Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 10 SP2 - DEPLOYMENT GUIDE... Quick reference guide

SUSE Linux Enterprise
Desktop
www.novell.com10 SP2
May08,2008 Deployment Guide

Deployment Guide
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Contents
About This Guide xiii
Part I Deployment 1
1Planning for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 3
1.1 Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Reasons to Use SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2Deployment Strategies 7
2.1 Deploying up to 10 Workstations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Deploying up to 100 Workstations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 Deploying More than 100 Workstations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3Installation with YaST 17
3.1 System Start-Up for Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 The Installation Workow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.3 TheBootScreen......................... 20
3.4 Language ............................ 23
3.5 MediaCheck........................... 23
3.6 LicenseAgreement........................ 24
3.7 InstallationMode......................... 24
3.8 Clock and Time Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.9 Installation Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.10 Performing the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.11 Conguration of the Installed System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.12 GraphicalLogin.......................... 38

4Remote Installation 39
4.1 Installation Scenarios for Remote Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2 Setting Up the Server Holding the Installation Sources . . . . . . . . . 48
4.3 Preparing the Boot of the Target System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.4 Booting the Target System for Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.5 Monitoring the Installation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5Automated Installation 77
5.1 Simple Mass Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.2 Rule-Based Autoinstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.3 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6Deploying Customized Preinstallations 95
6.1 Preparing the Master Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.2 Customizing the Firstboot Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.3 Cloning the Master Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.4 Personalizing the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
7Advanced Disk Setup 107
7.1 LVMConguration........................ 107
7.2 Soft RAID Conguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
8System Conguration with YaST 119
8.1 YaSTLanguage.......................... 120
8.2 The YaST Control Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
8.3 Software............................ 122
8.4 Hardware............................ 136
8.5 System............................. 145
8.6 NetworkDevices......................... 155
8.7 NetworkServices........................ 156
8.8 AppArmor ........................... 160
8.9 Security and Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.10 Virtualization.......................... 169
8.11 Miscellaneous.......................... 170
8.12 YaSTinTextMode........................ 172
8.13 Managing YaST from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
8.14 Update from the Command Line with rug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
8.15 SaX2.............................. 182
8.16 Troubleshooting......................... 188
8.17 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

9Updating SUSE Linux Enterprise 191
9.1 Updating SUSE Linux Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
9.2 Installing Service Packs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
9.3 Software Changes from Version 9 to Version 10 . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Part II Administration 217
10 GNOME Conguration for Administrators 219
10.1 Using GConf for Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
10.2 Customizing Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
10.3 Installing Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
10.4 Conguring Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
10.5 MIMETypes........................... 264
10.6 Setting Screensavers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
10.7 Session Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
10.8 Improving Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
10.9 Hidden Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
10.10 Security Note on Conguring SMB Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
10.11 Disabling GNOME Desktop Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
10.12 Starting Applications Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
10.13 Automounting and Managing Media Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
10.14 Changing Preferred Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
10.15 Managing Proles Using Sabayon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
10.16 Adding Document Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
11 KDE Conguration for Administrators 289
11.1 Managing Proles Using the KIOSK Admin Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
11.2 Managing Proles Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
12 Active Directory Support 303
12.1 Integrating Linux and AD Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
12.2 Background Information for Linux AD Support . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
12.3 Conguring a Linux Client for Active Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
12.4 Logging In to an AD Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
12.5 Changing Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
13 Access Control Lists in Linux 317
13.1 Traditional File Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
13.2 Advantages of ACLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
13.3 Denitions........................... 319

13.4 HandlingACLs.......................... 320
13.5 ACL Support in Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
13.6 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
14 System Monitoring Utilities 329
14.1 Debugging........................... 330
14.2 Files and File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
14.3 Hardware Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
14.4 Networking........................... 337
14.5 The /proc FileSystem...................... 338
14.6 Processes............................ 341
14.7 System Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
14.8 User Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
14.9 TimeandDate.......................... 349
15 Working with the Shell 351
15.1 Getting Started with the Bash Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
15.2 Users and Access Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
15.3 Important Linux Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
15.4 TheviEditor.......................... 377
Part III System 383
16 32-Bit and 64-Bit Applications in a 64-Bit System Environment 385
16.1 RuntimeSupport ........................ 385
16.2 Software Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
16.3 Software Compilation on Biarch Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
16.4 Kernel Specications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
17 Booting and Conguring a Linux System 389
17.1 The Linux Boot Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
17.2 TheinitProcess......................... 393
17.3 System Conguration via /etc/syscong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
18 The Boot Loader 405
18.1 Selecting a Boot Loader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
18.2 Booting with GRUB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
18.3 Conguring the Boot Loader with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
18.4 Uninstalling the Linux Boot Loader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

