2013-09-09
Abstract
These release notes are generic for all SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 SP3 based products. Some
parts may not apply to a particular architecture/product. Where this is
not obvious, the respective architectures are listed explicitly. The
instructions for installing can be found in the
README file on CD.
Manuals are in the
docu directory on the media. Any documentation
(if installed) can be found below /usr/share/doc/
in the installed system.
This SUSE product includes materials licensed to SUSE under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL requires that SUSE make available certain source code that corresponds to those GPL-licensed materials. The source code is available for download at http://www.suse.com/download-linux/source-code.html. Also, for up to three years from SUSE's distribution of the SUSE product, upon request SUSE will mail a copy of the source code. Requests should be sent by e-mail to sle_source_request@suse.com or as otherwise instructed at http://www.suse.com/download-linux/source-code.html. SUSE may charge a fee to recover its reasonable costs of distribution.
SLEPOS 11 SP3 can now be installed either on SLES 11 SP3 or SLES 11 SP4. Customers who don't have Long Term Service Pack Support for their Admin and Branch servers should always use SLES 11 SP4 as the base for any new installations.
Templates for Admin and Branch servers haven't been updated to use SLES 11 SP4. If you have been using those templates you need to update them yourself to use SLES 11 SP4. SUSE Customer Care will provide best effort support for those image templates.
Easy remote management of SLEPOS clients with SUSE Manager
SUSE Manager has a lot of management and monitoring features that SLEPOS hasn't. As part of the ongoing integration of the two products we made sure that SLEPOS images can be registered against a SUSE Manager server and that SUSE Manager's management/monitoring tooling works on a SLEPOS client.
High Availability for SLEPOS Admin and Branch Servers:
Our SLEPOS solution now work smoothly together with the SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension. Additional documentation is provided for setting up HA for the SLES platform and the SLEPOS services running on top of it, especially for Branch Servers. HA functionality for Admin Servers has been moved to the new code level of our most recent High Availability solution.
Provide ready-to-go image templates for Branch Server, Admin Server, combined Admin/Branch Server and POS Terminals
Starting with this Service Pack we provide and support image templates for all components of our SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 SP3 solution. On the server side there are image templates for a standard Admin Server, a Branch Server or a combination thereof for compact installations. For the client we offer an image template based on SUSE Linux JeOS in addition to the known graphical and minimal image template.
Ability to create full system images/offline images for clients and install them via USB:
This feature enables you to bring up a shop faster without the need of having network connections upfront and initial PXE boot cycle to fill the system partitions. The resulting partitioning/partition table will be identical to what would be the outcome of a regular PXE boot/install.
Allow for downloading system images to the service partition in the background
For situations where you have only limited bandwidth, but want to download and install new images from a remote server, this feature enables you to download images in advance while the machine is running in production mode and deploy them locally and fast after reboot.
Migration procedure from SLEPOS 11 SP2 to SLEPOS 11 SP3:
You will find a new chapter in the documentation that gives you a step by step tutorial how to migrate a complete production system including Admin Servers, Branch Servers and clients from SLEPOS 11 SP2 to SLEPOS 11 SP3
SLEPOS 11 SP2 Clients with SLEPOS 11 SP3 Admin Servers and Branch Servers
Customers who are using SLEPOS 11 SP2 can upgrade the Admin Server and Branch Server to SLEPOS 11 SP3, roll-out new branches with SLEPOS 11 SP3 and keep using the SLEPOS 11 SP2 clients.
Other Features in Service Pack 3:
Configurable default kernel parameters: It is now possible to specify the default kernel parameters (pxelinux.cfg/default) for terminals through LDAP settings.
Role and ID functionality are now made independent. Before that IDs could only be used together with roles. IDs are now activated based on scIdPool attribute being empty or not.
Preserve existing LDAP databases: Installing Admin Server with the initialization script used to remove all existing LDAP databases and configurations present at the default location. The initialization script now detects existing LDAP databases and alters configuration to create an own DB and thus preserves existing databases.
Ability to flash BIOS through system boot up in SLEPOS. This is similar to the functionality well known from IRES.
New script to list terminals and Branch Servers in SLEPOS. That eases compliance checks by our costumers.
