os-release inconsistencies in SLES for SAP Applications

This document (7023490) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP4
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12

Situation

Differences observed in /etc/os-release when comparing file contents between different operating system and service pack versions.
How to identify what the 'base product' of an installed server is.

Resolution

There are no fixes involved. This document is merely to provide information on what to expect in the os-release file depending on the installed version.

Fresh installs of SLES for SAP Applications produce the following os-release syntax and products.d contents:

The following are the results of installing SLES for SAP 12, registering the server and allowing updates to be applied during the build process.

# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="SLES"
VERSION="12"
VERSION_ID="12"
PRETTY_NAME="SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12"
ID="sles"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:suse:sles:12"

/etc/products.d # ls -l
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2705 Oct 14  2014 SLES.prod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2839 Apr 23  2015 SLES_SAP.prod
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   13 Apr  3 15:41 baseproduct -> SLES_SAP.prod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1598 Oct  2  2014 sle-ha.prod

The following are the results of installing SLES for SAP 12, without registering the server and without allowing updates to be applied during the build process.

NAME="SLES_SAP"
VERSION="12"
VERSION_ID="12.0.1"
PRETTY_NAME="SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12"
ID="sles_sap"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:suse:sles_sap:12"

/etc/products.d # ls -l
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2838 Oct  3  2017 SLES_SAP.prod
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   13 Feb  3 04:34 baseproduct -> SLES_SAP.prod

If the server is then registered and fully patched, this will remain unchanged (the environment won't change to match the results obtained from patching during the build process).

The following are the results of installing SLES for SAP 12 SP1.

# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="SLES_SAP"
VERSION="12-SP1"
VERSION_ID="12.1.0.1"
PRETTY_NAME="SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1"
ID="sles_sap"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:suse:sles_sap:12:sp1"

/etc/products.d # ls -l
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2854 Mar 15  2017 SLES_SAP.prod
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   13 Apr  3 15:05 baseproduct -> SLES_SAP.prod

The following are the results of installing SLES for SAP 12 SP2.

# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="SLES_SAP"
VERSION="12-SP2"
VERSION_ID="12.2"
PRETTY_NAME="SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP2"
ID="sles_sap"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:suse:sles_sap:12:sp2"

/etc/products.d # ls -l
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3080 Mar 30  2017 SLES_SAP.prod
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   13 Apr  3 13:11 baseproduct -> SLES_SAP.prod

The following are the results of installing SLES for SAP 12 SP3.

# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="SLES"
VERSION="12-SP3"
VERSION_ID="12.3"
PRETTY_NAME="SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3"
ID="sles"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:suse:sles_sap:12:sp3"

/etc/products.d # ls -l
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2972 Jul 24  2017 SLES_SAP.prod
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   13 Apr  3 12:31 baseproduct -> SLES_SAP.prod

The following are the results of installing SLES for SAP 12 SP4.

NAME="SLES"
VERSION="12-SP4"
VERSION_ID="12.4"
PRETTY_NAME="SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4"
ID="sles"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:suse:sles_sap:12:sp4"

/etc/products.d # ls -l
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2974 Nov  7 04:09 SLES_SAP.prod
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   13 Jan 30 11:52 baseproduct -> SLES_SAP.prod

The following are the results of installing SLES for SAP 15.

# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="SLES"
VERSION="15"
VERSION_ID="15"
PRETTY_NAME="SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15"
ID="sles"
ID_LIKE="suse"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:suse:sles:15"
linux-mpxw:~ #


/etc/products.d # ls -l
total 28
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3185 May 30 05:23 SLES_SAP.prod
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   13 Oct 31 11:46 baseproduct -> SLES_SAP.prod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3197 May 30 05:23 sle-ha.prod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1892 May 30 05:23 sle-module-basesystem.prod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2264 May 30 05:23 sle-module-desktop-applications.prod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2315 May 30 05:23 sle-module-sap-applications.prod
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2351 May 30 05:23 sle-module-server-applications.prod

This leaves us with the question 'How do we identify the 'base product' of a server?".

The correct way to do this is is by examining the contents of /etc/products.d/ directory (and look at which product file the link 'baseproduct' is pointing too).

Cause

Even when the base product is SLES for SAP, the contents of the os-release file should never have been used to identify this fact.

SLES for SAP 12 (no service pack): when registered and patched during the build process, had the correct settings in os-release (all indicating SLES, not 'SLES for SAP'). Also incorrectly has two additional product files in /etc/products.d/
SLES for SAP 12 (no service pack): when not registered and patched during build, had the wrong settings in os-release for NAME, VERSION_ID, PRETTY_NAME, ID and CPR_NAME

SLES for SAP 12.1: the NAME, PRETTY_NAME, ID and CPE_NAME fields were all changed (incorrectly) from a 'SLES' identifier to a 'SLES for SAP' identifier. The contents of the products.d directory correctly reflect the only two entries that should be present.

SLES for SAP 12.2: os-release contents followed the same pattern as SLES for SAP 12.1
SLES for SAP 12.3: os-release contents changed the NAME, PRETTY_NAME and ID fields 'back' to SLES only identifiers. CPE_NAME was left stating 'SLES for SAP' (this was an over-sight).
SLES for SAP 12.4: os-release contents followed the same pattern as SLES for SAP 12.3

SLES for SAP 15: os-release contents match the original correct syntax from SLES 12 (no service pack) with CPE_NAME also correctly reflecting SLES. The contents of the products.d directory has changed with this release to reflect the new packaging/module schema.

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