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INNOVATE Certification Program

Certification Policies

TestConsole (TC) Operating System

The TC OS version changes occasionally. The TC OS will always be a version of SLES that is still in distribution but might be different from the most recently released OS.

System Re-certification Requirements

The SUSE YES Certified mark is widely respected in the industry and certifies that third-party systems/solutions function properly with SUSE Linux Enterprise products. A comprehensive list of YES Certified products is of great value for SUSE, partners, customers, and end users.

Minor OS and Service Pack Releases

Once a system has been certified with an initial bare-metal OS (ex. SLE 15 or SLE 16.0), the system will be supported with subsequent minor OS (ex. SLE 16.1) or service pack (SLE 15  SP7) releases. However, if a partner wishes to list the latest minor OS or service pack release on a separate bulletin or wishes to claim YES Certification in relation to the new minor OS or service pack release, re-certification is required. Only products with a YES Certification bulletin are considered by SUSE to be a certified solution. 

Note: Reduced testing is not available for re-certification with a new minor OS, service pack or quarterly update.

Product Certification Inheritance

In the SUSE YES Certification program, bare-metal OS certification test projects include a comprehensive list of test suites that cover full hardware interaction with the kernel (including drivers, system firmware and OS interfaces). Because of this, SUSE products that sit on top of the kernel, and do not alter or update the kernel (ex. SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service), can be listed on a YES Certification bulletin under the Other Products heading at SUSE’s discretion. 

In addition, SUSE OS products that are based on the same kernel as the YES Certified system, (ex. SLE 16.0 and SL Micro 6.2), the second OS can be listed on the YES Certification bulletin under the Other Products heading. 

Note: Product certification inheritance requires an initial bare-metal OS certification and  does not grant certification status for subsequent minor OS, service pack or

Power Management

A workstation, laptop/tablet or POS project using SLED or SLES + Workstation Extensions allows for power management support to be displayed on the Yes Certification bulletin. The partner can select the Yes radio button (during test result submission in SBS) to have “Power Management: Yes” displayed on the YES Certification bulletin, indicating that power management is supported.

If the hardware/functionality does not exist, then the test will return a Not Applicable test result, otherwise the test will be considered applicable. If the majority of the following applicable tests pass, “Power Management: Yes” may be listed on a SLED or SLES + WE bulletin.

  • Hibernate Test
  • Sleep Test
  • CPU Frequency Test
  • Brightness Test (laptop/tablet only)
  • Brightness Keys Test (laptop/tablet only)
  • Lid Close Test (laptop/tablet only)
  • Battery Test (laptop/tablet and POS only)

If the majority of the above applicable tests return a fail or a test result not supported, the bulletin must display Power Management: No.

Power Management Config Note Requirements

If Power Management: Yes is shown on a bulletin, a configuration note must be added for all the above-named power management tests with failed or not supported test results.

Example Power Management configuration notes:

  • Power management: Hibernate/Suspend to Disk/ACPI S4 is not supported on this system
  • Power management: Sleep/Suspend to RAM/ACPI S3 is not supported on this system
  • Power management: System does not support battery monitoring
  • Power management: System/Processor does not support fan thermal scaling
  • Power management: System/Processor does not support throttling
  • Power management: System/Processor does not support dynamic CPU frequency scaling

If Power Management: No is shown on a bulletin, a configuration note may be added for any of the above-named power management tests with passing test results.

Example Power Management configuration notes:

  • Power management: Hibernate/Suspend to Disk/ACPI S4 is supported on this system
  • Power management: Sleep/Suspend to RAM/ACPI S3 is supported on this system
  • Power management: System supports battery monitoring
  • Power management: System/Processor supports fan thermal scaling
  • Power management: System/Processor supports throttling
  • Power management: System/Processor supports dynamic CPU frequency scaling

SLED to SLES Certification Bulletin

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) Certification policy applies to configurations covered by the Hardware Component Exchange Table.

SLED tested systems can be used to gain a SLES bulletin by meeting the following requirements:

  • The Workstation Project type must have been used during initial SLED testing
  • Two or more network adapters must be tested in the SLED system if the 3C bulletin will be a Network Server bulletin. This is not a requirement for a 3C Workstation bulletin.
  • A SLED Workstation bulletin must exist to be used to create the 3C SLES bulletin
  • Workstation Extensions must be listed on the SLES bulletin under Other Products.
  • A configuration note will be added to the SLES bulletin indicating Network Manager was used to configure the network.

SLES to SLED Certification Bulletin

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) Certification policy applies to configurations covered by the Hardware Component Exchange Table.  

