Software repositories in SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 2

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 Service Pack 2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Software Development Kit Service Pack 2
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 11 Service Pack 2

In SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) 11 Service Pack (SP) 2, a new maintenance model was introduced.
To support this SLE 11 maintenance model (SLE 11 MM) some new software repositories were set up.

The SLE 11 MM affects the following products :
  SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
  SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
  SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit
This only applies to SLE 11 SP2.
With the release of SLE 11 SP3 the previous model of -Pool and -Updates has been resumed.
All other add-on products remain on the traditional, more easy to understand, model of $productname-SPx-Pool and $productname-SPx-Updates.

This document explains the new repository setup in place for SLE 11 SP2.

If using SLES as an example, by default a SLES 11 SP2 system now has the following repositories enabled :
SLES11-SP1-Pool
SLES11-SP1-Updates
SLES11-SP2-Core
SLES11-SP2-Extension-Store
SLES11-SP2-Updates

If SLES 11 SP2 has been installed from the SP2 medium/network installation source, this repository will by default remain enabled in addition to the above. When the software management stack searches for packages, the installation source will have higher priority than the above mentioned repositories. This is "for historical reasons" to enable better performance in case the installation source is a local resource on the host.
It is up to the user do remove or disable the installation source if desired.

SLES11-SPx-Pool
This is the unpacked installation media, all binary RPMs from the actual installation media.
It never changes once SPx has been released. For SP2 specifically, there was no SLES11-SP2-Pool created. Instead the SP2 specific packages are available in the SLE11-SP2-Core channel, and the other packages and updates are inherited from SLES11-SP1-Pool and SLES11-SP1-Updates.

SLES11-SP2-Core
This is a subset of the unpacked installation media, it only contains those packages that were considered by SLE Product and Release Management to be the "core" of SP2. The SP repositories only contain packages specific to a SP and its themes (e.g. hardware enablement)

SLES11-SPx-Updates
Maintenance updates to packages in the corresponding SLES11-SPx-Pool or SLES11-SPx-Core.
When a system has a package installed, which exists in both SLES11-SPx-Pool and SLES11-SPx+n-Core, the highest version and release of updates for this package will be taken from the SLES11-SPx-Updates repository will be taken for update.
Since this is difficult to both explain and understand, let us use the aaa_base package as an example :
Version overview :
SLES11-SP1-Pool contains       : aaa_base-11-6.28.5
(Latest) in SLES11-SP1-Updates : aaa_base-11-6.46.46.2
SLES11-SP2-Core contains       : aaa_base-11-6.65.1
(Latest) in SLES11-SP2-Updates : aaa_base-11-6.71.1
The system is SLES 11 SP2 and gets installed with aaa_base-11-6.65.1. When updating the system, aaa_base-11-6.71.1 is retrieved from the SLES11-SP2-Updates repository.

All Updates that can be applied on a SP1 system are provided in SLES11-SP1-Updates repository. The updates specifically intended for SP2 installations are provided in SLES11-SP2-Updates. With the end of the maintenance overlap period of SLES11 SP1, the SP1 specific channels are no longer modified. LTSS customers canget a SLES11-SP1-LTSS-Updates channel that contains further update intended for SP1 installations.

At the moment SLES11-SP1-Updates contains updates both for systems that are running SLES 11 SP1 and SLES 11 SP2.

SLES11-SPx-Extension-Store
This repository is not yet in use, but supposed to contain packages for (future) add-on products. The purpose is to make installation of SLE add-on products simpler by allowing customers to directly install e.g. SLE HA GEO simply via installing a package in the Extension-Store repository - instead of having to first add the installation source/repository for the add on product to install. The "installation" package will then set up the repositories as parts of the add-on installation.

The version number of a given package existing in SLES11-SP2-Core and/or SLES11-SP2-Updates will never be exceeded by any version of the same package in SLES11-SP1-Updates. At least not until SLE 11 SP3 gets released, at which point the SP2-Core and SP2-Updates will be replaced with the SP3 versions.

Example of repository assignments for a SLES 11 SP2 host with SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP2 installed :

# zypper lr
#  | / / | Name                                                  | Enabled | Refresh
---+-/-/-+-------------------------------------------------------+---------+--------
 1 | / / | SLE11-SDK-SP1-Updates                                 | Yes     | Yes   
 2 | / / | SLE11-SDK-SP2-Core                                    | Yes     | Yes   
 3 | / / | SLE11-SDK-SP2-Updates                                 | Yes     | Yes   
 4 | / / | SLE11-SP1-Debuginfo-Updates                           | No      | Yes   
 5 | / / | SLE11-SP2-Debuginfo-Core                              | No      | Yes   
 6 | / / | SLE11-SP2-Debuginfo-Updates                           | No      | Yes   
 7 | / / | SLES11-Extras                                         | No      | Yes   
 8 | / / | SLES11-SP1-Updates                                    | Yes     | Yes   
 9 | / / | SLES11-SP2-Core                                       | Yes     | Yes   
10 | / / | SLES11-SP2-Extension-Store                            | Yes     | Yes   
11 | / / | SLES11-SP2-Updates                                    | Yes     | Yes   
12 | / / | SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-Server-11-SP2 11.2.2-1.234      | Yes     | Yes   
13 | / / | SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 11 SP2 | Yes     | Yes   

This shows that the Software Development Kit follows the same model as the SLE product itself. 
NOTE: In order for the appropriate SDK catalogs to be added as the example above shows, the SDK must be installed as a product as described in the SDK installation instructions:

https://www.suse.com/documentation/sles11/esd/ii_sle_11_sdk_sp2.html 


Example of repository assignments for a SLES 11 SP2 host with SLE High Availability Extension 11 SP2 installed :

# zypper lr
#  | / / | Name                                                     | Enabled | Refresh
---+-/-/-+----------------------------------------------------------+---------+--------
 1 | / / | SLE11-HAE-SP2-Pool                                       | Yes     | Yes   
 2 | / / | SLE11-HAE-SP2-Updates                                    | Yes     | Yes   
 3 | / / | SLE11-SP1-Debuginfo-Updates                              | No      | Yes   
 4 | / / | SLE11-SP2-Debuginfo-Core                                 | No      | Yes   
 5 | / / | SLE11-SP2-Debuginfo-Updates                              | No      | Yes   
 6 | / / | SLES11-Extras                                            | No      | Yes   
 7 | / / | SLES11-SP1-Updates                                       | Yes     | Yes   
 8 | / / | SLES11-SP2-Core                                          | Yes     | Yes   
 9 | / / | SLES11-SP2-Extension-Store                               | Yes     | Yes   
10 | / / | SLES11-SP2-Updates                                       | Yes     | Yes   
11 | / / | SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 11 SP2 | Yes     | Yes   
12 | / / | SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-Server-11-SP2 11.2.2-1.234         | Yes     | Yes 

The High Availability Extension product is still using the "traditional" model in that it only is assigned repositories from the current Service Pack.

For information of upgrade scenarios, please refer to TID 7010200 How to upgrade to SLES/SLED 11 SP2