New command 'posAdmin --refresh' enables safe editing of SLEPOS LDAP using third-party tools.
Added support for dmraid fake-raid controllers to image building through kiwi.
Improved dhcpd.conf (re)generation: dhcpd.conf file is now always completely recreated when any changes happen.
AdminServer now uses YaST CA Management interface for issuing and managing SSL certificates. This provides standardized SLES interface to SSL management.
The encrypted partition can be mounted without a network connection to Branch Server. In those cases there is a new procedure to provide the encryption keys via USB stick.
Feature Pack 2 (FP2) is a sequential update on top of Service Pack 2 . Its contents are delivered to the customer through the regular maintenance channel and thus will be transparent to the regular customer.
FP2 delivers a couple of interesting bug and convenience fixes as well as an enhanced documentation. Most of its changes are internally and not visible to the customer but by further improved stability.
The posAdmin XML interface is now hardened and thus no longer considered to be experimental. For the future we consider the XML based setup as the recommended method for bringing up the system. Also the posAdmin-GUI did see some convenience changes to foster this statement.
FP2 brings a couple of smaller and bigger documentation enhancements which makes it worth to revisit your most used part of the documentation.
A new chapter has been added to the documentation to help with migration of a productive environment from older versions to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 SP3.
Generally Feature Pack 1 (FP1) adds support for wireless operation out-of-the-box and thus enables to do an efficient HW rollout to branches in such environments.
Nevertheless please note that the support is not switched on by default.
Creation of a service partition on the terminal that will serve administration purposes of SLEPOS. This partition can be used e.g. to
store the encrypted image before the installation
local boot for the wireless terminals
Please note that service partitions cannot be encrypted.
Enabled local netboot from a service partition
Provide support for the transport of compressed images via multicast TFTP. In stock SLEPOS 11 SP2 either usage of compressed images OR multicast transport has been possible.
KIWI has now the ability to create images that act as an alternative for pxe deployment. The resulting images usinge the option '--bootusb' can be used for booting from USB stick or it can be preloaded on the HDD via dd command This is intended to help IHVs to do SLEPOS preloads.
The resulting images can be used for booting from USB stick or it can be preloaded on the HDD.
Enabled terminals with more than one network interface.
While still only one NIC can be in production use at a time it is now easier to switch the usage from one network interface to another eg. switching from wireless to a regular cable based NIC and vice versa. Also KIWI got a robust detection of the active network interface during boot and does no longer rely on the primarily selected NIC for e.g. dhcp.
Introduced new config.MAC options POS_KERNEL, POS_INITRD, POS_KERNEL_PARAMS and POS_MAC
The SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 SP3 solution does now include the SMT product which comes without additional charge. For details see chapter “Setting up SMT repositories” below.
This addresses the needs of staying up-to-date with available bug and security fixes and protecting the production environment from potential failures or attacks.
Extended rollback functionality
Rollback does now also keep all related configuration files, custom pxe configurations and similar associated files. In SP1 only the config.MAC configuration has been preserved.
Set hostname of a terminal at register time (first boot)
This functionality is provided to give customers a way to set the hostname in a way that is similar to what he might be used to from former IBM IRES V2 Role based configuration.
RAID-1 support with SLEPOS PXE images
While Admin and Branch Server inherit the full RAID functionalities from the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server product this is not true for the image based terminals. Starting with this service pack it is now possible to create images that do two-disk mirroring on a terminal in a transparent way.
Support for fully encrypted disks on terminals
Both data and root partitions are now encryptable. The whole configuration takes place at image creation time. All passwords are generated on the Admin or Branch Server. The current implementation does the password transport via network from the Branch Server to the terminal. Other methods hereof may follow in future versions. Thus all passwords for the terminal are stored on the corresponding Branch Server. Current safety level is intended to protect against theft of/unauthorized access to the client.
Provide image template for complete Branch Server based on central configuration in LDAP
Branch Server images can now be built using Image Creator or KIWI. The process is the same as for terminal images.
In SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 SP1 the way to set up a Branch Server in a SLEPOS environment is to install SLES and SLEPOS and to do a manual configuration for every Branch Server. This can sum up to a bigger number of days to set up this part of a customer installation. With this feature we utilize the imaging infrastructure on the Admin Server together with the information stored in the central LDAP data base there to create a ready-to-go image for each shop/ Branch Server.
