Linux management and beyond

Anyone who uses IT systems has no choice but to manage, monitor and control or manage as many of the components in use as possible. Proactively, too. The use of so-called system management or enterprise management software has proven itself in many respects.

And the power and functional diversity of this type of software is increasing all the time - for example, to check the "health" of an IT system environment at a glance, to identify possible errors or downtimes and correct them in a kind of "self-healing" process, to fulfill compliance guidelines and security requirements, to keep track of assets at all times, or to save costs by providing automation.

Suse Manager

When Suse presented the system management software called Suse Manager in version 1.2 based on the open source solution Spacewalk in the spring of 2011, the focus was strongly on the monitoring or supervision of Linux systems such as Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). If you compare the current version 4.1 with the one from back then, you will see that the functional or performance spectrum goes far beyond pure Linux (also Linux cluster) system management.

How "healthy" is Hana?

SAP user companies also benefit from this. Convenient and beneficial, Suse SLES for SAP Applications, a Hana Linux operating system platform including specific functionality for SAP use, can be administered, monitored and controlled (managed) automatically with Suse Manager to enable smooth productive operation.

For example, Linux server systems, VMs as well as containers, but also SAP Linux cluster systems or Hana dashboards themselves are included. Either directly or indirectly via partner solutions. And integration into SAP Solution Manager is also possible without any problems. In addition, SAP users can develop and use their own scripts with specifically required functionality. Suse Manager is designed for both on-premises and cloud use.

Basically, Suse Manager covers asset management, orchestration/provisioning/deployment, software and package management, and patch management automatically and end-to-end from a central point (console). All system management tasks are assigned to the three thematic blocks: Health, Compliance and Security.

Seamless interaction

Suse Manager also plays an important role in reducing downtimes. And it does so in conjunction with Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications, including the so-called High Availability Extension (HAE, cluster software) and the live patching technology developed by Suse (patching without system interruptions).

The background to this is that during the early Hana development SAP and Suse addressed the topic of high availability with disaster recovery (DR) within the "Hana Data Center Readiness". Suse has been supporting SAP customers for years with high-availability solutions and features that are specifically designed for SAP use and demonstrably reduce SAP downtimes. And on top of that, they can also be used for ERP ECC and Hana, including S/4 or other software applications, functions and extensions.