About This Guide #
This guide is intended for use by professional network and system administrators during the operation of SUSE® Linux Enterprise. As such, it is solely concerned with ensuring that SUSE Linux Enterprise is properly configured and that the required services on the network are available to allow it to function properly as initially installed. This guide does not cover the process of ensuring that SUSE Linux Enterprise offers proper compatibility with your enterprise's application software or that its core functionality meets those requirements. It assumes that a full requirements audit has been done and the installation has been requested, or that a test installation for such an audit has been requested.
This guide contains the following:
- Support and Common Tasks
SUSE Linux Enterprise offers a wide range of tools to customize various aspects of the system. This part introduces a few of them. A breakdown of available device technologies, high availability configurations, and advanced administration possibilities introduces the system to the administrator.
- System
Learn more about the underlying operating system by studying this part. SUSE Linux Enterprise supports several hardware architectures and you can use this to adapt your own applications to run on SUSE Linux Enterprise. The boot loader and boot procedure information assists you in understanding how your Linux system works and how your own custom scripts and applications may blend in with it.
- Services
SUSE Linux Enterprise is designed to be a network operating system. It offers a wide range of network services, such as DNS, DHCP, Web, proxy, and authentication services. It also integrates well into heterogeneous environments, including MS Windows clients and servers.
- Mobile Computers
Laptops, and the communication between mobile devices like PDAs, or cellular phones and SUSE Linux Enterprise need some special attention. Take care for power conservation and for the integration of different devices into a changing network environment. Also get in touch with the background technologies that provide the needed functionality.
- Troubleshooting
Provides an overview of finding help and additional documentation when you need more information or want to perform specific tasks. There is also a list of the most frequent problems with explanations how to fix them.
1 Available Documentation #
Note: Online Documentation and Latest Updates
Documentation for our products is available at http://www.suse.com/documentation/, where you can also find the latest updates, and browse or download the documentation in various formats. The latest documentation updates are usually available in the English version of the documentation.
The following documentation is available for this product:
- Installation Quick Start
Lists the system requirements and guides you step-by-step through the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from DVD, or from an ISO image.
- Deployment Guide
Shows how to install single or multiple systems and how to exploit the product-inherent capabilities for a deployment infrastructure. Choose from various approaches, ranging from a local installation or a network installation server to a mass deployment using a remote-controlled, highly-customized, and automated installation technique.
- Administration Guide
Covers system administration tasks like maintaining, monitoring and customizing an initially installed system.
- Virtualization Guide
Describes virtualization technology in general, and introduces libvirt—the unified interface to virtualization—and detailed information on specific hypervisors.
- Storage Administration Guide
Provides information about how to manage storage devices on a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
- AutoYaST
AutoYaST is a system for unattended mass deployment SUSE Linux Enterprise Server systems using an AutoYaST profile containing installation and configuration data. The manual guides you through the basic steps of auto-installation: preparation, installation, and configuration.
- Security Guide
Introduces basic concepts of system security, covering both local and network security aspects. Shows how to use the product inherent security software like AppArmor or the auditing system that reliably collects information about any security-relevant events.
- Security and Hardening Guide
Deals with the particulars of installing and setting up a secure SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and additional post-installation processes required to further secure and harden that installation. Supports the administrator with security-related choices and decisions.
- System Analysis and Tuning Guide
An administrator's guide for problem detection, resolution and optimization. Find how to inspect and optimize your system by means of monitoring tools and how to efficiently manage resources. Also contains an overview of common problems and solutions and of additional help and documentation resources.
- SMT Guide
An administrator's guide to Subscription Management Tool—a proxy system for SUSE Customer Center with repository and registration targets. Learn how to install and configure a local SMT server, mirror and manage repositories, manage client machines, and configure clients to use SMT.
- GNOME User Guide
Introduces the GNOME desktop of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. It guides you through using and configuring the desktop and helps you perform key tasks. It is intended mainly for end users who want to make efficient use of GNOME as their default desktop.
2 Improving the Documentation #
Your feedback and contributions to this documentation are welcome. The following channels for giving feedback are available:
- Service Requests and Support
For services and support options available for your product, see https://www.suse.com/support/.
To open a service request, you need a SUSE subscription registered at SUSE Customer Center. Go to https://scc.suse.com/support/requests, log in, and click .
- Bug Reports
Report issues with the documentation at https://bugzilla.suse.com/. To simplify this process, you can use the links next to headlines in the HTML version of this document. These preselect the right product and category in Bugzilla and add a link to the current section. You can start typing your bug report right away. A Bugzilla account is required.
- Contributions
To contribute to this documentation, use the links next to headlines in the HTML version of this document. They take you to the source code on GitHub, where you can open a pull request. A GitHub account is required.
Note: only available for English
The links are only available for the English version of each document. For all other languages, use the links instead.
For more information about the documentation environment used for this documentation, see the repository's README https://github.com/SUSE/doc-sle/blob/master/README.adoc.
You can also report errors and send feedback concerning the documentation to <doc-team@suse.com>. Include the document title, the product version, and the publication date of the document. Additionally, include the relevant section number and title (or provide the URL) and provide a concise description of the problem.
3 Documentation Conventions #
The following notices and typographical conventions are used in this documentation:
/etc/passwd: directory names and file namesPLACEHOLDER: replace PLACEHOLDER with the actual value
PATH: the environment variable PATHls,--help: commands, options, and parametersuser: users or groupspackage name : name of a package
Alt, Alt–F1: a key to press or a key combination; keys are shown in uppercase as on a keyboard
, / : menu items, buttons
AMD/Intel This paragraph is only relevant for the AMD64/Intel 64 architecture. The arrows mark the beginning and the end of the text block.
IBM Z, POWER This paragraph is only relevant for the architectures
z SystemsandPOWER. The arrows mark the beginning and the end of the text block.Dancing Penguins (Chapter Penguins, ↑Another Manual): This is a reference to a chapter in another manual.
Commands that must be run with
rootprivileges. Often you can also prefix these commands with thesudocommand to run them as non-privileged user.root #commandtux >sudo commandCommands that can be run by non-privileged users.
tux >commandNotices
Warning: Warning Notice
Vital information you must be aware of before proceeding. Warns you about security issues, potential loss of data, damage to hardware, or physical hazards.
Important: Important Notice
Important information you should be aware of before proceeding.
Note: Note Notice
Additional information, for example about differences in software versions.
Tip: Tip Notice
Helpful information, like a guideline or a piece of practical advice.
4 About the Making of This Documentation #
This documentation is written in GeekoDoc, a subset of
DocBook 5.
The XML source files were validated by jing (see
https://code.google.com/p/jing-trang/), processed by
xsltproc, and converted into XSL-FO using a customized
version of Norman Walsh's stylesheets. The final PDF is formatted through FOP
from
Apache
Software Foundation. The open source tools and the environment used to
build this documentation are provided by the DocBook Authoring and Publishing
Suite (DAPS). The project's home page can be found at
https://github.com/openSUSE/daps.
The XML source code of this documentation can be found at https://github.com/SUSE/doc-sle.