that not all types of installers are available for each installation environment.
- Raw disk image
Raw disk image is not a bootable image with an installer but the actual image of an installed SUSE Linux Micro itself. It is not “installed” but rather copied to a hard disk device. On its first boot, you can configure basic system options using an ncurses user interface. Using a raw disk image, you can fine-tune the deployment setup with Combustion and Ignition tools.
- Self-install image
Self-install image is a bootable raw disk image that takes care of copying its content to a hard disk device.
- PXE installation image
A tar archive that can be used to install SUSE Linux Micro from a remote server using the PXE client on the target system.
- Virtual machine image
Instead of installing SUSE Linux Micro in a virtual machine, you can use pre-built disk images for supported hypervisors. The
.qcow
or.qcow2
are available for the QEMU emulator. TheVMware
images are intended for deployment on the VMware virtualization technology.- Cloud image
Use this image to run SUSE Linux Micro in a supported cloud environment.
All the above mentioned images are delivered as either a
base
or default
subtype. In
addition to the core OS, subtypes contain the following tools:
base
Podman
default
Podman
virtualization stack
Cockpit
salt-minion
1.2 Kernel type #
On AMD64/Intel 64, SUSE Linux Micro can be installed either with a default kernel or a real-time kernel. While default kernels focus on throughput-oriented operations and fair scheduling of tasks, real-time kernels are designed to maintain low latency and consistent response time. The default kernel is available in all types of installation images listed in Section 1.1, “Image type”. The real-time kernel is available in the following installation images:
Raw disk image
Self-install image
You can identify the real-time kernel images by the string
rt
in their file name.
1.3 Disk encryption #
If your deployment requires running SUSE Linux Micro on an encrypted disk, use an installation image with the disk encryption support.
You can identify images with the disk encryption support by the string
encrypted
in their file name.
1.4 Installation environment #
The choice of the installation image heavily depends on the environment where you intend to install SUSE Linux Micro.
- Bare metal installation
When installing SUSE Linux Micro directly on a physical host without virtualization or cloud services layers, you have several options depending on the type of the target hardware.
If the target host supports a bootable drive in addition to the main installation disk, use the self-install image.
If the target host provides only the main installation disk, use the raw disk image.
- Virtualized installation
To run virtualized SUSE Linux Micro, you have the following options:
Use a raw disk image as the main disk of the virtual machine.
Use a self-install image as a bootable drive and use it to transfer the disk image to the main disk of the virtual machine.
Use a pre-built virtual machine image of SUSE Linux Micro designed for a supported hypervisor.
- Cloud deployment
To run SUSE Linux Micro in a supported cloud environment, use a pre-built image designed for a supported cloud services provider.
2 Requirements #
This article lists requirements for deploying SUSE Linux Micro.
2.1 Hardware requirements #
SUSE Linux Micro deployment is supported on the following hardware:
- BIOS
Installing SUSE Linux Micro is supported on hosts with UEFI BIOS only. Hosts with legacy BIOS are not supported.
- CPU
AMD64/Intel 64 v2, AArch64 and IBM Z CPU architectures are supported.
- Maximum number of CPUs
The maximum number of CPUs supported by software design is 8192.
- Memory
SUSE Linux Micro requires at least 1 GB RAM. Remember that this is a minimal value for the operating system, the actual memory size depends on the workload.
- Hard disk
The minimum hard disk space is 12 GB, while the recommended value is 20 GB of hard disk space. However, the qcow2 images require at least 32 GB of hard disk space. When planning the HDD space, consider also the amount of space used by the workloads of your containers.
2.2 Virtualized deployment #
When deploying SUSE Linux Micro as a virtual machine guest, you need to have a VM Host Server running one of the supported hypervisors and prepare a virtual machine for SUSE Linux Micro deployment.
KVM in
libvirt
environmentVMware
Harvester
3 Legal Notice #
Copyright© 2006–2024 SUSE LLC and contributors. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or (at your option) version 1.3; with the Invariant Section being this copyright notice and license. A copy of the license version 1.2 is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.
For SUSE trademarks, see https://www.suse.com/company/legal/. All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Trademark symbols (®, ™ etc.) denote trademarks of SUSE and its affiliates. Asterisks (*) denote third-party trademarks.
All information found in this book has been compiled with utmost attention to detail. However, this does not guarantee complete accuracy. Neither SUSE LLC, its affiliates, the authors, nor the translators shall be held liable for possible errors or the consequences thereof.