18.5 Creating Boot CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
18.6 The Graphical SUSE Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
18.7 Troubleshooting......................... 422
18.8 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
19 Special System Features 425
19.1 Information about Special Software Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
19.2 VirtualConsoles......................... 432
19.3 Keyboard Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
19.4 Language and Country-Specic Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
20 Printer Operation 439
20.1 The Workow of the Printing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
20.2 Methods and Protocols for Connecting Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
20.3 Installing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
20.4 Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
20.5 NetworkPrinters......................... 447
20.6 Graphical Printing Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
20.7 Printing from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
20.8 Special Features in SUSE Linux Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
20.9 Troubleshooting......................... 455
21 Dynamic Kernel Device Management with udev 463
21.1 The /dev Directory....................... 463
21.2 Kernel uevents and udev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
21.3 Drivers, Kernel Modules, and Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
21.4 Booting and Initial Device Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
21.5 Debugging udev Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
21.6 Inuencing Kernel Device Event Handling with udev Rules . . . . . . . 466
21.7 Persistent Device Naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
21.8 The Replaced hotplug Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
21.9 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
22 File Systems in Linux 471
22.1 Terminology........................... 471
22.2 Major File Systems in Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
22.3 Some Other Supported File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
22.4 Large File Support in Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
22.5 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

23 The X Window System 481
23.1 Manually Conguring the X Window System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
23.2 Installing and Conguring Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
23.3 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
24 Authentication with PAM 495
24.1 Structure of a PAM Conguration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
24.2 The PAM Conguration of sshd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
24.3 Conguration of PAM Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
24.4 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
25 Mobile Computing with Linux 503
25.1 Laptops ............................ 503
25.2 MobileHardware........................ 511
25.3 Cellular Phones and PDAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
25.4 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
26 PCMCIA 515
26.1 Controlling PCMCIA Cards Using pccardctl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
26.2 PCMCIAinDetail........................ 516
26.3 Troubleshooting......................... 519
27 System Conguration Prole Management 523
27.1 Terminology........................... 524
27.2 SettingUpSCPM......................... 525
27.3 Conguring SCPM Using a Graphical User Interface . . . . . . . . . . 526
27.4 Conguring SCPM Using the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
27.5 Troubleshooting......................... 535
27.6 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
28 Power Management 537
28.1 Power Saving Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
28.2 APM.............................. 539
28.3 ACPI.............................. 540
28.4 Rest for the Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
28.5 The powersave Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
28.6 The YaST Power Management Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

29 Wireless Communication 563
29.1 WirelessLAN.......................... 563
29.2 Bluetooth............................ 573
29.3 Infrared Data Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
29.4 Managing UMTS/3G Network Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
Part IV Services 593
30 Basic Networking 595
30.1 IP Addresses and Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598
30.2 IPv6—The Next Generation Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
30.3 NameResolution ........................ 610
30.4 Conguring a Network Connection with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
30.5 Managing Network Connections with NetworkManager . . . . . . . . 627
30.6 Conguring a Network Connection Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630
30.7 smpppd as Dial-up Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
31 SLP Services in the Network 649
31.1 ActivatingSLP.......................... 649
31.2 SLP Front-Ends in SUSE Linux Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650
31.3 Providing Services with SLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650
31.4 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652
32 Time Synchronization with NTP 653
32.1 Conguring an NTP Client with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654
32.2 Conguring xntp in the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
32.3 Setting Up a Local Reference Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
33 Using NIS 659
33.1 Conguring NIS Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
34 Conguring eDirectory Authentication 661
34.1 Setting Up Workstations to Use eDirectory Authentication . . . . . . . 662
34.2 Using iManager to Enable Users for eDirectory Authentication . . . . . 666
34.3 Turning Off LUM and eDirectory Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . 669
35 LDAP—A Directory Service 671
35.1 LDAPversusNIS......................... 672

