SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4

Upgrade Guide
Upgrade Guide
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4

This book guides you through upgrades of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. If you use
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as base system for other SLE products or extensions,
also see their product documentation for upgrade information specific to this prod-
uct or extension.

Publication Date: November 17, 2022

https://documentation.suse.com

Copyright © 2006– 2022 SUSE LLC and contributors. All rights reserved.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Docu-
mentation License, Version 1.2 or (at your option) version 1.3; with the Invariant Section being this copyright
notice and license. A copy of the license version 1.2 is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation
License”.
For SUSE trademarks, see https://www.suse.com/company/legal/ . All other third-party trademarks are the prop-
erty of their respective owners. Trademark symbols (®, ™ etc.) denote trademarks of SUSE and its affiliates.
Asterisks (*) denote third-party trademarks.

All information found in this book has been compiled with utmost attention to detail. However, this does not
guarantee complete accuracy. Neither SUSE LLC, its affiliates, the authors nor the translators shall be held liable
for possible errors or the consequences thereof.
 Contents

Preface viii
1 Available documentation viii

2 Improving the documentation viii

3 Documentation conventions ix

4 Support xi
Support statement for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server xi • Technology
previews xii

1 Upgrade paths and methods 1

1.1 Upgrading versus fresh installation 1

1.2 Supported upgrade paths to SLES 15 SP4 1

1.3 Online and offline upgrade 4

2 Lifecycle and support 6

2.1 Terminology 6

2.2 Product lifecycle 8

2.3 Module dependencies and lifecycles 9

2.4 Generating periodic lifecycle report 10

2.5 Support levels 10

2.6 Registering and deregistering machines with SUSEConnect 13

2.7 Enabling LTSS support 13

2.8 Identifying the SLE version 14

3 Preparing the upgrade 15

3.1 Make sure the system is up-to-date 15

iv Upgrade Guide
 3.2 Read the release notes 15

3.3 Make a backup 15

3.4 Check the available disk space 16

Checking disk space on non-Btrfs file systems 16 • Checking disk space on
Btrfs root file systems 17

3.5 Listing installed packages and repositories 17

3.6 Disable the LTSS extension 19

3.7 Perform version-specific upgrade steps 19

Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 20 • Upgrading from
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 20

3.8 Migrate your PostgreSQL database 21

3.9 Migrate your MySQL or MariaDB database 24

3.10 Create non-MD5 server certificates for Java applications 25

3.11 Shut down virtual machine guests 25

3.12 Adjust your SMT client setup 26

3.13 Changes in AutoYaST profiles from SLE 12 to 15 27

3.14 Upgrading a Subscription Management Tool (SMT) server 27

3.15 Temporarily disabling kernel multiversion support 27

3.16 Upgrading on IBM Z 28

3.17 IBM POWER: Starting an X server 28

4 Upgrading offline 29
4.1 Conceptual overview 29

4.2 Starting the upgrade from an installation medium 29

v Upgrade Guide
 4.3 Starting the upgrade from a network source 30
Manually upgrading via network installation source—booting from
DVD 30 • Manually upgrading via network installation source—booting via
PXE 31

4.4 Upgrading SUSE Linux Enterprise 31

4.5 Upgrading with AutoYaST 33

4.6 Upgrading with SUSE Manager 34

4.7 Updating registration status after rollback 34

4.8 Registering your system 35

5 Upgrading online 36
5.1 Conceptual overview 36

5.2 Service pack migration workflow 37

5.3 Canceling service pack migration 38

5.4 Upgrading with the online migration tool (YaST) 38

5.5 Upgrading with Zypper 40

5.6 Upgrading with plain Zypper 41

5.7 Rolling back a service pack 44

5.8 Upgrading with SUSE Manager 46

5.9 Upgrading from openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 47

6 Finishing the upgrade 49

6.1 Post-upgrade checks 49

6.2 Enable the Python 3 module 49

6.3 Reformat XFS v4 devices 50

7 Backports of source code 52

7.1 Reasons for backporting 52

vi Upgrade Guide
 7.2 Reasons against backports 53

7.3 The implications of backports for interpreting version numbers 53

7.4 Checking for fixed bugs and backported features 54

A GNU licenses 56

vii Upgrade Guide

Preface

1 Available documentation
Online documentation
The online documentation for this product is available at https://documenta-
tion.suse.com/#sles . Browse or download the documentation in various formats.
Find the online documentation for other products at https://documentation.suse.com/ .

