Streamlining Your SUSE Linux Environment: Ansible Getting Integrated with SLES

As a system administrator, you know the importance of efficient configuration management and automation. We’ve listened to your feedback indicating that Ansible is one of the preferred frameworks you use day-to-day. To support your workflow and provide flexibility, SUSE is enhancing its automation capabilities.

What’s New? Ansible Comes to SLES

So far, Salt has been the primary configuration management tool integrated tightly with SUSE Multi Linux Manager, and will continue to be available through it. But  – true to SUSE’s promise of “choice happens” –   we are excited to announce a major addition: Ansible will be introduced as an integrated part of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) itself.

This means you get a SUSE-supported Ansible stack directly within SLES and its flavours, ensuring the trusted and secure framework you expect.

Leverage Powerful, Supported Ansible Capabilities

SUSE is providing a comprehensive set of Ansible tools, tested and optimized for SLES. Here’s what you can leverage:

• Ansible Engine: The core automation engine you’re familiar with, now delivered and supported directly by SUSE.
• Linux System Roles: Utilize standardized roles for consistent OS-level configuration across your SLES systems.
• SAP-Specific Automation: Simplify the deployment and management of your SAP landscapes with dedicated, SUSE-tested roles and playbooks.
• SLES-Specific Tasks: Automate essential SUSE tasks like system registration and managing SUSE modules using dedicated Ansible content like a SUSE registration module. 

Not Just for SLES 16

While these enhancements are part of the upcoming Server 16, you don’t have to wait. Recognizing the need for consistency, SUSE is backporting these capabilities to SLES 15: A new “Systems Management Module” will be available as part of your existing subscription for SLES 15 Service Packs 6 and 7, which includes the new Ansible engine packages alongside the existing Salt components. For SP5 the packages will be part of the update channels for LTSS. The automation packages for Ansible will be delivered as part of SLES update repository, the SAP specific automation packages will be delivered as part of SLES for SAP applications update repositories..

Thus, you can run your Ansible control node on SLES 15 SP5 (or newer) or SLES 16 to manage SLES 15 SP5+ and SLES 16 systems. The delivered ansible stack requires python 3.11 which is available starting with 15 SP5.

SUSE is committed to keeping these tools current, with plans to update the Ansible engine annually and the roles/playbooks twice a year.

Integration with SUSE Multi-Linux Manager

For those using SUSE Multi-Linux Manager, its existing Ansible integration continues and will be enhanced. Future updates, like for SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 5.1, plan to add features like recurring playbook execution and variable support.

Choice

This integration of Ansible directly into SLES gives you greater choice and consistency, allowing you to use your preferred, SUSE-supported automation framework to manage your SUSE Linux Enterprise environments effectively.

What exactly gets delivered?

• ansible, ansible-core: The ansible engine.
• ansible-linux-system-roles: Ansible roles for managing Linux system components. SUSE will add additional roles after development and testing to this package.
• ansible-sap-infrastructure: Ansible roles for infrastructure provisioning across various platforms.
• ansible-sap-install: Ansible roles for installation of SAP systems.
• ansible-sap-operations: Ansible roles for day to day operations of SAP systems.
• ansible-sap-launchpad: Ansible roles and modules for download of SAP Software media. (Note this package will be part of PackageHub)
• ansible-sap-playbooks: Ansible playbooks for end to end deployment of SAP systems and landscapes.

Since these are added to products in different life phases, packages will be delivered via different ways, some in update channels, some as part of the new “Systems Management Module”, some as part of regular repositories.

SLES 16 will contain all the packages as well. The upcoming beta contains a first subset of these.

More about SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16

To learn more about SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0, check this introductory article and the article “Why Change? Innovations in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16”.