Five Reasons for Choosing SUSE® Manager

White PaperServer

2

Server White PaperFive Reasons for Choosing SUSE Manager

The System Management ChallengeFor a long time, companies primarily built their workloads on top of physical systems. Adding various operating systems to the data center increased complexity.

But then, other options, especially virtualization, also became available for running application workloads. However, com-peting virtualization platforms—such as XEN, KVM, VMware, Hyper-V—added to the diversity of technologies in the data center, producing yet another layer of management and main-tenance complexity.

In addition, virtualization has been followed by cloud comput-ing. Now data center managers must decide what type of cloud computing service they want to use. Private, public or hybrid cloud computing?

In other words, rapid data center development has created end-less new opportunities, but also monitoring and management challenges. At this point, you may be asking yourself: “What can

I do to reduce this complexity” or “Where can I get help with these diverse resources management challenges?” The answer is “SUSE® Manager.”

SUSE Manager delivers complete lifecycle management for Linux—with asset management, provisioning, package man-agement, patch management, configuration management and redeployment functionalities. By monitoring system health and managing compliance, regulatory and security requirements, SUSE Manager provides administrators all necessary informa-tion so they can take appropriate action.

As a result, SUSE Manager provides five benefits through its single, centralized interface.

Five Reasons for Choosing SUSE Manager1. Automated management. This lets you reduce administrator

effort even as the size and complexity of your Linux deployments grow. For example, SUSE Manager replaces slow and tedious patch management processes, which are often rife with errors and mistakes, so it saves you valuable time and resources while it maintains the integrity of your data center.

SUSE® Manager for Comprehensive Linux Systems Management According to a recent Forrester study, IT spends 70 percent of its budget on just maintaining their existing environment.1 Many customers tell us this percentage is even higher in their organizations. The reason is that data centers have become increasingly complex.

__________

1 Forrester:MarketOverview:DataCenterInfrastructureManagementSolutionsbyRichardFichera,March29,2012;Updated:April3,2012

3www.suse.com

2. Management of SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers across physical, virtual and cloud environments using the same automated functionality and through a single interface. As a result, SUSE Manager ensures the same service quality and availability for all Linux workloads independently of the number of servers, operating systems, architectures and deployment types. This allows companies to optimize and expand their IT operations, gain agility and achieve a positive ROI.

3. Improved workload security. You have to conform to security guidelines and stay in compliance with corporate policies and government regulations such as SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) and HIPAA (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act). SUSE Manager has capabilities for audits and compliance-related activities—helping you to avoid the risks and costs of failure to meet IT compliance and security requirements.

4. Integration with different hardware platforms, starting with x86 to IBM Power to IBM z Systems. This lets you save costs and reduces infrastructure complexity. The latest version, SUSE Manager Server 2.1 for IBM z Systems, can be hosted on IBM z Systems servers and manages all SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers in your environment, including the virtual instances on IBM z Systems as well as virtual and physical instances on IBM Power Systems and x86_64 platforms.

5. Simplified maintenance burden. Microsoft Windows customers with Linux environments can reduce their main-tenance burden by using the SUSE Manager Management Pack for Microsoft System Center. This is an add-on to Microsoft System Center that allows administrators to manage Windows and Linux servers from the Microsoft System Center console.

To sum up, SUSE Manager provides management for today’s diverse data center environments by supporting mixed infra-structures as well as various cloud environments to reduce data center costs and complexity. And SUSE Manager can do all of this through a single management interface.

As a result, you gain better control over your IT infrastructure, optimize your resources and prepare your infrastructure for fur-ther needs. Here’s how…

Using SUSE Manager to Improve Control, Optimize Resources and More

1. Automate Your Patch and Package ManagementBoost productivity and alleviate strain on the IT budget.

Even in the smallest data centers, manually updating, patching, and configuring servers can be a time-consuming task filled with opportunities for costly errors. You need a way to reduce IT costs no matter what size business you serve. As your Linux estate grows, it can require more and more IT personnel to keep up with all that manual work.

Automation is the key to reducing the IT costs associated with server management. SUSE Manager automates Linux server management, allowing you to provision, patch, and maintain your servers faster and more accurately. With SUSE Manager, you can comprehensively manage your Linux servers across physical, virtual and cloud environments while improving data center efficiency. SUSE Manager delivers the capabilities you need to effectively manage your Linux systems, but at a more affordable price than proprietary third-party systems manage-ment products.

BENEFITS:

With automated SUSE Manager patch and package manage-ment processes can:

Removeslowandtediouspatchmanagementprocessesthatareoftenpronetoerrorsandmistakes

Locateandpatchvulnerabilitiestokeeptheintegrityofyourdatacentersystems

4

Server White PaperFive Reasons for Choosing SUSE Manager

RaiseyourITstaff’sproductivityandreduceserverdowntime

Addressexternalregulations,industrystandardsandinternalpolicies

Avoidunnecessarydowntimeandimprovetimetomarketresponsiveness

2. Reduce the Complexity of Linux Systems ManagementJust make it easy.

Based on the Spacewalk open source project, SUSE Manager is the best solution to manage various Linux distributions (like SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux), and various deployment environments (physical, virtual and cloud) from a single, centralized console using the same automated functionality.

SUSE Manager directs Linux workloads across a range of hard-ware from x86 to IBM System z. It works across VMware, Xin, KVM and Hyper-V. It works on SUSE OpenStack Cloud, Amazon EC2 and other cloud platforms. And it even works for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server-based virtual and software appliances. This expands your flexibility and helps your IT organization real-ize the potential of virtual and cloud computing. You can decide the placement of workloads where they make sense based on performance, availability and cost, without losing any control.