Note: Latest updates

The latest documentation updates are usually available in the English version of the
documentation.

Release notes
For release notes, see https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/ .

In your system
For offline use, nd documentation in your installed system under /usr/share/doc . Many
commands are also described in detail in their manual pages. To view them, run man ,
followed by a specific command name. If the man command is not installed on your system,
install it with sudo zypper install man .

2 Improving the documentation

Your feedback and contributions to this documentation are welcome. The following channels
for giving feedback are available:

Service requests and support

For services and support options available for your product, see https://www.suse.com/
support/ .
To open a service request, you need a SUSE subscription registered at SUSE Customer
Center. Go to https://scc.suse.com/support/requests , log in, and click Create New.

Bug reports
Report issues with the documentation at https://bugzilla.suse.com/ .

viii Available documentation SLES 15 SP4

 To simplify this process, click the Report an issue icon next to a headline in the HTML
version of this document. This preselects the right product and category in Bugzilla and
adds a link to the current section. You can start typing your bug report right away.
A Bugzilla account is required.

Contributions
To contribute to this documentation, click the Edit source document icon next to a headline
in the HTML version of this document. This will take you to the source code on GitHub,
where you can open a pull request.
A GitHub account is required.

Note: Edit source document only available for English

The Edit source document icons are only available for the English version of each
document. For all other languages, use the Report an issue icons instead.

For more information about the documentation environment used for this documentation,
see the repository's README at https://github.com/SUSE/doc-sle/blob/main/README.adoc

Mail
You can also report errors and send feedback concerning the documentation to doc-
[email protected] . Include the document title, the product version, and the publication date
of the document. Additionally, include the relevant section number and title (or provide
the URL), and provide a concise description of the problem.

3 Documentation conventions
The following notices and typographical conventions are used in this documentation:

/etc/passwd : directory names and le names

PLACEHOLDER : replace PLACEHOLDER with the actual value

PATH : the environment variable PATH

ls , --help : commands, options, and parameters

user : users or groups

ix Documentation conventions SLES 15 SP4

 package name : name of a package

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

AMD/Intel This paragraph is only relevant for the AMD64/Intel 64 architecture. The ar-
rows mark the beginning and the end of the text block.
IBM Z, POWER This paragraph is only relevant for the architectures IBM  Z and POWER .
The arrows mark the beginning and the end of the text block.

Dancing Penguins (Chapter Penguins, ↑Another Manual): This is a reference to a chapter in

another manual.

Commands that must be run with root privileges. Often you can also prefix these com-
mands with the sudo command to run them as non-privileged user.

# command
> sudo command

Commands that can be run by non-privileged users.

> command

Notices

Warning: Warning notice

Vital information you must be aware of before proceeding. Warns you about security
issues, potential loss of data, damage to hardware, or physical hazards.

Important: Important notice

Important information you should be aware of before proceeding.

Note: Note notice

Additional information, for example about differences in software versions.

x Documentation conventions SLES 15 SP4

 Tip: Tip notice
Helpful information, like a guideline or a piece of practical advice.

4 Support
Find the support statement for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and general information about
technology previews below. For details about the product lifecycle, see Chapter 2, Lifecycle and
support.

If you are entitled to support, nd details on how to collect information for a support ticket in
Book “Administration Guide”, Chapter 47 “Gathering system information for support”.

4.1 Support statement for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

To receive support, you need an appropriate subscription with SUSE. To view the specific support
offerings available to you, go to https://www.suse.com/support/ and select your product.
The support levels are defined as follows:

L1
Problem determination, which means technical support designed to provide compatibility
information, usage support, ongoing maintenance, information gathering, and basic trou-
bleshooting using available documentation.

