Deploying SUSE Manager in the Cloud

Cloud environments grow organically and often include a dizzying combination of virtual, bare metal and container-based systems. If cloud computing is part of your Linux landscape, you’ll save time and money with a single tool for managing all your Linux resources. SUSE® Manager is a versatile Linux management tool (all major distributions) built for the cloud.

SUSE® Manager extends DevOps ideals to the cloud environment, unlocking a world of rapid deployment and automation.

The Salt automated configuration framework built into SUSE® Manager enables you to create detailed configurations in advance, setting up systems with a few simple mouse clicks. Further integrated software tools help you define channels for pushing updates and new software to the Linux landscape in a way that ensures uniformity and prevents rogue actions by local users and even rogue updates that might either break a service or prevent rollouts. The auditing features included in SUSE® Manager keep watch over your systems, automatically reporting deviations from internal policies or external standards.

Versatile

The versatile SUSE® Manager tracks, manages and protects your Linux systems no matter where they are. SUSE® Manager can serve a number of roles depending on the needs of your cloud environment. If you prefer to keep management resources on premises, use SUSE® Manager to manage cloud-based Linux server systems from a local data center.

An on-premise system managed with SUSE® Manager.

In a completely virtual setting, a cloud-based SUSE® Manager can look after a collection of cloud-based resources. However, if you have all cloud-based resources (such as AWS, Azure, Google, etc.), it makes sense to deploy SUSE® Manager there as well.

Organizations with resources scattered across several offices are still able to manage those servers from within SUSE® Manager . Even sending commands to those remotely located servers (if they are hosted in on-premises data centers of cloud-hosted servers) is made quite easy.

Running a command on a server hosted in a remote location.

The scenarios depicted above suggest an endless variety of options, with SUSE® Manager managing all major Linux systems in any combination of bare-metal, container and virtual environments. In all these scenarios, the IT staff just has to learn one tool and one set of procedures.

Built for the Cloud

SUSE® Manager offers effective lifecycle management services for Linux systems in both public and private clouds. Pre-built system images for SUSE® Manager are currently available in Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine, Microsoft Azure and other leading cloud environments. You can rest assured that SUSE’s extensive network of cloud partners enables you to deploy SUSE® Manager in the cloud environment you’re using now.

If you manage your cloud infrastructure through the OpenStack orchestration framework, SUSE® Manager will fit in seamlessly with your existing operations, providing lifecycle services such as configuration, auditing and software updates for systems deployed through OpenStack.

SUSE® Manager includes a number of built-in features for easy administration within cloud environments. For instance, when you “clone” a new image from a running system, SUSE® Manager offers a graceful way to register the clone and bring it under central management with minimal configuration.

SUSE also provides the SUSE® Manager Proxy tool, which is designed to help move content closer to groups of clients and is a part of SUSE® Manager scalability.

Operation of the proxy is completely transparent. The SUSE® Manager Proxy looks like a managed client to SUSE® Manager Server and like a server to the managed clients. Managed clients talk to the Proxy only, and the Proxy in turn communicates to the SUSE® Manager Server.

All software packages that pass the Proxy are cached, and subsequent client requests for these packages are resolved from the cache.

Do note that SUSE® Manager Proxy is a separate license from SUSE® Manager.

BYOS

SUSE’s Bring Your Own Subscription (BYOS) model adds flexibility to cloud configurations. BYOS allows you to transfer an existing SUSE® Manager 4 subscription to a cloud-based subscription administered through a certified SUSE® Cloud Service Provider, such as Amazon AWS, Google Compute Engine or Microsoft Azure. The BYOS model makes it easy to migrate to the cloud now or at a later date while maintaining continuity in subscriptions and support.

Conclusion

Today’s enterprise moves too fast for yesterday’s tools. SUSE® Manager 4 is a powerful solution for managing your Linux resources from a single interface. If you’re looking for a way to automate configuration, lock down security and keep watch over your cloud-based Linux environment, talk to the experts at SUSE for a closer look at SUSE® Manager.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is SUSE® Manager?

The latest release, SUSE® Manager 4.1 is a best-in-class open source infrastructure management solution that lowers costs, enhances availability and reduces complexity for lifecycle management of Linux systems in large, complex and dynamic IT landscapes. You can use SUSE® Manager to configure, deploy and administer thousands of Linux systems running on hypervisors, as containers, on bare metal systems, on IoT devices, and on third-party cloud platforms. SUSE® Manager also allows you to manage virtual machines.

The SUSE® Manager user interface lets you control a comprehensive collection of essential management tasks from a single user interface.

Keep your Linux systems in sync with a single tool for managing:

• Deployment
• Configuration
• Software updates
• Audits
• And more