No matter where you deploy Linux, SUSE Manager’s tight in-tegration with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server gives your IT staff the same view of their Linux systems, whether managing them

remotely or locally. This integration lets administrators reduce their time spent identifying issues and managing their Linux servers.

BENEFITS:

Because of its ability to integrate with and manage diverse Linux servers, SUSE Manager:

ReducestheinherentcomplexityofmanagingmultipleLinuxdistributions

ManagesLinuxsystemsacrossdiversehardwarearchitecturesplusvirtualandcloudenvironments

Providesyouwithseamlesssystemsmanagementwithasinglecentralizedsolution

3. Simplify Compliance Spend less time staying in compliance with corporate policies and external rules associated with the use of Linux subscriptions.

You want a smart way to tackle the challenges of maintaining and demonstrating compliance for all your Linux workloads. With SUSE Manager you get it.

The security of your Linux environment can be further enhanced through its configuration management and provisioning capa-bilities. SUSE Manager provides a standard approach to main-taining the security of your Linux enterprise systems. As a result, your IT staff can develop and maintain standard configurations that conform to security specifications and increase the consis-tency of provisioning new servers. And the provisioning capabili-ties of SUSE Manager reduce the risk of deployment errors that cause security holes.

5www.suse.com

In addition, you can easily conduct a hardware and software inventory, to quickly comply with audits without resorting to manual procedures. SUSE Manager automatically tracks server changes and keeps a history, so you can easily provide this in-formation to auditors. Plus, you can use its standard reports or build tailored reports to provide audit information. If your organization uses an enterprise management suite or a busi-ness services management solution for centralized auditing and reporting, you can leverage the SUSE Manager API to simply export information into these third-party tools.

If compliance is a growing concern and time-consuming process in your organization, SUSE Manager is the right choice for you.

4. Run SUSE Manager on x86 or on IBM z Systems SUSE Manager has been available to be hosted on x86-86 hard-ware. In addition, SUSE made available SUSE Manager 2.1 for IBM z Systems2, which can be hosted on IBM z Systems serv-ers and can manage all SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers in your environment. This includes the virtual instances on IBM z Systems as well as virtual and physi-cal instances on IBM Power Systems and x86-64 platforms. This version of SUSE Manager is now delivered as an appliance im-age, which makes installation on your z Systems server very easy. Supported IBM z Systems servers include IBM zEnterprise System z196, IBM zEnterprise, IBM zEnterprise System z114, IBM zEnterprise EC12, IBM zEnterprise BC12, IBM z13, and, of course also the Linux-only configuration machines LinuxOne Emperor and Rockhopper3.

5. Connect to Microsoft System Center SUSE Manager Management Pack for Microsoft System Center enables Windows systems administrators to view server health information and perform both Windows and Linux patching du-ties via the same console.

Through tight integration between SUSE Manager and Microsoft System Center, the system administrator is able, through a single console, to:

QuicklychecktheupdatestatusofallLinuxserverstoensuretheirhealthandsecurity

ViewalistofallLinuxserversentitledforaselectedlistofcriticalandoptionalupdatesandpatches

GetalertsforalloutdatedorcriticalupdatesavailableforLinuxservers(proactivelyprotectsystems)

ScheduleamaintenancewindowtorunupdatesonaspecificLinuxserveroragroupofLinuxservers

PatchRedHatEnterpriseLinuxserverswhencombinedwithSUSELinuxEnterpriseServerwithExpandedSupport.

BENEFITS:

Today, system administrators are required to use separate tools for maintaining patch health compliance and deploying required updates to the Windows and Linux servers in their environments. The SUSE Manager Management Pack for Microsoft System Center streamlines the management of your virtual and physical environments across both Windows and Linux platforms from a single, central console.

Reduce cost—Leverageyourinvestmentinexistinginfra-structureincludingsoftware,hardwareandexpertise.

Save time—WindowsandLinuxpatchmanagementcanbedonefromthesameconsoleratherthansplittingtimebetweenthetwosilos.

Minimize risk—Improvedefficiencyinthepatchingandup-datingprocesstranslatestolowerriskoffailureviaamissedorincorrectlyappliedpatch.

ConclusionWhen you choose SUSE Manager, you get the most advanced systems management solution for enterprise Linux environ-ments. You also get:

TheonlysystemsmanagementsolutiontightlyintegratedwithSUSELinuxEnterpriseServer

ThemostefficientsolutionformanagingLinuxenvironments AndtheabilitytomanagebothSUSELinuxEnterprise

ServerandRedHatEnterpriseLinux

The conclusion is simple. When you add up all of the capabilities and benefits of SUSE Manager, it’s time to choose it to simplify your Linux systems management.__________

2 https://download.suse.com/Download?buildid=BGjVf-pTgjQ~3 www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/os/linux/linux-one.html#ibm-

custom-id-latlos-header

www.suse.com

Contact your local SUSE Solutions Provider, or call SUSE at:

1 800 796 3700 U.S./Canada1 801 861 4500 Worldwide

SUSEMaxfeldstrasse 590409 NurembergGermany

262-002521-001 | 10/15 | © 2015 SUSE LLC. All rights reserved. SUSE and the SUSE logo are registered trademarks of SUSE LLC in the

United States and other countries. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.