SUSE Manager to simplify, improve Linux Server lifecycle management

SUSE has announced the general availability of SUSE Manager 2.1, the next version of the only Linux server management solution built to manage both SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. SUSE Manager 2.1 features enhanced usability, provisioning, compliance and security, and power management, all of which further reduce data centre complexity and customer costs.

“As Linux continues its rapid growth in data centres, the ability to manage Linux environments to high standards of service and quality is essential,” said Michael Miller, SUSE vice president of global alliances and marketing. “SUSE Manager gives customers the ability to confidently optimise and automate their data centres from a single console, simplifying management of their Linux systems, increasing their productivity and reducing their costs.”

Mary Johnston Turner, IDC research vice president for enterprise system management software, said, “Given the increasing use of Linux servers to support many mission-critical applications and services, selecting the right tools to manage the entire lifecycle of Linux servers becomes increasingly important for enterprise customers. SUSE Manager's ability to deliver integrated asset, patch, provisioning, configuration and redeployment management across heterogeneous Linux environments positions it well to address the needs of these important platforms and workloads.”

SUSE Manager 2.1 delivers complete lifecycle management for Linux environments, with asset management, provisioning, package management, patch management, configuration management and redeployment functionality. Monitoring system health and managing compliance, regulatory and security requirements with SUSE Manager gives administrators the information they need to take timely, appropriate action.

Jason Kinninger, an analyst with Western & Southern Life, said, “SUSE Manager has been a valuable part of Western & Southern Life's ability to reduce costs and complexity in the data centre, thus allowing us to better serve our customers. We're looking forward to the new features and tools available in SUSE Manager 2.1 giving us additional capabilities to manage our growing Linux environment.”

Based on version 2.1 of the well-established open source Spacewalk project, new SUSE Manager features and their benefits include:
· An improved setup wizard to guide administrators through the basic steps needed to configure a fully operational SUSE Manager, making installation easier and faster.
· A better Web user interface to improve small-screen viewing and allow for more efficient systems management using mobile devices. The new interface developed by SUSE has been contributed upstream to the Spacewalk project.
· Action chaining that lets administrators bundle and execute related management actions in one step, saving time and increasing productivity.
· Unattended bare-metal provisioning that allows customers to power on and off and reboot bare-metal systems via the IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) protocol. It gives administrators more control over remotely deployed servers, particularly in cases of system failure, along with reducing energy costs and providing more security for unused servers.
· OpenScap (the open source implementation of SCAP – Security Content Automation Protocol), a standardised approach to maintaining enterprise system security. It allows customers to perform configuration and vulnerability scans and enables easy comparison between SCAP scans, increasing security and simplifying compliance checks.
· An easy-to-use interface to CVE (Common Vulnerability and Exposures) data, providing automated vulnerability management, security measurement and compliance; increased IT security through fast identification of security vulnerabilities; the ability to implement a systematic approach to system vulnerabilities and exposures; and improved patch management.
· Package lock that allow customers to lock packages so they can't be overwritten by newer or older packages. This maintains the status of mission-critical applications and protects them from unwanted changes.