L2
Problem isolation, which means technical support designed to analyze data, reproduce
customer problems, isolate problem areas, and provide a resolution for problems not re-
solved by Level 1, or prepare for Level 3.

L3
Problem resolution, which means technical support designed to resolve problems by en-
gaging engineering to resolve product defects which have been identified by Level 2 Sup-
port.

xi Support SLES 15 SP4

For contracted customers and partners, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is delivered with L3 sup-
port for all packages, except for the following:

technology previews.

sound, graphics, fonts, and artwork.

packages that require an additional customer contract.

some packages shipped as part of the module Workstation Extension are L2-supported only.

packages with names ending in -devel (containing header les and similar developer
resources) will only be supported together with their main packages.

SUSE will only support the usage of original packages. That is, packages that are unchanged
and not recompiled.

4.2 Technology previews

Technology previews are packages, stacks, or features delivered by SUSE to provide glimpses
into upcoming innovations. The previews are included for your convenience to give you the
chance to test new technologies within your environment. We would appreciate your feedback!
If you test a technology preview, contact your SUSE representative and let them know about
your experience and use cases. Your input is helpful for future development.
However, technology previews come with the following limitations:

Technology previews are still in development. Therefore, they may be functionally incom-
plete, unstable, or in other ways not suitable for production use.

Technology previews are not supported.

Technology previews may only be available for specific hardware architectures.

Details and functionality of technology previews are subject to change. As a result, up-
grading to subsequent releases of a technology preview may be impossible and require a
fresh installation.

Technology previews can be dropped at any time. For example, if SUSE discovers that a
preview does not meet the customer or market needs, or does not prove to comply with
enterprise standards. SUSE does not commit to providing a supported version of such tech-
nologies in the future.

xii Technology previews SLES 15 SP4

For an overview of technology previews shipped with your product, see the release notes at
https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/ .

xiii Technology previews SLES 15 SP4

1 Upgrade paths and methods

SUSE® Linux Enterprise (SLE) allows upgrading an existing system to a later ver-
sion or service pack. No new installation is needed. Existing data, such as home and
data directories and system configuration, is kept intact. You can update from a lo-
cal CD or DVD drive or from a central network installation source.
This chapter explains how to manually upgrade your SUSE Linux Enterprise system,
be it by DVD, network, an automated process, or SUSE Manager.

1.1 Upgrading versus fresh installation

Upgrades between two major releases of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are supported by SUSE.
Whether it is better to upgrade or perform a fresh installation depends on your specific scenario.
While upgrades involve less work, fresh installations ensure you benefit from all the new features
of a release such as disk layout changes, specific le system features, and other improvements.
To get the most out of your system, SUSE therefore recommends fresh installations in most
scenarios.
In both cases—upgrade as well as a fresh installation—customers need to check if system settings
and default values still t their requirements.
For updates from one service pack of a specific release to another one of the same codestream,
SUSE recommends to do it in-place, and not to perform a fresh installation. Nevertheless there
may be reasons and scenarios for a customer to perform a fresh installation in this case, too.
The decision of which is more suitable can only be made by the customer.

1.2 Supported upgrade paths to SLES 15 SP4

Before you perform any migration, read Chapter 3, Preparing the upgrade.

Important: Cross-architecture upgrades are not supported

Cross-architecture upgrades, such as upgrading from a 32-bit version of SUSE Linux En-
terprise Server to the 64-bit version, or upgrading from big endian to little endian are
not supported!

1 Upgrading versus fresh installation SLES 15 SP4

 Specifically, SLE 11 on POWER (big endian) to SLE 15 SP4 on POWER (new: little endian!)
is not supported.
Also, since SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 is 64-bit only, upgrades from any 32-bit SUSE Linux
Enterprise 11 systems to SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 and later are not supported.
To make a cross-architecture upgrade, you need to perform a new installation.

