Customers and independent software vendors (ISVs) of all sizes will have the ability to run SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and 11 on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) paying only for the hours they use. The new offerings will be available in all instance sizes and in every AWS region around the world. In addition, Novell will provide a maintenance service on AWS so customers can keep their SLES instances up-to-date with Novell’s most current security patches, bug fixes and new features.

The SUSE Cloud Program is a key component of Novell’s strategy to deliver innovative solutions for the intelligent workload management market. With the SUSE Cloud Program and tools like SUSE StudioTM, Novell makes it easy for cloud vendors to offer differentiated services that speed customer acquisition. For enterprises, the SUSE Cloud Program means they can have a common Linux platform across the physical and virtual environments behind their firewall, and then a pay-for-use version of that Linux in the cloud.

In addition to Amazon Web Services, service provider partners who have joined the SUSE Cloud Program include Fujitsu, IBM, Tencent and Vodacom Business.

For more information about the SUSE Cloud Program, visit www.novell.com/suse-cloud-program.

* comprehensive power management capabilities
* performance enhancements
* scalability enhancements
* new security features
* enhanced resource management
* improved virtualization capabilities

There are two features that clearly stand-out.First is the introduction of new filesystem. Red Hat is finally moving to ext4. As the next generation of the extended filesystem family, it includes support for larger file sizes, more efficient allocation of disk space, better file system checking and more robust journaling.
Second  is the new virutalization software. Red Hat is  putting its weight behing Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) as default virtualization technology. Incorporating numerous performance, scheduler and hardware support enhancements, KVM offers improved flexibility and control regardless of the deployment model.

Read more about what’s new in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Beta.

Link: Moving Your Novell GroupWise System to Linux

Here we will present five quick wins which, while easy to implement can significantly improve security. This should not replace traditional platform hardening process which is the recommended course of action, but to draw attention to the tools available out of the box that can be easily switched on even on the system already in production environment.

1. Activate Internal Firewall.

IPtables software is installed by default on SLES and can be used to secure your server from unnecessary or damaging traffic,Yast provides easy and intuitive graphical interface which allows restrict access to the system only on specific ports. This is easy task and the main challenge very often turns to be the identification of the TCP and UDP ports that should be allowed.

2. Patch your server.

Failure to keep operating system and application software up to date is the most common mistake made by information system professionals and users. Novell publishes list of released patches on Patch Support Database website.

The easiest way to ensure the compliance is by using Online Patch Management Tool available trough Yast. For multiple systems or when security policies do not allow direct connections to the internet better choice may be the Subscription Management Tool. It is is a proxy system integrated with Novell Customer Center and provides key Novell Customer Center capabilities locally at the customer site, allowing a more secure centralized deployment.

Enterprises may consider implementation of Zenworks Linux Management which can scale to support large IT systems. In addition to standard patching ZLM can provide build management, bare metal installations, configuration management and software and hardware inventory.

3. Disable unnecessary services.

Aside from consuming resources some of the default services can be used as a door by which attackers can gain access to the system. The typical candidates are portmap (if nfs is not used), cups (if printers are not configured on the system).

Another service – SSH is typically used for remote management and if it can not be disabled for practical reasons, direct root logins should at least be disabled and only SSH protocol version 2 allowed.

4. Use sudo.

Sudo is great little tool which deserves more attention from Linux administrators. First benefit is that it makes unnecessary to use root password for day to day management tasks. Secondly it allows granular delegation of tasks between staff. For example database administrators can be given right to start/stop applications they manage and mount disks, while being forbidden from altering network configuration or creating new users.

5. Enable audit subsystem

The audit subsystem provides quite extensive list of rules that can be set to audit events on the system. The choice may be overwhelming but with little effort auditing of login events can be enabled. This is done through setting AUDITD_DISABLE_CONTEXTS=”no” variable in /etc/sysconfig/auditd configuration file and then ensuring auditd service is started automatically during boot time.

The Subscription Management Tool provides an alternative to the default configuration, which requires opening the firewall to outbound connections for each device to receive updates. That requirement often violates corporate security policies and can be seen as a threat to regulatory compliance by some organizations. Through its integration with Novell Customer Center, the Subscription Management Tool ensures that each device can receive its appropriate updates without the need to open the firewall, and without any redundant bandwidth requirements.

In a nutshell, the Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise provides you with:

* Assurance of firewall and regulatory compliance
* Reduced bandwidth usage during software updates
* Full support under active subscription from Novell
* Maintenance of existing customer interface with Novell Customer Center
* Accurate server entitlement tracking and effective measurement of subscription usage
* Automated process to easily tally entitlement totals (no more spreadsheets!)
* Simple installation process that automatically synchronizes server entitlement with Novell Customer Center

Support for the Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 is included with any SUSE Linux Enterprise subscription at no additional cost.

Contact Securelinx for additional information and professional advice on managing your Linux infrastructure.

The ability to search, sort and filter vast data volumes has been greatly improved with pagination for views of hosts and services. The new improved search feature includes auto suggestion and let you search on hosts, services host groups and service groups.

A new module for network visualization  has been included in op5 Monitor which allows to visualize the infrastructure using three different map types;
* Auto map, a auto drawn topology map using parent / child relationships.
* Static Map makes it possible to put any object (host, service, host group or service group) on an image of choice.
* Geo map, uses Google maps API, drawing a map by using addresses or gps coordinates on your monitored objects. Object and status information as well as links can be included in the map. The maps can be visualized as widgets on the tactical overview or be used on big monitors in operation centers.

More Screenshots.
Download Demo

Contact Securelinx for further details.

Redhat published detailed instructions on how to take advantage of the new system here.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 is the highly reliable, scalable and secure server operating system that powers your physical and virtual workloads. It features the fastest Linux update stack and diskless server capabilities. It provides Green IT innovations and performance optimizations to run as a virtual guest on VMware, Xen and Hyper-V. In every way it sets the standard for enterprise-class server computing.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 delivers dozens of essential applications and seamless interoperability with your existing systems. What’s more, it gives users an easy-to-use and highly secure desktop experience. With application and multimedia enhancements, Green IT innovations and maximum interoperability with Microsoft Office and Exchange, it will help you reduce costs and increase productivity.

Two additional extensions for SLES 11 were also announced:

SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension provides proven, enterprise-class high availability clustering and data replication, at a much lower price than proprietary solutions.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono Extension enables you to run .NET server applications on Linux, with the performance, scalability and hardware support of the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, including support for .NET applications on IBM System z.

Learn more and download your copy

Users should benefit from Novell’s collaboration with Microsoft to run Windows virtualized on SUSE Linux Enterprise and vice versa. Systems should deploy faster through improvements to the YaST manager and configuration framework, including the YaST partitioner and AutoYaST.

Users wanting to test SLES 11 before the official release end of March can download alpha version from Novell’s sneak preview website.

With IDC reporting that the Linux thin client market will grow substantially in the next few years, Securelinx believes that a Thin Client option will be considered more and more by organisations in Ireland looking to reduce costs, mitigate risk and provide fit for purpose computing platforms. As both a Novell SUSE solution Partner and Dell Professional Services Partner for Linux, Securelinx is ideally placed to create secure and customised thin-client images tailored to meet customer needs, roles, and responsibilities.

This new thin client solution provides centralized data and image control for tighter security, easier image management, and better reliability — all without compromising the end-user workspace experience. To request more information on this topic from Securelinx please email us at info@securelinx.com or click on the link below to read the full Novell press release.

Read full Novell announcement