What’s new in SUSE Edge 3.1?

October 15, 2024 | By: Andrés Valero

Edge computing is transforming how industries process and manage data, enabling real-time processing, lower latency, and improved security. From IoT in factories to 5G networks, businesses demand flexible and secure solutions. Today, we’re excited to introduce SUSE Edge 3.1, the latest release of SUSE’s cloud-native edge platform. This update delivers deeper component integration, extended support, and much more.

Why SUSE Edge?

SUSE Edge is a purpose-built solution, designed specifically for edge environments, so customers don’t have to rely on repurposed legacy technology. With SUSE Edge, you’re free from hardware limitations and can integrate with the open-source tools of your choice.
Simplify Operations. Centralize operations using Rancher and automate workflows with GitOps, allowing your ops teams to focus on value-added tasks.
Security and Reliability. SUSE Edge is built on SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 6.0, an immutable operating system that uses transactional updates to enhance security and stability. With integrated NeuVector, it delivers comprehensive Kubernetes security, protecting both your data and clusters. The RKE2 CAPI provider now supports cisProfile on SLE Micro, and you can enable FIPS mode for nodes or during image creation using the Edge Image Builder, ensuring robust compliance and data protection.
Minimize Deployment Risks. SUSE’s edge-optimized Linux and Kubernetes technologies, paired with world-class support and consulting services, help you simplify edge infrastructure deployment while minimizing risks.

Key Benefits of SUSE Edge

Flexibility: SUSE Edge adapts to wherever your organization is in its cloud-native journey, supporting incremental improvements without disruptions.
Multiple Deployment Options: Whether you’re operating in disconnected environments, across multiple locations, or dealing with reduced connectivity or high latency, SUSE Edge offers flexible deployment methods to meet your needs.

SUSE Edge 3.1 provisioning methods

Scalability: Fully integrated with Rancher Prime, SUSE Edge supports GitOps workflows and fully automated directed network provisioning for bare-metal deployments, along with Elemental to onboard devices from remote locations without IT personnel.
Edge Image Builder: This feature enables you to build and ship complete images, including OS, Kubernetes (RKE2/K3s), and applications, ready for deployment (helm charts).

Architecture and components of SUSE Edge

SUSE Edge leverages a robust suite of open-source technologies, with SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro as the operating system, RKE2/K3s Kubernetes distributions as the platform for applications, and Rancher Prime for management.

The platform’s architecture is divided into two main parts:

Management Stack: Controls downstream clusters, manages applications using GitOps, and provides tools for logging, monitoring, and observability.
Runtime Stack: Composed of workload clusters distributed across multiple locations, all managed by Rancher Prime.

SUSE Edge 3.1 basic architecture and components.

Key components in SUSE Edge 3.1:

SUSE Edge 3.1 components

Versions of the main components:

SLE Micro 6.0
Rancher 2.9.1
RKE2/k3s 1.30.3
NeuVector 5.3.4
Longhorn 1.7.1
Elemental 1.6.4

MetalLB 0.14.8
KubeVirt 1.3.1
Akri 0.12.20
CAPI Core 1.7.5
Metal3 0.8.1
SUMA 5.0

Release Components

What’s new in SUSE Edge 3.1?

The focus of this release has been improving integration, and maintainability in general. Check out the new features:

Extended Lifecycle: SUSE Edge 3.1 offers 24 months of combined solution lifecycle, providing longer-term support.
Edge Image Builder (EIB) 1.1: SUSE Edge now ships with an updated version of EIB, now supporting SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 6.0, building arm aarch64 images (tech preview), additional security functionalities, improved build caching, enhanced network configurations amongst many other new features.
Observability powered by StackState. Rancher Prime now comes with new observability capabilities provided by StackState (technology preview for Edge).
Full stack upgrade automation for GitOps workflows, in this release with the integration of Rancher Turtles the workflow and usability for CAPI improves and lowers the adoption barrier for downstream clusters running on bare metal. Also, a new dedicated lifecycle/upgrade controller is introduced. The System Upgrade Controller (SUC) provides a general-purpose, Kubernetes-native upgrade controller (for nodes). It introduces a new CRD, the Plan, for defining any and all of your upgrade policies/requirements.
Updated SLE Micro Images: SUSE Edge 3.1 uses SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 6.0 as the foundation for the entire solution, streamlining OS and Kubernetes deployments.
DHCP-less Networks: Support for deployment via Metal3 in DHCP-less environments, using declarative network configuration.
Enhanced Edge Stack Validation: SUSE’s engineering team has introduced new testing procedures to ensure validated designs that lead to improved architectures.
Improved UI for Validation Results: Access validated design results through a more user-friendly interface, simplifying the process of consulting and using the best architectures. – https://ci.edge.suse.com

Conclusions

SUSE Edge continues to evolve, helping customers adopt cloud-native technologies at the edge while simplifying operations. The SUSE Edge 3.1 release introduces enhanced GitOps workflows, CAPI integration, and longer support cycles, all aimed at accelerating your cloud-native edge journey.

Ready to explore the next generation of edge computing? Learn more about SUSE Edge 3.1 and how it can transform your business, come and talk with our team at Kubecon NA 2024 in Salt Lake City and Kubernetes on Edge Day. Or come participate and be hands-on with our experts at SUSE Day 2024.