In the future this will be promoted to be the preferred way of setting up the Branch Server to fully replace it later.
Update of KIWI to version 4.8x aligned with all other SP2 based products.
KIWI gets updated to the latest version. Besides many, many fixes this gives the customer a better integration into the whole SUSE Linux Enterprise product family.
There is medium risk of incompatibility with older KIWI configuration files. In result the configuration file changes and has to be adopted to the slightly new format where necessary.
Other Features in Service Pack 2:
Added the SLEPOS XML suite to export of the LDAP data base to xml to allow visualising, validity and consistency checking.
Automatic network configuration for Branch Servers
Move slepos services configuration from remaining conf files to LDAP
Upload boot.kiwi log file from the terminal to the Branch Server for debugging purposes
Boot system images with kexec
Support /dev/disk/by-path notation with image building
Introduced LDAP validation and checking
Added a new posAdmin-GUI. For details see chapter “Simple Administration GUI” in the SLEPOS Guide.
Support a standalone Image Server in registerImages
Ability to easily configure different language supported prior to image creation
Ability to create custom SLEPOS image with IBM Javapos rpm packages using KIWI
Added kiwiservertype=ftp functionality on SLEPOS 11
Delta Image creating, managing and distribution
Network bandwidth can be an issue for many customers. To solve that problem we included into SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 SP3 the ability to use image deltas instead of full images once a base image has been transferred towards the client side (the shop).
Our solution includes the creation of an image delta, the transport and the full image regeneration on the client. The old image stays intact so in case of problems you could do a roll back to the old application.
The delta can be generated with new command registerImages on Admin Server. This command can be also used for copying images to the slepos directory and adding them to LDAP, see SLEPOS Guide.
Role Based Image handling
It is possible to define several possible configurations and switch between them from the terminal itself manually or from an application via the newly implemented API. For details see chapter "Using Terminals with Roles" in SLEPOS Guide.
Terminals now support rollback. It is possible to temporarily go back to the last working configuration instead of the one from current LDAP. The rollback menu is available after pressing C during terminal boot.
Branch Server LDAP supports disconnected mode - when the connection to Admin Server is down, all LDAP modification performed on Branch Server are stored locally and then synchronized with Admin Server when the connection is restored.
posAdmin.pl can be now used also from Branch Server, large changes in LDAP structure are however not supported. Alternatively, there is a new high-level tool named pos.pl, which provides functionality for monitoring workstations and Role related configuration.
All commands and tools have unified verbosity and syslog options. In case of posAdmin this means that by default it is less verbose than before. The verbosity can be specified with --verbose=level or -v level for console and --syslog=level for syslog. Level can be one of emerg, alert, crit, err, warn, notice, info, debug.
New supplementary packages:
| - kiwi-desc-oemboot |
| - kiwi-desc-usbboot |
Building client images based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
To build images against SLES-11-GM, it is necessary to edit the SLES11 section in /usr/share/SLEPOS/poscdtool.conf and change line 'commonname :SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1:' to 'commonname :SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11:': and line 'majorversion 11.1' to 'majorversion 11'. You can also simply aplly following patch:
--- /usr/share/SLEPOS/poscdtool.conf.orig 2010-05-11 20:49:38.000000000 +0200
+++ /usr/share/SLEPOS/poscdtool.conf 2010-05-11 20:50:19.000000000 +0200
@@ -36,9 +36,9 @@
dist SLES-11
-commonname :SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2:
+commonname :SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11:
product SUSE_SLES
-majorversion 11.2
+majorversion 11
arch i586
basedir SLES-11-SP1-DVD-i586
revision GM
KIWI & YaST Image Creator (the GUI front-end to KIWI for image building) are updated and enhanced. All types of media handled by YaST-Software Repositories are now supported for Image building.