35.2 Structure of an LDAP Directory Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
35.3 Conguring an LDAP Client with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
35.4 Conguring LDAP Users and Groups in YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
35.5 Browsing the LDAP Directory Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687
35.6 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
36 Samba 691
36.1 Terminology........................... 691
36.2 Starting and Stopping Samba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
36.3 Conguring a Samba Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
36.4 Conguring Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
36.5 Samba as Login Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
36.6 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701
37 Sharing File Systems with NFS 703
37.1 Installing the Required Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
37.2 Importing File Systems with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
37.3 Importing File Systems Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
37.4 Exporting File Systems with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
37.5 Exporting File Systems Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
37.6 NFS with Kerberos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
37.7 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
38 File Synchronization 717
38.1 Available Data Synchronization Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
38.2 Determining Factors for Selecting a Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
38.3 Introduction to CVS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
38.4 Introduction to rsync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Part V Security 729
39 Masquerading and Firewalls 731
39.1 Packet Filtering with iptables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
39.2 Masquerading Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
39.3 Firewalling Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
39.4 SuSErewall2.......................... 736
39.5 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

40 SSH: Secure Network Operations 743
40.1 The OpenSSH Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
40.2 ThesshProgram......................... 744
40.3 scp—SecureCopy........................ 744
40.4 sftp—Secure File Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745
40.5 The SSH Daemon (sshd)—Server-Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745
40.6 SSH Authentication Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
40.7 X, Authentication, and Forwarding Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
41 Network Authentication—Kerberos 749
41.1 Kerberos Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
41.2 How Kerberos Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
41.3 Users' View of Kerberos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
41.4 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755
42 Encrypting Partitions and Files 757
42.1 Setting Up an Encrypted File System with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . 758
42.2 Using Encrypted Home Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
42.3 Using vi to Encrypt Single ASCII Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762
43 Conning Privileges with AppArmor 763
43.1 Installing Novell AppArmor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
43.2 Enabling and Disabling Novell AppArmor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
43.3 Getting Started with Proling Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766
44 Security and Condentiality 773
44.1 Local Security and Network Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774
44.2 Some General Security Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783
44.3 Using the Central Security Reporting Address . . . . . . . . . . . . 785
Part VI Troubleshooting 787
45 Help and Documentation 789
45.1 Using the SUSE Help Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789
45.2 ManPages........................... 793
45.3 InfoPages ........................... 794
45.4 The Linux Documentation Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
45.5 Wikipedia: The Free Online Encyclopedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
45.6 GuidesandBooks........................ 795

45.7 Package Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796
45.8 Usenet............................. 797
45.9 Standards and Specications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
46 Common Problems and Their Solutions 801
46.1 Finding and Gathering Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
46.2 Installation Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804
46.3 BootProblems ......................... 812
46.4 LoginProblems......................... 815
46.5 Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
46.6 DataProblems.......................... 827
Index 841

About This Guide
This guide is intended for use by professional network and system administrators during
the actual planning, deployment, conguration, and operation of SUSE Linux Enter-
prise®. As such, it is solely concerned with ensuring that SUSE Linux Enterprise is
properly congured and that the required services on the network are available to allow
it to function properly as initially installed. This guide does not cover the process of
ensuring that SUSE Linux Enterprise offers proper compatibility with your enterprise's
application software or that its core functionality meets those requirements. It assumes
that a full requirements audit has been done and the installation has been requested or
that a test installation, for the purpose of such an audit, has been requested.
This guide contains the following:
Deployment
Before you install SUSE Linux Enterprise, choose the deployment strategy and
disk setup that is best suited for your scenario. Learn how to install your system
manually, how to use network installation setups, and how to perform an autoinstal-
lation. Congure the installed system with YaST to adapt it to your requirements.
Administration
SUSE Linux Enterprise offers a wide range of tools to customize various aspects
of the system. This part introduces a few of them.
System
Learn more about the underlying operating system by studying this part. SUSE
Linux Enterprise supports a number of hardware architectures and you can use this
to adapt your own applications to run on SUSE Linux Enterprise. The boot loader
and boot procedure information assists you in understanding how your Linux system
works and how your own custom scripts and applications may blend in with it.
Services
SUSE Linux Enterprise is designed to be a network operating system. SUSE®
Linux Enterprise Desktop includes client support for many network services. It
integrates well into heterogeneous environments including MS Windows clients
and servers.

