Installing SUSE Manager Using RAW Image

SUSE Manager offers various image formats, including a RAW format. This guide demonstrates how to set up SUSE Manager Server using the raw image.

1. Use Case

RAW images are pre-built, ready-to-use representations of a running operating system. Instead of being installed through a traditional installer, they are directly copied to the hard disk of the target host. RAW image format is flexible and compatible with a wide range of virtualization and deployment tools.

This guide provides essential information about these pre-configured images.

2. Outcome

Successful completion of this workflow results in successful installation of SUSE Manager Server.

3. Step-by-step Instructions

This workflow is complex and time-consuming. Make sure that adequate testing is done before deploying the procedure in live environment.
Procedure: Prepare the Prerequisites

  1. Download the Image: Download the architecture-specific .raw.xz image of SUSE Manager Server for your target block size.

  2. Make Image Accessible: Copy the image to a web server (preferred), or expand the .raw file to add directly as a disk in a virtual environment (if supported).

  3. Target Disk Setup: If applicable, in virtual machine hypervisor, create:

    1. A 40GB root disk

    2. Additional storage for persistent SUSE Manager data

Procedure: Installation Steps

  1. Prepare Boot Environment and Network

    1. Provide a bootable ISO (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SPX or SLE Micro 5.5) to access the "Rescue System." Add netsetup=1 on the kernel command line for networking, or configure IP via ifcfg.

    2. Create a new instance, attach the root and persistent storage, then attach the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server or SLE Micro ISO as a virtual CD.

    3. Boot the instance to the ISO, selecting the Rescue System.

    4. Add the following on the command line to enable network configuration.

      netsetup=1

  2. Configure Network and Identify Devices

    1. Complete network setup as prompted and log in as root.

    2. Use a disk storage utility like blockdev or lsblk to verify the block size against your downloaded image.

      blockdev --getpbsz $device
      lsblk -o NAME,PHY-SEC

  3. Transfer the Image

    1. Use curl to copy the .raw.xz image onto the root disk:

      curl -Sks $url | xz -d > $device -v

    2. Replace $url with the image URL and $device with the root partition device.

  4. Finalize Boot and Configuration

    1. Power off the instance, remove the virtual CD from the boot sequence, and start it again to boot from the newly created instance.

    2. Follow on-screen installation directions and, if needed, register with SUSE Customer Center, adding the SUSE Manager Server Extension.

  5. Install VMware Tools (if applicable)

    1. Install the open-vm-tools

      transactional-update pkg install open-vm-tools

    2. Reboot after installation.

  6. Provision Persistent Storage

    mgr-storage-server $device

    Ensure $device points to the fast, persistent storage.

For more information, see Persistent Volumes.