This guide is intended for use by professional network and system administrators during the actual planning, deployment, configuration, and 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 the purpose of such an audit, has been requested.
This guide contains the following:
Before you install SUSE Linux Enterprise, choose the deployment strategy and disk setup that is best suited for your scenario. Learn how to install your system manually, how to use network installation setups, and how to perform an autoinstallation. Configure the installed system with YaST to adapt it to your requirements.
SUSE Linux Enterprise offers a wide range of tools to customize various aspects of the system. This part introduces a few of them.
Learn more about the underlying operating system by studying this part. SUSE Linux Enterprise supports a number of 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.
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, and integrates well into heterogeneous environments including MS Windows clients and servers.
This edition of SUSE Linux Enterprise includes several security-related features. It ships with Novell® AppArmor, which enables you to protect your applications by restricting privileges. Secure login, firewalling, and file system encryption are covered as well.
SUSE Linux Enterprise includes a wealth of applications, tools, and documentation should you need them in case of trouble. Some of the most common problems that can occur with SUSE Linux Enterprise and their solutions are discussed in detail.
We want to hear your comments and suggestions about this manual and the other documentation included with this product. Please use the User Comments feature at the bottom of each page of the online documentation and enter your comments there.
For the latest version of this documentation, see the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Web site.
For additional documentation on this product, refer to http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/index.html:
Basic information about installation types and work flows.
Architecture-specific information needed to prepare a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server target for installation.
An in-depth administration guide to Novell AppArmor that introduces application confinement for heightened security in your environment.
An introduction to managing various types of storage devices on SUSE Linux Enterprise.
An in-depth administration guide to setting up high availability scenarios with Heartbeat.
An introduction to virtualization solutions based on SUSE Linux Enterprise and the Xen* virtualization technology.
For a documentation overview on the SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop product, refer to http://www.novell.com/documentation/sled10/index.html. The following manuals are exclusively available for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop:
A comprehensive guide to the GNOME desktop and its most important applications.
A comprehensive guide to the KDE desktop and its most important applications.
An in-depth guide for administrators facing the deployment and management of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.
An in-depth administration guide to Novell AppArmor that introduces application confinement for heightened security in your environment.
Many chapters in this manual contain links to additional documentation resources. This includes additional documentation that is available on the system as well as documentation available on the Internet.
The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:
/etc/passwd: filenames and directory
names
placeholder: replace
placeholder with the actual value
PATH: the environment variable PATH
ls, --help: commands, options,
and parameters
user: users or
groups
Alt, Alt+F1: a key to press or a key combination; keys are shown in uppercase as on a keyboard
, +: menu items, buttons
►amd64 ipf: This paragraph is only relevant for the specified architectures. The arrows mark the beginning and the end of the text block.◄
►ipseries s390 zseries: This paragraph is only relevant for the specified architectures. 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.