Security
This edition of SUSE Linux Enterprise includes several security-related features.
It ships with Novell® AppArmor, which enables you to protect your applications
by restricting privileges. Secure login, rewalling, and le system encryption are
covered as well.
Troubleshooting
SUSE Linux Enterprise includes a wealth of applications, tools, and documentation
should you need them in case of trouble. Some of the most common problems that
can occur with SUSE Linux Enterprise and their solutions are discussed in detail.
1 Feedback
We want to hear your comments and suggestions about this manual and the other doc-
umentation included with this product. Please use the User Comments feature at the
bottom of each page of the online documentation and enter your comments there.
2 Documentation Updates
For the latest version of this documentation, see the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
Web site [http://www.novell.com/documentation/sled10/index
.html].
3 Additional Documentation
For additional documentation on this product, refer to http://www.novell.com/
documentation/sled10/index.html:
GNOME User Guide
A comprehensive guide to the GNOME desktop and its most important applications.
KDE User Guide
A comprehensive guide to the KDE desktop and its most important applications.
xiv Deployment Guide

Novell AppArmor Administration Guide
An in-depth administration guide to Novell AppArmor that introduces application
connement for heightened security in your environment.
For a documentation overview on the SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server product, refer
to http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/index.html. The
following manuals are exclusively available for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server:
Start-Up Guide
Basic information about installation types and work ows.
Architecture-Specic Information
Architecture-specic information needed to prepare a SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server target for installation.
Installation and Administration
In-depth installation and administration for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Novell AppArmor Administration Guide
An in-depth administration guide to Novell AppArmor that introduces application
connement for heightened security in your environment.
Storage Administration Guide
An introduction to managing various types of storage devices on SUSE Linux En-
terprise.
Heartbeat Guide
An in-depth administration guide to setting up high availability scenarios with
Heartbeat.
Novell Virtualization Technology User Guide
An introduction to virtualization solutions based on SUSE Linux Enterprise and
the Xen* virtualization technology.
Many chapters in this manual contain links to additional documentation resources. This
includes additional documentation that is available on the system as well as documen-
tation available on the Internet.
About This Guide xv

4 Documentation Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:
•/etc/passwd: lenames and directory names
•placeholder: replace placeholder with the actual value
•PATH: the environment variable PATH
•ls,--help: commands, options, and parameters
•user: users or groups
•Alt,Alt +F1: a key to press or a key combination; keys are shown in uppercase as
on a keyboard
•File,File >Save As: menu items, buttons
•Dancing Penguins (Chapter Penguins, ↑Another Manual): This is a reference to a
chapter in another manual.
xvi Deployment Guide

Part I. Deployment

1
Planning for SUSE Linux
Enterprise Desktop
This chapter is addressed mainly to corporate system administrators who face the task
of having to deploy SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop at their site. Rolling out SUSE
Linux Enterprise Desktop to an entire site should involve careful planning and consid-
eration of the following questions:
For which purpose will the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop workstations be used?
Determine the purpose for which SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop should be used
and make sure that hardware and software able to match these requirements are
used. Consider testing your setup on a single machine before rolling it out to the
entire site.
How many workstations should be installed?
Determine the scope of your deployment of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. De-
pending on the number of installation planned, consider different approaches to
the installation or even a mass installation using SUSE Linux Enterprises unique
AutoYaST technology. For more information about this subject, refer to Chapter 2,
Deployment Strategies (page 7).
How do you get software updates for your deployment?
All patches provided by Novell for your product are available for download to
registered users. Register and nd the patch support database at http://www
.novell.com/suselinuxportal.
Do you need help for your local deployment?
Novell provides training, support, and consulting for all topics around SUSE Linux
Enterprise Desktop. Find more information about this at http://www.novell
.com/products/desktop/.
Planning for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 3

1.1 Hardware Requirements
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop requires certain minimum hardware requirements to
be met before you can successfully install and run SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. A
minimum installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop containing the most basic,
essential software and a very minimalistic graphical user interface requires at least:
• Intel* Pentium* III, 500 MHz
• 256 MB of physical RAM
• 800 MB of available disk space
• 800 x 600 display resolution
For a standard installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop including the desktop
environment of your choice (GNOME or KDE) and a wealth of applications, the fol-
lowing conguration is recommended:
• Intel Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz or higher or any AMD64 or Intel 64 processor
• 1–2 physical CPUs
• 512 MB physical RAM or higher
• 1024 x 768 display resolution (or higher)
1.2 Reasons to Use SUSE Linux
Enterprise Desktop
Let the following items guide you in your selection of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
and while determining the purpose of the installed systems:
Wealth of Applications
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop's broad offer of software makes it appeal to both
professional users in a corporate environment and to home users or users in smaller
networks.
4Deployment Guide