Admin Server ACL :
when adding scLocation object the '--userPassword' option is now required by posAdmin.pl where Branch Server`s (represented by scLocation object) is specified
posAdmin.pl manages acls when adding or removing scLocation (for checking acls, cn=config database may be listed ( 'ldapsearch -x -h <hostname> -D cn=admin,cn=config -w <password> -b cn=config')
Admin Server Offline installation :
The Offline installation file (OIF) is generated by the 'posAdmin.pl --generate' command. The only mandatory parameter (excluding default mandatory parameters) is '--base' specifying the 'scLocation' of the Branch Server. The OIF is gzipped tar consisting of Branch Server ldap subtree export, global ldab subtree export, certificates, preset settings for easy branch installation.
Branch Server Offline installation: 'posInitBranchserver.sh' is completely redesigned and now supports two installation modes.
Online installation: 'posInitBranchserver.sh' now additionally creates a local ldap Branch Server which is initialized using ldap syncrepl protocol. This is necessary for the upcoming offline Branch Server funcionality.
Offline installation: takes the OIF file generated on the Admin Server and configures the Branch Server including the creation of a local ldap Branch Server. Also supports non interactive batch initialization.
New options in 'posInitBranchserver.sh' :
-f OIFfile - specifies the OIF, the script will then automatically assume offline installation mode
-n --noninteractive - switch to non interactive batch installation. Only available with -f specified.
--reconfigure - when the Branch Server is already initialized the script will refuse to run unless this option is specified.
The SLES 11 SP3 or 11 SP4 DVD and the SLEPOS 11 SP3 Add-On CD are needed for the installation and set up of the solution. SLEPOS 11 SP3 supports both x86 (i586) and x86-64 on the servers. Customers can build both x86 (i586) and x86-64 images. Only the x86 (i586) images will be officially supported.
Start installing SLES 11 SP3 or 11 SP4 the usual way, until in the Installation Mode YaST asks you whether you want to install add-on products. Check Include Add-On Products from Separate Media and click Next.
On page Add-On Product Installation, click Add. Choose CD and click Next. Insert SLEPOS 11 SP3 media into the optical drive as requested and then click Continue to confirm.
The add-on media is now added. Click Next to proceed with the installation as usual, until you reach the Server Pattern Selection (YaST Package Manager).
In the Server Pattern Selection window you have a simplified Pattern Selection menu (Admin, Branch or Image Server) with a Detailed Selection option. (In Detailed Selection you can combine different patterns or you can select single packages in the traditional YaST Package Manager mode).
In the Server Pattern Selection window, several main patterns are provided that allow you to install the components of the SLEPOS system. Select the patterns according to the roles of the computer that you are installing:
SLEPOS Admin Server: installs a SLEPOS Administration Server.
SLEPOS Branch Server: installs a SLEPOS Branch Server.
SLEPOS Image Server: installs a SLEPOS Image Server.
SLEPOS Image Descriptions: a dependency for the SLEPOS Image Server (installed automatically).
Proceed with the installation as usual (note the Branch Server installation changes which follow).
We do not recommend to update an existing installation. Instead we recommend the migration steps as described in the SLEPOS documentation.
While the update of the software packages should not make problems there are a couple of configuration changes that do need special manual attention after package update:
KIWI version has been updated from 3.74 to 4.85. While there is an automatic conversion of image descriptions in place we recommend to double check esp. for complex setups.
LDAP data structures have been extended from SP1 to SP2 so that all configuration is now saved in the LDAP data base in one place.
SMT has become a mandatory part of the installation of an Image Server.
Branch Server installation changes
When no options are set the script asks for installation mode (Online/default or Offline).
Online installation mode: When started the script asks if it should initialize a local ldap Branch Server. If 'NO' is selected the script assumes there is an already running branch ldap and asks for its address. If 'YES' is chosen the script will initialize a local ldap server.
Offline installation mode: If '-f' parameter is not specified the script asks for the path to the OIF file. If '-n' (or '--noninteractive') is not specified the script asks for the required ldap settings (some defaults are predefined). After that the script asks whether to use a local branch ldap server or a remote one. When '-n' is specified the script asks for nothing and automatically initializes a local Branch Server.
