SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9

Before we examine the features of SLES 9, let's take a look at the product's pricing structure. The cost depends on the processor architecture and the number of CPUs, with the cheapest option being a $349 subscription per server with up to 2 CPUs, per year. This happens to be exactly the same price as one would pay for the Basic Edition of Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES, which is the cheapest of any server products made by Red Hat (excluding Fedora Core). The two products differ in the level of included support: while the RHEL Basic Edition offers a 30-day installation and basic configuration support, SLES 9 comes with one year of installation support (a rather dubious value given that most users won't take a year to install their newly acquired operating system). As always, these products tend to have complex pricing structures, so consult the SLES 9 price list and the RHEL pricing and support options for more details. Interested parties can obtain a free 30-day evaluation edition of SLES 9 from Novell.com.

One noteworthy advantage of SLES 9 over RHEL 3 is the 2.6 kernel. SLES 9 ships with kernel 2.6.5, which brings significant performance and scalability advances to the end user. While some will argue that the 2.6 kernel series has not matured enough to be considered reliable and well-tested for deployment on mission-critical production systems, this is probably more of a concern on desktops and workstations rather than servers, which typically are less demanding in terms of hardware and driver support. In contrast, Red Hat's first kernel 2.6-based distribution will be RHEL 4, which is not expected until the first quarter of 2005. (Of course, it should be noted that the 2.4 kernel shipped by Red Hat includes a great many backported 2.6 features).

With SLES 9, Novell has also expanded its support for different processor architectures. Besides the commonly used x86 processors, the distribution is also available for AMD64 (Athlon and Opteron), Intel's EM64T, Intel's IA-64 (Itanium), and IBM's Power, zSeries and S/390 processors.

Now that we have established that, in terms of features and architectural support, SLES 9 is superior to RHEL 3 (unfair, as it may be, to compare two products whose respective code bases were finalized 12 months apart), many system administrators and IT decision makers will be asking: what does the $349/year SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 offer over and above the $90 SUSE LINUX 9.1 Professional? Wouldn't the cheaper edition be adequate for our needs?

While most small businesses would indeed be better served by the Professional edition, many large enterprises will find valid reasons for going the SLES route. As an example, SLES comes with a range of features designed to protect data privacy, including encrypted file systems and Certificate Authority (CA) management. The latter can be set up during installation and it has been integrated into YaST as a module that allows creation and management of a public key infrastructure using X.509 certificates and Certificate Revocation Lists. These can be stored either on a hard disk or on a LDAP server. Large organizations with remote offices and telecommuting employees will find Virtual Private Networks with IPsec indispensable: they provide tools for secure connections from remote locations or untrusted networks. Companies with a large number of servers will be pleased to know that SLES 9 offers support for Novell's ZENworks Linux Management Server, a tool for setting up an in-house update server for an entire network. These are just some of the many features described in detail in this SLES Technical Feature List (in PDF format).

SLES 9 is based on SUSE LINUX 9.1. The standard installation includes a full graphical environment with KDE, although other options, such as minimal, minimal graphical (with FVWM2), and full installation options are also available. Interestingly, SUSE has adopted some of the features found in certain competing products: the "Switch User" feature first developed by Xandros, and the update notification tray icon present in all recent Red Hat and Fedora releases are now integrated into SLES. There is a also device management tray icon for a quick access to hardware configuration modules. One noticeable change, reflecting Novell's increased branding influence, is a new KDE start button - the original SUSE chameleon on a green background has now been replaced with a bright red letter "N" (see screenshot).

Overall, there is little doubt that Novell has brought out a serious contender for the enterprise server market, a product that has a potential to make a dent in (or at least slow down) Red Hat's impressive financial performance of the past year. SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 is a solid product, with a feature list that won't be matched by Red Hat until we are well into 2005. But perhaps most importantly, Novell's new product means that, for the first time, Red Hat has a sophisticated, powerful, and high-profile competitor on the North American market. And that can't be a bad thing.