Note: Skipping service packs

The easiest upgrade path is consecutively installing all service packs. For the SUSE Linux
Enterprise 15 product line (GA and the subsequent service packs) it is also supported to
skip up to two service packs when upgrading. For example, upgrading from SLE 15 GA
to 15 SP3 is supported (as long as SLE 15 GA is supported).

Leap 15 SLES 15 GA SLES 15 SP1 SLES 15 SP2 SLES 15 SP3 SLES 15 SP4

SLES 12 GA SLES 12 SP1 SLES 12 SP2 SLES 12 SP3 SLES 12 SP4 SLES 12 SP5

Online or offline upgrade

Only offline upgrade SLES 11 SLES 11 SP4
Only offline upgrade from LTSS

FIGURE 1.1: OVERVIEW OF SUPPORTED UPGRADE PATHS

Warning: Upgrading databases

The upgrade paths described here apply only to SUSE Linux Enterprise as the operating
system of a machine, not to all the applications it runs. If you have workloads such as
PostgreSQL or MariaDB databases, intermediate OS upgrades may be required in order
to upgrade your databases.
Before upgrading the operating system, consult the Release Notes (https://www.suse.com/
releasenotes/) for information about database versions. If a new major version is
shipped, refer to Chapter 3, Preparing the upgrade for upgrade instructions.

SUPPORTED UPGRADE PATHS PER VERSION

Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Upgrading from SLES 11  directly is not supported. You need at least SLES 11 SP4 and you
can only upgrade to SLES 15 SP3 before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.

2 Supported upgrade paths to SLES 15 SP4 SLES 15 SP4

 If you cannot do a fresh installation, rst upgrade your installed SLES  11 service pack
to SLES  11  SP4. This upgrade is described in the SLES  11  SP4  Deployment Guide (https://
doc.suse.com/sles/11-SP4/html/SLES-all/book-sle-deployment.html) . Next, perform an of-
fline upgrade to SLES 15 SP3. This upgrade is described in the SLES 15 SP3 Deployment Guide
(https://doc.suse.com/sles/15-SP3/html/SLES-all/book-sle-deployment.html) . Then follow
the instructions in this guide to upgrade to SLES 15 SP4.

Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 GA / SP1 / SP2 / SP3 / SP4
Upgrading from SLES 12 SP4 or older service packs directly is not supported. You need at
least SLES 12 SP5 before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.
If you cannot do a fresh installation, rst upgrade your installed SLES  12 service pack
to SLES  12  SP5. This upgrade is described in the SLES  12  SP5  Deployment Guide (https://
doc.suse.com/sles/12-SP5/html/SLES-all/book-sle-deployment.html)

Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3 LTSS

Upgrading from SLES 12 SP3 with LTSS directly is no longer supported. You need at least
SLES 12 SP4 with LTSS before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.

Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4 LTSS

Upgrading from SLES 12  SP4 with LTSS is only supported via an offline upgrade. Refer
to Chapter 4, Upgrading offline for details.

Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5

Upgrading from SLES 12 SP5 is only supported via an offline upgrade. Refer to Chapter 4,
Upgrading offline for details.

Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 GA / SP1 / SP2

Upgrading from SLES 15 GA, SP1, or SP2 directly is no longer supported. You need at least
SLES 15 SP3 before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.

Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 GA LTSS / SP1 LTSS / SP2 LTSS
Upgrading from SLES 15 GA, SP1, or SP2 with LTSS is supported both online and offline.
Refer to Section 1.3, “Online and offline upgrade” for details.

Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3

Upgrading from SLES 15 SP1 or SP2 is supported both online and offline. Refer to Sec-
tion 1.3, “Online and offline upgrade” for details.

3 Supported upgrade paths to SLES 15 SP4 SLES 15 SP4

Upgrading SUSE Linux Enterprise public cloud guests
For instructions on upgrading SLE guests in public clouds, see Using the SUSE Distribution Mi-
gration System (https://doc.suse.com/suse-distribution-migration-system/1.0/single-html/dis-
tribution-migration-system/) .