SLEPOS uses KIWI as the main tool for creating Point of Service system images. You can find the KIWI documentation in the kiwi package as a PDF file: /usr/share/doc/packages/kiwi/kiwi.pdf. To simplify creating and managing image configurations and building images, YaST Image Creator has been developed. SLEPOS delivers several ready image configuration templates. All of them have default sets of package sources (rpm repositories). You need to create those sources first as described in chapter “Setting up SMT repositories”. However you can override these settings when you create your own images and define your own set of repositories. Be sure that you always provide SLES 11 SP3 and SLEPOS 11 SP3 sources!
YaST Image Creator
To build an image with YaST Image Creator, perform the following steps:
In the YaST Control Center, click Miscellaneous -> YaST Image Creator. The YaST Image Creator window appears.
Click Add to start creating an image configuration.
Enter a name for the image configuration in the KIWI Configuration.
Select Base on Template and in the list box, select the image template that you want to use.
Select the image type you want to create using the Image Type list box. The image type selected determines the type of booting and the files that KIWI will create.
You can leave the Output Directory setting as it is, as a reasonable default directory is already selected.
If necessary, modify the list of package repositories that will be used for creating the image. (see chapter “Setting up SMT repositories”)
Click Next to proceed with creating the image configuration. YaST Image Creator now downloads the repository metadata. This action may take some time.
After the Image Configuration window appears, click Finish to proceed with creating the image, using the default settings.
Click Yes to save the image configuration and start building the image. (If you click No, only the image configuration is saved and no image is built.)
KIWI now starts building the image.
KIWI
If the KIWI run within YaST Image Creator fails or you need special fine tuning you can try building the image from the command line. YaST Image Creator just creates a configuration for KIWI, and this configuration is stored as a directory path with the following form: '/var/lib/SLEPOS/system/<kiwi_configuration_name>'.
'kiwi_configuration_name' is the name you entered in the Kiwi Configuration field in YaST Image Creator.
To build a previously created image perform the following steps:
Enter the following command:
kiwi -p /var/lib/SLEPOS/system/image-name
This command creates the directory structure for the system inside the image, and in one of the last lines of its output, it informs you about the location of the log file (in the form of '/tmp/kiwi.random_identifier'). The other important information is the path to the directory structure that has been just built. Look for a line starting with Initializing image system on: and copy this path into the command at step 3.
Create a directory for the resulting image and associated files. A good option is to store the resulting files into the same directory that YaST Image Creator would use:
You can now build the image into this directory using the prepared directory structure with the following command:
kiwi -c kiwi-prepared_directory_structure -d directory_from_step_2
Again, if KIWI fails, it reports where an error log is available. Please attach this log to the bug report. Also keep the following in mind:
YaST and YaST Image Creator must not be running when building images with KIWI, otherwise KIWI will fail. If KIWI seems to be stuck, try to open the screen log file using tail -f or tail -F. Look for the screen log file name in the line starting with Set root log:.
If you cannot build the image configured with YaST Image Creator even from the command line, copy the original template as it is from /usr/share/kiwi/image/SLEPOS) into another directory (/var/lib/SLEPOS/system/another_directory). This should always work. If not, please file a bug report.
Starting with SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 SP2 the default package repository for image building is provided by a SUSE SMT server. You will find SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 SP3 already preconfigured for an SMT server that runs on the same machine as the SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 SP3 image server. Once the connection to the SUSE package and update server has been set up, the image building will work out of the box.
As SMT is meant as a full replacement for poscdtool/poscopytool those tools have been removed from the product and all documentation around those are therefore considered to be obsolete from now on.
For details on installation and configuration for the SUSE SMT product you can also check:
http://www.suse.com/documentation/smt11/
http://www.novell.com/docrep/2009/11/SMT11%20Deployment%20Guide-en_f_en.pdf
Besides the default of installing the SMT server on the same machine as Image Server, the user has the option to run the SMT server on separate machine
In this case the preconfigured local paths to the image repositories should be changed to the URLs that are referring to the SMT server. In the defaults image descriptions we are using alias names for image repository paths, which are translated to repo urls via /etc/kiwi/repoalias file. So to be effective for all image descriptions the definition of the alias should be changed there.
