SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 Service Pack 3 (SLES 12 SP3) released

Oracle 12c R1 and R2 now certified on RHEL 7.1 and SLES 12 SP1 for Linux on z / LinuxONE

SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 Service Pack 2 (SLES 12 SP2) released

On November 8th 2016 eleven months after the last service pack  SUSE has released the latest updated to their flag ship server distribution. SUSE also has a blog post with some more details.

The kernel level for 12.2 is kernel-4.4.21-69.1. This is a jump in the kernel version from the old 3.12 based kernel. It's the same major kernel level that's being used by Canonical for Ubuntu 16.04. And with that kernel a lot of new functionality is delivered. SUSE and IBM worked hard to ensure that for applications it behaves the same.

What's new (details see documentation and release notes):

• The release notes states that SUSE now fully supports MariaDB. They have version 10.0.27 inlcuded
• Networking:
• For OSA the specification of a portname is no longer needed
• Hipersockets can now be bridged to Erhernet
• Layer2 offloads are enabled
• The 10 GbE RoCE card now also supports the DAPL/OFED stack on
• Encryption and security updates
• Glibc has now the first set of SIMD exploitations for z13
• Toolchain module updates
• Full KVM host support - so you can now run SLES12 as a Hypervisor on System z an Linux boxes 
• ....

Here is my usual summary of links to more information:

• Complete SLES 12 documentation
• SLES 12.2 release notes (s390x version)
• z Systems / s390x specific information 
• release notes for High Availability Extensions (z Systems / s390x version)  
• release notes for SDK (z Systems / s390x version)
• SUSE tuning guide updated to SP2
• Whitepaper on SUSE's module concept
• IBM documentation on developerworks
• Docker support statement

(updated 5/2/2017)

SLES 12 toolchain module available for Linux on z

SUSE has released the toolchain module for Linux on System z. This is the first officially supported gcc compiler that supports the z13.
To install you need to add the product and update repository with "yast2 repositories" and then you can install it with

# zypper install sle-module-toolchain-release
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...

The following 10 NEW packages are going to be installed:
  cpp5 gcc5 gcc5-c++ gcc5-fortran gcc5-locale libgfortran3 libstdc++6-devel-gcc5 patterns-toolchain-gcc5
  sle-module-toolchain-release sle-module-toolchain-release-POOL

The following NEW pattern is going to be installed:
  gcc5

The following NEW product is going to be installed:
  "Toolchain Module"

The following 6 recommended packages were automatically selected:
  cpp5 gcc5-c++ gcc5-fortran gcc5-locale libstdc++6-devel-gcc5 patterns-toolchain-gcc5

10 new packages to install.
Overall download size: 26.2 MiB. Already cached: 0 B  After the operation, additional 136.1 MiB will be
used.
Continue? [y/n/? shows all options] (y): y
.....


As you see you get C, C++ and Fortran. To enable z13 instructions use the -march=z13 option.

SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 Service Pack 1 (SLES 12 SP1) released

On December 22nd just in time for Christmas SUSE has released the latest updated to their flag ship server distribution.

The kernel level for 12.1 is kernel-3.12.49-11.1. As one of the top features this distribution is the first one, which allows full exploitation of the z13. And this distribution is so far the only one that's supported by IBM's version of KVM as well as Docker. SUSE has published a nice summary of the the z specific news.
And of course it has many bug fixes. So after the installation be sure to run an update to install the latest fixes from the maintweb. 

