SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Technical Information

System Requirements

  • Minimum Linux server system requirements for installation
    • Local Installation: 512 MB RAM
    • Secure Shell (SSH)-based network install, graphical: 512 MB RAM
    • Virtual Network Computing (VNC)-based network install using File Transfer Protocol (FTP): 512 MB RAM
  • Minimum Linux server system requirements for operation
    • 512 MB RAM
    • 750 MB hard disk space for software
    • 750 MB hard disk space for user data
  • Recommendations for specific uses
    • 512 MB to 4 GB RAM, at least 256 MB per CPU
    • 4 GB hard-disk space
    • Network interface (Ethernet, wireless or modem)
    • For Xen virtual host server—at least 512 MB RAM for each virtual host server
    • For KVM virtual host server—the limits are equal to those of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
    • For Xen or KVM virtual machines—at least an additional 256 MB RAM for each virtual machine
    • For print servers—a relatively faster processor or additional processors to improve server-based printing
    • For web servers—additional RAM to improve caching, and additional processors to improve web application performance
    • For database servers—additional RAM to improve caching, and using multiple disks for parallel I/O
    • For file servers—additional memory and disks, or a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) system to improve I/O throughput
  • Supported processor platforms
    • x86 (32-bit)
    • x86_64 (64-bit)
    • Itanium* (Itanium II or newer)
    • IBM* POWER*
    • IBM z/Architecture* (64-bit)

Kernel Limits

The following table summarizes the kernel limits associated with SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1. These limits are applicable to all SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop products based on version 11 SP1.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Kernel (2.6.32 Limits)

  x86 ia64 x86_64 s390x ppc64
CPU bits 32 64 64 64 64
max. # logical CPUs 32 up to 4096 up to 4096 64 up to 1024
max. RAM
(theoretical / certified)		 64 GiB / 16 GiB 1 PiB/8+ TiB 64 TiB/16 TiB 4 TiB/256 GiB 1 PiB/512 GiB
max. userspace / kernelspace 3/1 GiB 2 EiB/f 128 TiB/128 TiB f/f 2 TiB/2 EiB
max. swap space up to 31 * 64 GB
max. #processes 1048576
max. #threads
per process		 tested with more than 120000; maximum limit depends on memory and other parameters
max. size
per block device		 up to 16 TiB up to 8 EiB on all 64-bit architectures

Notes:

  • f = insufficient data
  • Theoretical limits are those which are theoretically possible, based on their design. In other words, systems within these limits should work, at least theoretically. On the other hand, certified limits are those which have been tested by SUSE and its partners, and certified to work in real life scenarios.
  • 1024 Bytes = 1 KiB; 1024 KiB = 1 MiB; 1024 MiB = 1 GiB; 1024 GiB = 1 TiB; 1024 TiB = 1 PiB; 1024 PiB = 1 EiB (see also http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html)
  • Logical CPUs refer to CPUs that are identified and seen by the Linux kernel. This can be different from the number of physical CPU sockets, which are physical entities typically mounted to a motherboard, or cores, which are also physical entities but usually not visible components of multi-core systems, or virtual CPUs, which are logical CPUs seen within a virtual machine.

File System Support

SUSE Linux Enterprise was the first enterprise Linux distribution to support journaling filesystems and logical volume managers back in 2000. Today, we support ext3, ReiserFS, XFS, and OCFS2. The current default file system for new SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 installations is ext3. OCFS2 is a cluster-aware file system, and is included with our High Availability extension. SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1 provides btrfs as a Technology Preview.

We suggest using XFS for large-scale filesystems, on systems with heavy load and multiple parallel read- and write-operations (e.g. for databases and file serving with Samba, NFS, etc.). XFS has been specifically developed for use under those conditions, while typical desktop applications (single write or read) will not necessarily benefit from its capabilities.

File System Support and Sizes

  ext3 ReiserFS v3 XFS OCFS2
Data Journaling Yes No Yes Yes
Metadata Journaling N/A No Yes Yes
Journal Internal Yes Yes No Yes
Journal External Yes Yes Yes No
Offline Extend Yes Yes No Yes
Offline Shrink Yes Yes No No
Online Extend Yes Yes Yes Yes
Online Shrink No No No No
Sparse Files Yes Yes Yes Yes
Tail Packing No Yes No No
Defrag No No Yes No
Extended Attributes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Access Control Lists Yes Yes Yes Yes
Quotas Yes Yes Yes Yes
Dump and Restore Yes No Yes No
Default Blocksize 4 KiB 4 KiB 4 KiB 4 KiB
Maximum File System Size 16 TiB 16 TiB 8 EiB 4 PiB
Maximum File Size 2 TiB 2 TiB 8 EiB 4 PiB

Notes:

  • The maximum file sizes above can be larger than the filesystem's actual size when using sparse blocks. Unless a filesystem comes with large file support, the maximum file size on a 32-bit system is 2 GB (231 bytes). Currently all of our standard filesystems (including ext3 and ReiserFS) have large file support, which provides a theoretical maximum file size of 263 bytes. The numbers in the above table assume that the filesystems are using 4 KiB block sizes. When using different block sizes, the results are different. 4 KiB reflects the most common standard.
  • 1024 Bytes = 1 KiB; 1024 KiB = 1 MiB; 1024 MiB = 1 GiB; 1024 GiB = 1 TiB; 1024 TiB = 1 PiB; 1024 PiB = 1 EiB (see also http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html)

Package Descriptions

Documentation

Included with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a comprehensive set of documentation to help you quickly and easily install, configure and manage your Linux servers.

Standards Compliance

Carrier Grade Linux Registration

SUSE supports the Linux Foundation's Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) specification. SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 meets the latest CGL 4.0 standard, and is CGL registered.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

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