Systems tested with SLES as a Server cannot be used to gain a SLED bulletin as SLES only contains a subset of SLED modules. However, SLES + Workstation Extensions (WE) contains all the same modules as SLED and can be used to create SLED bulletins by meeting the following requirements:

  • The Workstation Project must have been used during initial SLES + WE testing
  • A SLES + WE Workstation bulletin must exist to be used to create the 3C SLED bulletin
  • A configuration note will be added to the SLED bulletin indicating wicked was used to configure the network (if applicable)

Maintenance Updates, Kernel Patches and Technical Information Documents (TID)

When a maintenance update or kernel patch is installed, or a TID is required to pass portions or all YES Certification test suite, a configuration note must be added to the YES Certification bulletin stating which update or patch was used or which TID was followed during testing. The config note must also include a URL to the patch or TID.

Certification with SLE Products after general support has ended

Policy Update

Partners may complete a SUSE YES Certification of their hardware system using a SLES product/version that is past General Support but is still supported through an ESPOS or LTSS extended support contract/offering.

Note: Does not apply to any product that does not offer an extended or long-term product support offering.

This policy update will allow any 100-level or above partner to request certification if the SLES version is still in ESPOS or LTSS without a specific business case if they pass the YES Certification tests (or meet the 3C policy requirements for a copied bulletin). 

Restricted Bulletins

Restricted means a bulletin is released, and fully YES Certified, but must be hidden from anyone doing a general search on suse.com or on the Public YES Certified Bulletin Search page. 
There are two scenarios where a Restricted Bulletin may be created. 

1.    Bulletins created for systems that are YES Certified on an OS that is no longer under general support but is still covered under an LTSS agreement.
2.    Bulletins created (at the request of a partner) that is for a non-standard hardware configuration for a specific customer, that the partner wishes not to be made public.


In both cases, the partner will be given the direct URL to access the restricted YES Certification bulletin and is welcome to share the URL with customers.

 

Note: Bulletins that are restricted at the request of a partner, cannot be made public by SUSE. If a customer desires a restricted bulletin be made public, a formal request must be submitted to and approved by the partner.

The following configuration note will be required on all new bulletins released after General Support has ended (including new certification requests or 3C requests):

"System support: Please note that for full support on the listed OS release a special SUSE support contract is necessary."

In the case of a new YES Certification bulletin, the YES Certification testing must be completed using the latest or current System Certification Kit (SCK) available.  Using the latest SCK only applies if the latest SCK still supports the SLES version being YES Certified. If the current SCK does not support a version of SLE that is out of General Support, then the most recent SCK release must be used that supports the tested SLES version.

Note: SUSE only provides support for the latest SCK with "current" SLE versions that are in General Support during the specific SCK version lifecycle. 

The general rule is that older versions of the SCK are available but are unsupported. A partner with a dedicated engineering resource can request support or assistance from their dedicated resource, but no SCK or other development is available.

Caveats/Disclaimers

This policy does not apply if a system has new hardware technology (i.e., new CPUs or chipsets) that are not supported by SUSE on the ESPOS/LTSS SLES/product version.

The general policy is that no new hardware enablement is provided for SLES products in ESPOS or LTSS.  Customer deals, special SUSE SOW (Statement of Work) contracts and revenue can supersede this general new hardware enablement policy.

This policy does not apply to SLES or other SUSE products in LTSS Reactive.

SUSE System Certification Kits (SCKs) are only tested and validated on SLE versions that are in General Support when the SCK is released. No testing or validation is done with SLE releases that are past General Support when the SCK is released. Using older versions of SLES or the SCK are not officially supported; best effort support will only be provided through assigned Partner engineers.

SUSE Partner Engineering reserves the right to not allow the release of a submission that is in LTSS (or ESPOS) for specific targeted configurations. For example, a final SP (Service Packs) release of a SLES version that is only supported in long-term Point-Of-Service configurations; like SLES 11 SP4. This will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Like any YES Certification bulletin, SUSE reserves the right to withdraw any released YES Certification bulletin if full support is deemed not possible.

Reduced Testing

To qualify for reduced testing, a system must first successfully complete a full system test project on a fully configured model.

Reduced test projects apply for new YES bulletins when the configurations have changed. See the Hardware Component Exchange Table for a complete list of changed components that are eligible for reduced testing.

For example, a system that has successfully passed a full base system YES Certification test project (native or bare-metal certification), with a certification submission file created, qualifies to use the reduced virtualization projects when KVM or Xen are additionally certified on the same system.