Upgrading from openSUSE Leap 15.0 / 15.1 / 15.2

Upgrading from openSUSE Leap 15.0, 15.1, or 15.2 directly is no longer supported. You
need at least openSUSE Leap 15.3 before you can proceed to SLES 15 SP4.

Upgrading from openSUSE Leap 15.3 / 15.4

Upgrading from openSUSE Leap 15.3 or 15.4. is supported. See Section 5.9, “Upgrading from
openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server”. Only the server installation of Leap is sup-
ported for an upgrade.

1.3 Online and offline upgrade

SUSE supports the following upgrade and migration methods. For more information about the
terminology, see Section 2.1, “Terminology”. The methods are:

Online
Upgrades that are executed from the running operating system itself (system up and run-
ning state). Examples: online update with Zypper or YaST, connected through SUSE Cus-
tomer Center or Repository Mirroring Tool (RMT), Salt Policy via SUSE Manager.
For details, see Chapter 5, Upgrading online.
When migrating between Service Packs of the same major release, we suggest following
Section 5.4, “Upgrading with the online migration tool (YaST)” or Section 5.5, “Upgrading with Zyp-
per”.

Offline
Upgrading offline implies that the operating system to be upgraded is not running (system
down state). Instead, the installer for the target operating system is booted (for example,
from the installation media, via network or via local boot loader), and performs the up-
grade.
For details, see Chapter 4, Upgrading offline.

4 Online and offline upgrade SLES 15 SP4

 Important: SUSE Manager clients
If your machine is managed by SUSE Manager, update it as described in the SUSE Manager
documentation. The Client Migration procedure is described in the SUSE Manager Upgrade
Guide, available at https://documentation.suse.com/suma/ .

5 Online and offline upgrade SLES 15 SP4

2 Lifecycle and support

This chapter provides background information on terminology, SUSE product lifecy-

cles and Service Pack releases, and recommended upgrade policies.

2.1 Terminology
This section uses several terms. To understand the information, read the definitions below:

Backporting
Backporting is the act of adapting specific changes from a newer version of software and
applying it to an older version. The most commonly used case is fixing security holes
in older software components. Usually it is also part of a maintenance model to supply
enhancements or (less commonly) new features.

Delta RPM
A delta RPM consists only of the binary di between two defined versions of a package,
and therefore has the smallest download size. Before being installed, the full RPM package
is rebuilt on the local machine.

Downstream
A metaphor of how software is developed in the open source world (compare it with up-
stream). The term downstream refers to people or organizations like SUSE who integrate the
source code from upstream with other software to build a distribution which is then used
by end users. Thus, the software ows downstream from its developers via the integrators
to the end users.

Extension,
Add-on product
Extensions and third party add-on products provide additional functionality of product
value to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. They are provided by SUSE and by SUSE partners,
and they are registered and installed on top of the base product SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server.

LTSS
LTSS is the abbreviation for Long Term Service Pack Support, which is available as an
extension for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

6 Terminology SLES 15 SP4

Major release,
General Availability (GA) version
The major release of SUSE Linux Enterprise (or any software product) is a new version
which brings new features and tools, decommissions previously deprecated components
and comes with backward-incompatible changes. Major releases for example are SUSE
Linux Enterprise 12 or 15.

Migration
Updating to a Service Pack (SP) by using the online update tools or an installation medium
to install the respective patches. It updates all packages of the installed system to the latest
state.

Migration target
A compatible product to which a system can be migrated, containing the version of the
products/extensions and the URL of the repository. Migration targets can change over time
and depend on installed extensions. It is possible to select multiple migration targets.

Module
Modules are fully supported parts of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with a different lifecycle.
They have a clearly defined scope and are delivered via online channel only. Registering
at the SUSE Customer Center, RMT (Repository Mirroring Tool), or SUSE Manager is a
prerequisite for being able to subscribe to these channels.

Package
A package is a compressed le in rpm format that contains all les for a particular program,
including optional components like configuration, examples, and documentation.