Here is my usual summary of links to more information:

• Complete SLES 12 documentation
• SLES 12.1 release notes (s390x version)
• z Systems / s390x specific information 
• release notes for High Availability Extensions (z Systems / s390x version)  
• release notes for SDK (z Systems / s390x version)
• SUSE tuning guide updated to SP1 
• Whitepaper on SUSE's module concept
• IBM documentation on developerworks
• KVM support statement
• Docker support statement

A frequently asked question is about the location of the older libstdc++ libraries that are needed for compatibility with older software products. There are two locations:

• the oldest ones are in a package called compat, that you can install with zypper directly. It has libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so and libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3
• the libstdc++33 is part of the Legacy Module that SUSE provides. Add it to your repositories with yast2 repositories and then you can install. It contains the libstc++.so.5

(updated 1/20/2016)

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 4 (SLES 11 SP4 ) released

On July 16th 2015 SUSE has announced the availability of the latest service pack to their SLES11 distribution. This release is a maintenance release, keeping the major kernel version stable. Here is the usual collection of links:

• release notes (s390x version) 
• z Systems spcific information for SLES 11 SP4 (11.4)
• release notes for High Availability Extensions (System z / s390x version) 
• release notes for SDK (System z / s390x version)
• kernel level: 3.0.101-63.1
• Here are some interesting features with links to the respective release notes entry:
• QSAM Access Method for Data sharing with z/OS
  This is the first stage - allowing read only access to offline devices
• 10GbE RoCE Express support
• Crypto enhancements:
• Support of Enterprise PKCS#11 (EP11)
• libica 2.4.2 available
• src_vipa: IPv6 Enablement 
• Keywords for ipl and console device for use in cio_ignore (ipldev, condev)
• Documentation
• SUSE page updated to SP4 level
• documentation as large zip file  (updated to SP4 level)
• IBM documentation for SP3 on developerworks
• SUSE tuning guide updated to SP4

IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) available for Linux on System z

IBM has announced the availability of the General Parallel File System (GPFS) aka Elastic Storage for Linux on System z. It's the new 4.1 version and for zLinux the minimum distribution requirements are

• RHEL 6.5 + latest z stream patches
• RHEL 7.0
• SLES 11 SP3 + latest maintenance patches 

 There is also a short Redbook solution guide available.

How to determine which kernel level corresponds to which service release for RHEL and SLES

Now and then I get the question - where to find the kernel level or version for a specific service release. And vice versa - I have kernel level x.y.z - what is the respective service level?
Both distributors SUSE as well as Red Hat offer this information on their web sites - even though not quite obvious to find. So here it is as a reference:

• Red Hat release table 
• SUSE release table including maintenance updates

SLES 11 SP3 released

Today SUSE announced the release of Service Pack 3 for SLES 11. It's been more than 16 months since the last release, so quite some waiting time for new features. This time the kernel level stayed the same, so the upgrade from SLES11 SP2 to SLES11 SP3 should be easier than the one before.  You can find more information on this release here:

• press release
• overview and list of new features for the mainframe
• release notes (s390x version) 
• release notes for High Availability Extensions (System z / s390x version) 
• release notes for SDK (System z / s390x version)
• kernel level: 3.0.76-0.9.1
• SUSE FAQ for SLES 11 SP3
• updated packages
• Here are some interesting features with links to the respective release notes entry:
• Transactional Execution Facility support
• libhugetlbfs support for transparent usage of large pages
• Optimized zlib compression library (see also my separate blog post) and upgrade to zlib 1.2.7
• Linux perf tool with hardware counters for performance analysis
• gcc 4.7 on SDK with zEC12 instructions and optimizations
• Crypto Express 4 (CEX4) support
• SHA-256 support in CCA token
• Flash Express support
• Fuzzy live dump
• kdump for Linux on System z
• and many more 
• Documentation
• SUSE page updated to SP3 level
• documentation as large zip file  (updated to SP3 level)
• IBM documentation on developerworks
• SUSE tuning guide updated to SP3 
• Oracle Database (10gR2 & 11gR2) on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3

SUSE has released the first maintenance web kernel for SP3 (kernel-default-3.0.82-0.7.9.s390x.rpm). It contains more fixes than usual so as always when upgrading and starting, get the latest service installed. 

As more information becomes available I'll update this post. Latest Update 8/6/2013.