SUSE Manager Proxy 5.0 and SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 5.0

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Version revision history

16th July, 2024: 5.0 GA

About SUSE Manager Proxy 5.0

SUSE Manager Proxy offers mirroring proxy support tailored for large and distributed environments.

The Proxy operates transparently, appearing as a managed client to the SUSE Manager Server and as a server to the managed clients.

Managed clients communicate exclusively with the Proxy, which then relays requests to the SUSE Manager Server.

All software packages that pass through the SUSE Manager Proxy are cached, allowing subsequent client requests for these packages to be resolved directly from the cache.

Containerization

SUSE Manager 5.0 represents a significant evolution with its delivery in containers, offering enhanced modularity and efficiency. In version 4.3, the SUSE Manager Proxy and Retail Branch Server were containerized. However, with this release, the SUSE Manager Server is now delivered in containers.

This shift allows for improved portability, simplifying deployment and management in modern container-centric environments. By containerizing the Server, flexibility is increased and it becomes easier to adapt to various infrastructure setups. This is the first step toward further modularization, preparing SUSE Manager Server for resilience and scalability. Future versions of SUSE Manager are expected to continue this journey.

Containerization streamlines deployment and management processes, resulting in better resilience and improved infrastructure availability. These changes reflect a commitment to delivering a more adaptable and efficient solution for managing different environments.

These enhancements are expected to greatly benefit users, providing them with a more flexible and efficient SUSE Manager.

System requirements

The SUSE Manager Proxy was previously available for x86_64 architecture only, but now it supports AArch64 architecture as well.

It is advisable to have a minimum of 8 GB of RAM and approximately 50 GB of disk space per distribution or channel. Additional disk space should be considered for storing images for retail terminals.

For more details on system requirements, see the Installation Guide on https://documentation.suse.com/suma/5.0/.

SUSE Manager Proxy distribution

SUSE Manager Server, Proxy, and Retail Branch Server will be packaged in containers, accessible through the SUSE Registry.

The SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server and SUSE Manager Proxy extensions are both built on top of SLE Micro, equipped with the necessary tools to manage Retail Branch Server and Proxy, respectively.

Installation and setup

To install SUSE Manager Proxy 5.0 , you should use the mgrpxy tool provided as part of the SUSE Manager Proxy extension on top of SLE Micro 5.5.

For more details on installing and configuring SUSE Manager Proxy 5.0, see the Installation Guide on https://documentation.suse.com/suma/5.0/en/suse-manager/installation-and-upgrade/container-deployment/suma/proxy-deployment-suma.html

Important

Only the containerized versions of SUSE Manager Proxy and Retail Branch server will be available for SUSE Manager 5.0.

Virtual Machine images for SUSE Manager Proxy 5.0

SUSE Manager 5.0 will come with virtual machine images tailored for KVM and VMware. These Proxy images will support x86_64 and now also ARM64 (AArch64) architectures.

These virtual machine images provide pre-configured environments that can be quickly deployed in KVM and VMware environments, saving time and effort in setting up virtual machines from scratch.

Using these images is the recommended and supported method for deploying new instances of SUSE Manager Server on these platforms.

For detailed instructions, see the Deploy as a Virtual Machine section in the official documentation.

Upgrade from previous version

In version 4.3, we provide support for both containerized and regular proxies. However, there’s no direct in-place migration path from SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 to SUSE Manager 5.0 Proxy . In this case, you’ll need to set up a new Proxy and transition your clients to the new Proxy.

For detailed guidance on upgrading, please refer to the Upgrade Guide available at https://documentation.suse.com/suma/5.0/en/suse-manager/installation-and-upgrade/proxy-intro.html

Important

Currently, it is not straightforward to re-use the old proxy’s FQDN. Users must create a new proxy and then move the minions to the new proxy through the SUSE Manager UI.

SUSE Manager Server versions

SUSE Manager Proxy 5.0 is compatible only with SUSE Manager 5.0 Server.

However, SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 is backward compatible and can still function with SUSE Manager 5.0 Server. So, there’s no immediate need to migrate all proxies if it’s not feasible.

The product is designed for optimal performance when used in a scenario where all components — SUSE Manager Server, SUSE Manager Proxy, and Retail Branch Server — are of the same version. It’s generally advised to avoid using mixed versions long-term in production environments.

Major Changes Since SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3

Base system changed

SUSE Manager 4.3 was built on SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP4, but for SUSE Manager 5.0, we’ve shifted to SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 as the base system. This change was made because SLE Micro is better suited for container workloads and has a longer lifecycle. Additionally, the SLE Micro subscription for the Proxy will now be included in the SUSE Manager subscription, eliminating the need for customers to purchase the underlying OS subscription separately.

Salt 3006.0

For SUSE Manager 5.0, we’re sticking with version 3006.0. The reason behind this decision is that it’s a long-term support (LTS) version. Our plan is to upgrade to the next LTS version, which will be 3008.0 when it will be available. We won’t be transitioning to short-term support (STS) versions.

Throughout this process, we’ll ensure that all critical bug fixes, including CVEs, L3 fixes, and essential features needed for SUSE Manager, are provided and addressed.

mgr-bootstrap tool removed from the Proxy

The mgr-bootstrap tool has been taken out from the Proxy and will be removed from the Server as well in future. Overall, several tools on both the Server and Proxy will be phased out in favor of the API or integrated into mgrpxy/mgradm.

If users wish to create a bootstrap script to register against the Proxy, they can do so using the following command from the Server container:

mgr-boostrap --hostname $proxyfqdn

Dropped features

Traditional Stack has been removed

Starting with the SUSE Manager 4.3 release, the traditional stack was marked as deprecated. Now, with the release of SUSE Manager 5.0, we are completely removing support for the traditional stack. This means that we will not support traditional clients and proxies based on traditional stack anymore.

For additional details on migrating traditional clients to Salt clients, please refer to Migrate traditional clients to Salt clients.

Deprecated features

None

Known issues

None

Keep Informed

You can stay up-to-date regarding information about SUSE Manager and SUSE products:

Check the newest SUSE Manager 5.0 release notes
Read the SUSE Blog
Use the SUSE Best Practices for SUSE Manager
Join the upstream Uyuni community and monthly community meetings
Join the channels users and devel at Gitter to chat with upstream community.

Providing feedback

If you encounter a bug in any SUSE product, please report it through your SUSE Customer Service or Sales representatives

Resources

Latest product documentation: https://documentation.suse.com/suma/5.0/.

Technical product information for SUSE Manager: https://www.suse.com/products/suse-manager/

These release notes are available online: https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/

Visit https://www.suse.com for the latest Linux product news from SUSE.

Visit https://www.suse.com/source-code/ for additional information on the source code of SUSE Linux Enterprise products.

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Thank you for using SUSE Manager Proxy and/or SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server in your business.

Your SUSE Manager Team.