For example
/srv/www/htdocs/repo/$RCE/SLE11-POS-SP3-Updates/sle-11-i586
should be changed to
http://server.name/repo/$RCE/SLE11-POS-SP3-Updates/sle-11-i586
In both cases, the SMT should be installed according to the documentation and the following channels configured:
SLES
SLES-Updates
SLEPOS
SLEPOS-Updates
This is the full list of repos required for building an SP3 image:
/srv/www/htdocs/repo/$RCE/SLES11-SP3-Pool/sle-11-i586 /srv/www/htdocs/repo/$RCE/SLES11-SP3-Updates/sle-11-i586 /srv/www/htdocs/repo/$RCE/SLE11-POS-SP3-Pool/sle-11-i586 /srv/www/htdocs/repo/$RCE/SLE11-POS-SP3-Updates/sle-11-i586
In case you are intending to build server images as well which come as 64 bit flavor you will have to add all repositories for "sle-11-x86_64", too.
Image configurations in SP3 are prepared for locally installed SMT, which use the following repos, in rpm-md format:
/srv/www/htdocs/repo/$RCE/SLES11-SP3-Pool/sle-11-i586 /srv/www/htdocs/repo/$RCE/SLES11-SP3-Updates/sle-11-i586 /srv/www/htdocs/repo/$RCE/SLE11-POS-SP3-Pool/sle-11-i586 /srv/www/htdocs/repo/$RCE/SLE11-POS-SP3-Updates/sle-11-i586
The image repository configuration can be changed as required. The typical examples follow.
The repository path must be changed to an URL pointing to the SMT machine. The repository type remains unchanged, i.e. "rpm-md". Best do your changes in /etc/kiwi/repoalias .
http://server.name/repo/$RCE/SLES11-SP3-Pool/sle-11-i586 http://server.name/repo/$RCE/SLES11-SP3-Updates/sle-11-i586 http://server.name/repo/$RCE/SLE11-POS-SP3-Pool/sle-11-i586 http://server.name/repo/$RCE/SLE11-POS-SP3-Updates/sle-11-i586
It is possible to use the SLES and SLEPOS media directly to create an SMT repository. The medias can be mounted to a directory or copied. In the following example we suppose that
the SLES media has been copied to /var/lib/SLEPOS/dist/SLES-11-SP3-DVD-i586-DVD1
and the SLEPOS media to /var/lib/SLEPOS/dist/SLE-11-SP3-POS-i586-x86_64-DVD1.
To configure the image repositories for image building, you will need to modify the appropriate config.xml template for your image.
The image templates can be found in:
| /usr/share/kiwi/image/SLEPOS/adminserver-4/config.xml |
| /usr/share/kiwi/image/SLEPOS/branchserver-4/config.xml |
| /usr/share/kiwi/image/SLEPOS/comboserver-4/config.xml |
| /usr/share/kiwi/image/SLEPOS/graphical-4/config.xml |
| /usr/share/kiwi/image/SLEPOS/jeos-4/config.xml |
| /usr/share/kiwi/image/SLEPOS/minimal-3/config.xml |
Look for the following lines in the config.xml file
<repository type="rpm-md">
<source path='{SLES 11 SP3 i386}'/>
</repository>
<repository type="rpm-md">
<source path='{SLES 11 SP3 Updates i386}'/>
</repository>
<repository type="rpm-md">
<source path='{SLEPOS 11 SP3 i386}'/>
</repository>
<repository type="rpm-md">
<source path='{SLEPOS 11 SP3 Updates i386}'/>
</repository>
Replace all instances of repository type "rpm-md" to "yast2"
Replace the following lines (for SLES):
{SLES 11 SP3 i386} and
{SLES 11 SP3 Updates i386}
with
/var/lib/SLEPOS/dist/SLES-11-SP3-DVD-i586-DVD1
Replace the following 2 lines (for SLEPOS):
{SLEPOS 11 SP3 i386} and
{SLEPOS 11 SP3 Updates i386}
with
/var/lib/SLEPOS/dist/SLE-11-SP3-POS-i586-x86_64-CD1
Finally save the file and open Image Creator. You should be able to see the repositories that you have added.
It is however strongly recommended to add updates repository too, using SMT repository as described above, or by creating a plain dir repo manually (for details see kiwi documentation).
Note: The repository configuration can be changed also in Yast2 Image Creator, in this case is the repository type detected automatically.