Product Information

SUSE Manager delivers best-in-class Linux server management capabilities, like automated software management, system provisioning and monitoring. It enables customers to easily manage Linux server deployments across physical, virtual and cloud environments, decreasing total cost of ownership while improving compliance and service quality. You can even use SUSE Manager to manage both SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers from a single pane of glass.

With SUSE Manager you can:

• Slash cost of ownership by automating server management and provisioning tasks
• Reduce the complexity of managing Linux systems across a range of hardware, hypervisors and cloud platforms
• Simplify compliance by quickly complying with regulatory audits without resorting to manual procedures, and using SUSE Manager's built-in reporting capabilities to easily provide information to auditors.
• Improve service quality by helping IT administrators perform management and provisioning tasks faster and with fewer errors and allowing you to identify server performance issues before they can impact the business
• Manage both SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux

SUSE Manager is made up of the following components:

• SUSE Manager server - Deployed behind a company's firewall, it provides the interface and connection with Novell Customer Center, hosts the modules that deliver SUSE Manager's functionality and services, and captures and maintains all managed server data.
• SUSE Manager proxy server - Lowers bandwidth needs and provides faster local updates for Linux environments with over 300 servers or dispersed geographical locations.
• Management Module - Delivers the functionality for updating servers as well as advanced server management capabilities that increase the scalability of Linux environments and enhance IT staff productivity.
• Provisioning Module - Enables deployment, configuration and re-deployment of Linux systems from a single centralized console.
• Monitoring Module - Allows for the easy tracking of server health, delivers notifications when customer-defined server performance thresholds are exceeded, and provides templates for reporting and analysis.

SUSE Manager server and the management module are required for each SUSE Manager installation.

Deployment and System Requirements

SUSE Manager server and proxy server are provided as software appliances for easy installation on physical hardware or as virtual appliances on all virtualization platforms supported with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1. SUSE Manager includes a built-in Oracle XE database, but can also leverage existing Oracle 10g or 11g databases, to store all data related to the managed Linux servers.

Minimum requirements include:

• x86_64 server only
• Intel* Pentium* 4 or later or AMD* Opteron* or later, 2 GHz , 512 K of cache or equivalent; Intel or AMD multicore processor, 2.4 GHz recommended
• 2 GB of memory (8 GB recommended)
• 5 GB of storage for basic installation (50 GB of disk space recommended)
• 12 GB of storage for database repository
• Separate partition for storing backups

product documentation

For product documentation, see the SUSE Manager Documentation page.