Cárdenas, Sergio Ocón / Gómez, Pablo Iranzo / Spencer SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16 Official Administration Guide

Master SLES 16 system administration, security, and automation for the SCA exam
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-80602-158-1
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 576 Seiten

Mastering enterprise Linux administration can be overwhelming without guidance, especially for those targeting the SUSE Certified Administrator (SCA) certification or managing critical IT infrastructures. This practical guide offers the complete skillset required to confidently operate, secure, and maintain SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 16.
Written by senior SUSE product experts, this book helps you deploy physical and cloud systems, configure software and networking, secure services using firewalld and SELinux, and manage storage using BTRFS and LVM. With step-by-step instructions, real-world examples, and detailed chapters on automation with system roles and containers with Podman, you'll build confidence across core Linux administration topics. You'll also gain hands-on practice with system snapshots, kernel tuning, and AI with mcphost. It also includes a brief introduction to SLES 4 SAP-specific features. You'll learn how to configure services, harden systems, automate infrastructure with tools like Agama, Cockpit, and System Roles.
This is the only official guide for SLE administrators and engineers, providing trusted insight you will not find anywhere else. By the end, you will be well-equipped to manage SLES systems in enterprise environments and approach the SCA certification with confidence.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cárdenas, Sergio Ocón, Sergio Ocón Cárdenas

Gómez, Pablo Iranzo, Pablo Iranzo Gómez

Spencer, Rick

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Programmierung | Softwareentwicklung Software Engineering

Leseproben

1

Getting SLES 16 Up and Running (Physical and Cloud)

The first step to start working with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, also known as SLES, is to have it running. Whether on your own laptop as the main system, on a virtual machine, or on a physical server, the installation of SLES is required to get your hands on the system you want to learn to use SLES in. It is highly encouraged that you get yourself a physical or virtual machine to use and practice the examples while reading this book.

In this chapter, you will not just deploy a system but also learn the best choices to do so and be able to perform the deployment in an . These are the topics that will be covered:

• Installing SLES 16
• Running the SLES installation
• Running SLES on the cloud
• Installation best practices

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Technical requirements

The best way to get started is by having an SLES 16 virtual machine to work with. You may do so on your main computer or in the cloud. In the following sections of this chapter, we will review both options, and you will be able to run your own SLES 16 system.

A virtual machine is a way to emulate a complete computer. To be able to create these emulated computers on your own laptop, in case you are using macOS or Windows, you will need to install virtualization software such as VirtualBox. If you are already running Linux, it’s already prepared for virtualization, and you will only need to add the package.

Obtaining the SLES software and a subscription

To be able to deploy SLES, it is recommended that you obtain a SUSE subscription. Even when you can download images without a subscription, it is recommended to get one to access repositories with software and updates. You can get, free of cost, an from the customers’ portal site of SUSE using the following link: scc.suse.com. You then need to follow these steps:

1. Register to create an account on scc.suse.com. Do it by clicking on the Register button on the main page. It will take you to the registration page, as seen in the following figure. In case you already have one, continue to the next step. All you have to do is fill in the form, accept the and , and click on Create Account. You will receive an email to confirm your email address, and you will be good to go.

Figure 1.1 – SUSE customer center registration page (common to all SUSE resources)

1. Once you have an account, go to the scc.suse.com page and click on Log In:

Figure 1.2 – scc.suse.com home page indicating where to click to log in

1. Now enter your credentials: Username (the email you used to register will be your username) and Password, and click Sign In.

Figure 1.3 – scc.suse.com page requesting credentials

1. An email will be needed to verify your login. Click on Send me the code, and you will receive an email with a 6-digit code. Please enter the code received via email and complete the login process by clicking on Verify, as in the following figure (note: we are using 000000 as an example in the figure; please enter the code received in your email):

Figure 1.4 – scc.suse.com page requesting email verification to log in

1. Once you have logged in, go to the Start a Free Trial section, and then click on the text SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Finally, click on Request Trial Code. This will immediately provide a code to register your SLES.

You will receive your unique registration code. Please keep this code in a safe place; you will use it later to register your system. Note that in the following screenshot, we are showing a fake code with all zeros; your code will be digits and letters, and it will be unique to you:

Figure 1.5 – Receiving a unique registration code for our SLES instance at scc.suse.com

1. Now go to Home > Product Downloads > SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, select version 16, select the architecture (if in doubt, use AMD 64 / Intel 64), and go down to Installation Media Download. Download SLES appears as a fancy button on the next page:

Figure 1.6 – Downloads page at www.suse.com/download/sles

Then choose the ISO labeled as . Obtain the SLES 16 ISO image as follows:

Figure 1.7 – Choosing the ISO download of SLES 16 for x86_64

The ISO image is a file that contains an exact copy of the contents needed to perform a full installation (That’s why its size is almost 10 GB). This file will be used later to install our machines, whether dumping it on a USB drive for installations, unpacking it for network installations, or attaching it for virtual machine installations (or using out-of-band capabilities on servers such as IPMI, iLO, or iDRAC).

To verify the ISO image and ensure that the one we have is not corrupted or altered, a mechanism called can be used. Checksums are a way to review a file and provide a set of letters and numbers that can be used to verify that the file is exactly the same as the original. SUSE provides the checksums to do so in the downloads section. An article describing the process can be found here: https://www.suse.com/support/security/download-verification/

SUSE takes care of having an upstream project synchronized with SLES; it is called openSUSE Leap. If you want a community version to learn, you can always use openSUSE Leap and run all the exercises in this book (except the ones related to SUSE Customer Center).

Installing SLES 16

For this section of this chapter, we will follow the typical installation process to have SLES installed on a machine. We will follow the default steps, reviewing the options available for each one.

Preparation for a physical server installation

A physical server requires some initial setup before starting the installation. Some common steps include configuring the disks in the , connecting the server to the networks and preparing the switches for any that is expected (teaming, bonding), preparing access to external (i.e., ), setting up out-of-band capabilities, and securing the BIOS/UEFI configuration.

We will not get into the details of these preparations, except for the boot sequence. The server will require booting (start loading the system) from an external device such as a or (whether physical or emulated through the out-of-band capabilities).

To create a bootable USB thumb drive from a machine with Linux or macOS, it would be as simple as doing a “disk dump” with the application . The steps would be as follows:

1. Find your USB device on the system (usually on Linux, on macOS):

Please very carefully verify the disk name, as the procedure of using a disk dump will completely overwrite the disk target.

1. Check if the USB is mounted and, if so, dismount it.

In this case, only partition 1 of the disk , referred to as , is mounted. We will need to all the partitions mounted. In this example, it is easy, as there’s only one. To unmount, we can run the following:

Using superuser do or is a way to perform administrative tasks, such as unmounting devices. To do that, and other tasks, we have the option to log in as administrator ( in Linux and Unix-like systems) or run the command using...