Patch
A patch consists of one or more packages and may be applied by means of delta RPMs. It
may also introduce dependencies to packages that are not installed yet.

Service Pack (SP)

A service pack combines several patches into a form that is easy to install or deploy. Ser-
vice packs are numbered and usually contain security fixes, updates, upgrades, or enhance-
ments of programs.

7 Terminology SLES 15 SP4

Upstream
A metaphor of how software is developed in the open source world (compare it with down-
stream). The term upstream refers to the original project, author or maintainer of a software
that is distributed as source code. Feedback, patches, feature enhancements, or other im-
provements ow from end users or contributors to upstream developers. They decide if
the request will be integrated or rejected.
If the project members decide to integrate the request, it will show up in newer versions
of the software. An accepted request will benefit all parties involved.
If a request is not accepted, it may be for different reasons. Either it is in a state that is
not compliant with the project's guidelines, it is invalid, it is already integrated, or it is
not in the interest or road map of the project. An unaccepted request makes it harder for
upstream developers as they need to synchronize their patches with the upstream code.
This practice is generally avoided, but sometimes it is still needed.

Update
Installation of a newer minor version of a package, which usually contains security or bug
fixes.

Upgrade
Installation of a newer major version of a package or distribution, which brings new features.
For a distinction between the upgrade options, see Section 1.3, “Online and offline upgrade”.

2.2 Product lifecycle

SUSE has the following product lifecycle:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has a 13-year lifecycle: 10 years of general support and three
years of extended support.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop has a 10-year lifecycle: seven years of general support and
three years of extended support.

Major releases are made every four years. Service packs are made every 12-14 months.

SUSE supports previous service packs for six months after the release of the new service pack.
Figure 2.1, “Major releases and service packs” depicts some mentioned aspects.

8 Product lifecycle SLES 15 SP4

 SLE 15

SP5

SP4 ...
SP3

SP2
SP1
GA

SLE 12 SP5

6 month overlap SP4

SP3

SP2
SP1
GA

TIME

FIGURE 2.1: MA JOR RELEASES AND SERVICE PACKS

If you need additional time to design, validate and test your upgrade plans, Long Term Service
Pack Support can extend the support you get by an additional 12 to 36 months in 12-month
increments. This gives you a total of 2 to 5 years of support on any service pack. For details,
see Figure 2.2, “Long term service pack support”.

Last Service Pack: General Support

up to GA + 10 years

FIGURE 2.2: LONG TERM SERVICE PACK SUPPORT

For more information refer to https://www.suse.com/products/long-term-service-pack-support/ .

Refer to https://www.suse.com/lifecycle for more information about lifecycles, release frequen-
cy, and the overlay support period.

2.3 Module dependencies and lifecycles

For a list of modules, their dependencies, and lifecycles, see the Article “Modules and Extensions
Quick Start”.

9 Module dependencies and lifecycles SLES 15 SP4

2.4 Generating periodic lifecycle report
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server can regularly check for changes in the support status of all installed
products and send the report via e-mail in case of changes. To generate the report, install the
zypper-lifecycle-plugin with zypper in zypper-lifecycle-plugin .

Enable the report generation on your system with systemctl :

> sudo systemctl enable lifecycle-report.timer

The recipient and subject of the report e-mail, and the report generation period can be configured
in the le /etc/sysconfig/lifecycle-report with any text editor. The settings MAIL_TO
and MAIL_SUBJ define the mail recipient and subject, while DAYS sets the interval at which
the report is generated.
The report displays changes in the support status after the change occurred and not in advance.
If the change occurs right after the generation of the last report, it can take up to 14 days until
you are notified of the change. Take this into account when setting the DAYS option. Change
the following configuration entries to t your requirements:

MAIL_TO='root@localhost'
MAIL_SUBJ='Lifecycle report'
DAYS=14

The latest report is available in the le /var/lib/lifecycle/report . The le contains two
sections. The rst section informs about the end of support for used products. The second section
lists packages with their support end dates and update availability.

