Deploying Suse Linux Enterprise Server
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Installing Suse Linux Enterprise Server
Software Selection
Unlike the disk subsystem configuration, Software selection during install is not as important since it can be easily changed after the installation is completed. However, there are a few things to point out and a few suggestions to make.
To use LDAP or not - Probably the most important choice to make when selecting the software to install is to decide whether or not to install and use LDAP on your server. This is important during install because if you do check it, the installation procedure will setup the LDAP server for you. An LDAP server can be very difficult to setup manually and Suse Linux Enterprise Server has quite a few services that can interact with the LDAP server. I highly recommend that if you wish to utilize an LDAP server, select it during install and have the installation procedure configure it for you.
To determine whether or not you want to use LDAP on your server here are a few situations that will require the LDAP server:
- If you want to use SLES's integrated Mail Server you must use LDAP
- If you want a "Secondary Domain Controller" for your Windows clients you must use LDAP
- If you want an easy way to have a centralized login server for GNU/Linux workstations and servers you will probably want to use LDAP
- If you don't want to manually create the "mapping" between Windows usernames to Unix usernames you will probably want to use LDAP (see the Samba Chapter for more information)
Selecting Software to be Installed and the Detailed View of the Software Available
To install X Window System and a Graphical Environment - The question of installing the X Windows System (along with a Graphical Environment) on a server has been debated for quite a while. On one hand, the installing of the X Windows System does open a few security windows (pun intended) that you must ensure that aren't breeched, but on the other hand it does provide an extremely nice interface to help maintain the server.
This question basically comes down to this - Are the Administrators of this server knowledgeable enough to maintain the server without any basic graphical interface ? Most of the time, since you are using Suse Linux Enterprise Server, you will definitely want to install the X Window System (along with a Graphical Environment) simply to have access to the Graphical Yast Front End.
What about Xen Virtualization - Suse Linux Enterprise Server is probably one of the best bases for Xen virtualization deployments. However, when you decide to go the Virtualization route you must keep in mind that you want the base Operating System to be as lean as possible. This means that you do not want *any* services at all on the "physical" server except Xen. If the base Operating System goes down, all of the virtualized systems go down with it. The whole concept of deploying virtualized servers is very different than deploying a standard server, which is what this document covers.
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