Maintenance Window Checklist

If you work on a SUSE Manager Server with scheduled maintenance windows, you might find it difficult to remember all the things that you need to during that critical downtime.

As with any SUSE Linux Enterprise system, you are encouraged to install package updates on the SUSE Manager Server when they arrive.

This section contains a checklist for your maintenance window, with links to further information on performing each of the steps, if you need it.

  1. Stop services. You will need to stop the spacewalk, SAP, and database services, along with any others you have running.

  2. Check if the configuration is still correct.

  3. On Salt systems, apply the highstate.

  4. Apply the latest updates. See upgrade:server-upgrade.adoc.

  5. Update to the latest service pack, if required. See upgrade:migrate-4x-4x.adoc.

  6. Reboot the server.

  7. Check if the configuration is still correct.

  8. On Salt systems, apply the highstate.

  9. Start any stopped services.

You can install updates using your package manager. For information on using YaST, see https://www.suse.com/documentation/sles-15/book_sle_admin/data/cha_onlineupdate_you.html). For information on using zypper, see https://www.suse.com/documentation/sles-15/book_sle_admin/data/sec_zypper.html).

By default, several update channels are configured and enabled for the SUSE Manager Server. New and updated packages will become available automatically.

To keep SUSE Manager up to date, you must have it connected directly to SUSE Customer Center. Alternatively, for disconnected environments, you can use Repository Management Tool (RMT) as a local installation source.

You can check that the update channels are available on your system with this command:

zypper lr

The output will look similar to this:

Name                                                   | Enabled | GPG Check | Refresh
-------------------------------------------------------+---------+-----------+--------
SLE-Module-Basesystem15-SP1-Pool                       | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | No
SLE-Module-Basesystem15-SP1-Updates                    | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes
SLE-Module-Python2-15-SP1-Pool                         | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | No
SLE-Module-Python2-15-SP1-Updates                      | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes
SLE-Product-SUSE-Manager-Server-4.0-Pool               | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | No
SLE-Product-SUSE-Manager-Server-4.0-Updates            | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes
SLE-Module-SUSE-Manager-Server-4.0-Pool                | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | No
SLE-Module-SUSE-Manager-Server-4.0-Updates             | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes
SLE-Module-Server-Applications15-SP1-Pool              | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | No
SLE-Module-Server-Applications15-SP1-Updates           | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes
SLE-Module-Web-Scripting15-SP1-Pool                    | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | No
SLE-Module-Web-Scripting15-SP1-Updates                 | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes

SUSE Manager releases maintenance updates (MUs) to provide newer packages. Maintenance updates are indicated with a new version number. For example, the major release 4.0 will be incremented to 4.0.1 when an MU is released.

You can verify which version you are running by looking at the bottom of the navigation bar in the Web UI. You can also fetch the version number with the api.getVersion() XMLRPC API call.

To upgrade to the latest MU, you can use the zypper migration command at the command prompt:

zypper migration

This procedure is also known as a Service Pack (SP) migration.