2.5 Support levels

The range for extended support levels starts from year 10 and ends in year 13. These contain
continued L3 engineering level diagnosis and reactive critical bug fixes. With these support
levels, you will receive updates for trivially exploitable root exploits in the kernel and other
root exploits directly executable without user interaction. Furthermore, they support existing
workloads, software stacks, and hardware with limited package exclusion list. Find an overview
in Table 2.1, “Security updates and bug fixes”.

10 Generating periodic lifecycle report SLES 15 SP4

TABLE 2.1: SECURITY UPDATES AND BUG FIXES

  General Support for Most Recent Service General Sup- Extended

Pack (SP) port for Pre- Support
vious SP, with LTSS
with LTSS

Feature Year 1-5 Year 6-7 Year 8-10 Year 4-10 Year 10-13

Technical Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Services

Access to Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Patches and
Fixes

Access to Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Documen-
tation and
Knowledge
Base

Support for Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Existing
Stacks and
Workloads

Support for Yes Yes Limited Limited No

New Deploy- (Based on (Based on
ments partner and partner and
customer re- customer re-
quests) quests)

Enhancement Yes Limited Limited No No

Requests (Based on (Based on
partner and partner and
customer re- customer re-
quests) quests)

11 Support levels SLES 15 SP4

  General Support for Most Recent Service General Sup- Extended
Pack (SP) port for Pre- Support
vious SP, with LTSS
with LTSS

Feature Year 1-5 Year 6-7 Year 8-10 Year 4-10 Year 10-13

Hardware En- Yes Limited Limited No No

ablement and (Based on (Based on
Optimization partner and partner and
customer re- customer re-
quests) quests)

Driver up- Yes Yes Limited Limited No

dates via (Based on (Based on
SUSE Solid- partner and partner and
Driver Pro- customer re- customer re-
gram (for- quests) quests)
merly PLDP)

Backport of Yes Yes Limited N/A N/A

Fixes from (Based on
Recent SP partner and
customer re-
quests)

Security Up- All All All Critical only Critical only

1
dates

Defect Reso- Yes Yes Limited Limited Limited

lution (Severity Lev- (Severity Lev- (Severity Lev-
el 1 and 2 de- el 1 and 2 de- el 1 and 2 de-
fects only) fects only) fects only)

1
For further information on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Update Policy, refer to the following
knowledgebase article (https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000018318) .

12 Support levels SLES 15 SP4

2.6 Registering and deregistering machines with
SUSEConnect
On registration, the system receives repositories from the SUSE Customer Center (see https://
scc.suse.com/ ) or a local registration proxy like SMT. The repository names map to specific
URIs in the customer center. To list all available repositories on your system, use zypper as
follows:

# zypper repos -u

This gives you a list of all available repositories on your system. Each repository is listed by its
alias, name and whether it is enabled and will be refreshed. The option -u gives you also the
URI from where it originated.
To register your machine, run SUSEConnect, for example:

# SUSEConnect -r REGCODE

To deregister your machine, you can use SUSEConnect too:

# SUSEConnect --de-register

To check your locally installed products and their status, use the following command:

# SUSEConnect -s

2.7 Enabling LTSS support

Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) extends the lifecycle of SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server. It is available as an extension. For more information about LTSS, refer to https://
www.suse.com/products/long-term-service-pack-support/

To enable the LTSS extension, perform the following steps:

1. Make sure your system is registered with a subscription that is eligible for LTSS. If the
system is not yet registered, run:

> sudo SUSEConnect -r REGISTRATION_CODE -e EMAIL_ADDRESS

2. Make sure the LTSS extension is available for your system:

> sudo SUSEConnect --list-extensions | grep LTSS

13 Registering and deregistering machines with SUSEConnect SLES 15 SP4

 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS 15 SP4 x86_64
Activate with: SUSEConnect -p SLES-LTSS/15.4/x86_64 -r ADDITIONAL REGCODE

3. Activate the module as instructed:

> sudo SUSEConnect -p SLES-LTSS/15.4/x86_64 -r REGISTRATION_CODE

2.8 Identifying the SLE version

If you need to identify the version of an SLE installation, check the content of the le /etc/
os-release .

