Two Fast and Needed Actions to Get the Best Value from Long Term Service Pack Support

Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) is our offering designed to increase customer service pack and core server support period for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Its dates are set per service pack/code base and can be seen in our Lifecycle Pages.

In a nutshell, LTSS allows customers to remain on a certain code base past the finish of its General Support and minimize the risk of running unsupported enterprise systems. Customers who purchase LTSS subscriptions, get access to the LTSS update channel which includes various patches and security fixes for up to three years after general support of a certain service pack ends.

Customers get LTSS for a variety of reasons:

• They can choose to skip a service pack altogether
• They have too many systems to update and this takes longer than the time between service packs
• Their update cycle is every four to five years
• They simply forget to upgrade and realize that it is too late to stay current so they go with LTSS

To gain full benefits out of your LTSS subscriptions, customers should remember to do two things:

• Activate their LTSS subscriptions. This unlocks access to the LTSS update channel.
• Patch their systems regularly.

Following the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” principle is great for home and hobby systems. Enterprise class servers need to be updated. If for no other reason, at least one bug comes to mind – system freezes after more than 208 days uptime… This was fixed in a kernel update so the patched systems did not even know about it. Maintaining an enterprise Linux system is a lot like changing the oil in your car – it needs to be done on regular basis to avoid bigger headaches… and it simply has to be planned for.

Find full details on our LTSS offering in the product pages on Long Term Service Pack Support.