Setting up the VM
In this article I will show how to install SUSE Linux. In my network I have KVM on
Choosing browse I select the SLE-15-Installer-DVD-x86_64 image.
For this test server, I went with 2 GBs of RAM and 2 CPUs.
As this is just a test server, I just went with a 25GiB hard disk. I have an upcoming project of moving all my virtual images to my NAS, as the server is running out of space for further virtual machines.
Next is to give the Server a name, this is just within the KVM environment and is not related to the hostname or DNS naming. I connected the server to my core network on virbr0.
Starting the SUSE Linux Installation
Once the server boots from the ISO you are provided various options. For this we will go with Installation.
The installation will begin loading the Linux Kernel next.
Updating the Installer
As the ISO is just 600 MBs, most of the installation will be downloaded over the Internet.
We can then choose our Language, and Keyboard layout. Both default for English. Before you continue you need to choose which product you are going to install. The options are SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15, SUSE Linux Enterprise High-Performance Computing 15, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15.
Next is the obligatory license agreement, check on agree to continue.
The installation will then perform a System Probe.
Registration
Next, we come upon the registration. You can get a 60 day free trial of SUSE Linux.
Next, we are given the option of enabling repositories that allow us to update our server over time. You will want to do this, as we should always keep our operating systems up to date.
Enabling extentions and modules
SUSE allows you to add additional exertions and modules to expand on your base installation. Chose what works for your
Next we can add more products by attaching it via a number of options as shown below.
Network Settings
You can leave the networking to default if you wish, or click on the Network Configuration and manually configure the network settings.
I went with SUSE for the hostname, my domain is home.therootuser.com, and my DNS server is 192.168.1.53.
On the routing tab I specified the default IPv4 Gateway, and picked the device that connects to this gateway, which is my eth0 device.
Installation begins
Once done, we can start the installation. This process takes some time, so sit back and relax.
Once finished, the system will reboot on its own, or you can click on OK.
Initial boot of SUSE Linux
After the server reboots you’ll see the SUSE boot screen.
By default you will not be able to SSH into your server, so
# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=ssh # firewall-cmd --reload
Updating the Server
Just to verify, let’s do an update.
# zypper update
The server was just installed, so there are no updates at this time.
Installing screenfetch
I like having
# zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/utilities/SLE_15/utilities.repo
# zypper refresh
# zypper install screenfetch
After the installation is finished we can test out the program.
# screenfetch
Final steps on installing SUSE Linux
Wrapping things up, just running a few commands to check our hostname and IP address.
# ip addr # hostnamectl status
At this point I have just installed SUSE Enterprise Linux. My main reason is just wanting to see the differences. In the few seconds of using SUSE two things I liked is:
- SSH is blocked by default
- When you log in as root, the prompt turns red.
In the past, I have mainly used Red Hat, Fedora, and CentOS. So I’m looking forward to seeing what differences are in SUSE.