A machine readable XML output is available with zypper :

> zypper --no-remote --no-refresh --xmlout --non-interactive products -i

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<stream>
<product-list>
<product name="SLES" version="15" release="0" epoch="0" arch="x86_64"
vendor="SUSE" summary="SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15" repo="@System"
productline="sles" registerrelease="" shortname="SLES15" flavor="" isbase="true"
installed="true"><endoflife time_t="0" text="0"/><registerflavor/><description>SUSE
Linux Enterprise offers [...]</description></product>
</product-list>
</stream>

14 Identifying the SLE version SLES 15 SP4

3 Preparing the upgrade

Before starting the upgrade procedure, make sure your system is properly prepared.
Among other things, preparation involves backing up data and checking the release
notes. The following chapter guides you through these steps.

3.1 Make sure the system is up-to-date

Upgrading the system is only supported from the most recent patch level. Make sure the latest
system updates are installed by either running zypper patch or by starting the YaST module
Online-Update.

3.2 Read the release notes

Find a list of all changes, new features, and known issues in the release notes (https://
www.suse.com/releasenotes/) . You can also nd the release notes on the installation media
in the docu directory.
The release notes usually only contain the changes between two subsequent releases. If you are
skipping one or more Service Packs, check the release notes of the skipped Service Packs as well.
Consult the release notes to check whether the following applies:

Your hardware needs special considerations

Any currently used software packages have changed significantly

Your installation requires special precautions

3.3 Make a backup

Before upgrading, back up your data by copying the existing configuration les to a separate
medium (such as tape device, removable hard disk, etc.). This primarily applies to les stored
in /etc and some directories and les in /var and /opt . You may also want to write the user
data in /home (the HOME directories) to a backup medium.

15 Make sure the system is up-to-date SLES 15 SP4

Back up all data as root . Only root has sufficient permissions for all local les.
If you have selected Update an Existing System as the installation mode in YaST, you can choose
to do a (system) backup at a later point in time. You can choose to include all modified les and
les from the /etc/sysconfig directory. However, this is not a complete backup, as all the
other important directories mentioned above are missing. Find the backup in the /var/adm/
backup directory.

3.4 Check the available disk space

Software tends to grow from version to version. Therefore, take a look at the available partition
space before updating. If you suspect you are running short of disk space, back up your data
before increasing the available space by resizing partitions, for example. There is no general
rule regarding how much space each partition should have. Space requirements depend on your
particular partitioning profile and the software selected.

Note: Automatic check for enough space in YaST

During the update procedure, YaST will check how much free disk space is available and
display a warning to the user if the installation may exceed the available amount. In that
case, performing the update may lead to an unusable system! Only if you know exactly
what you are doing (by testing beforehand), you can skip the warning and continue the
update.

3.4.1 Checking disk space on non-Btrfs file systems

Use the df command to list available disk space. For example, in Example 3.1, “List with df -h”,
the root partition is /dev/sda3 (mounted as / ).

EXAMPLE 3.1: LIST WITH df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda3 74G 22G 53G 29% /
tmpfs 506M 0 506M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda5 116G 5.8G 111G 5% /home
/dev/sda1 44G 4G 40G 9% /data

16 Check the available disk space SLES 15 SP4

3.4.2 Checking disk space on Btrfs root file systems
On a Btrfs le system, the output of df can be misleading, because in addition to the space the
raw data allocates, a Btrfs le system also allocates and uses space for metadata.
Consequently a Btrfs le system may report being out of space even though it seems that plenty
of space is still available. In that case, all space allocated for the metadata is used up. For details
on how to check for used and available space on a Btrfs le system, see Book “Storage Adminis-
tration Guide”, Chapter 1 “Overview of file systems in Linux”, Section 1.2.2.3 “Checking for free space”.
For more information refer to man 8 btrfs-filesystem and https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/in-
dex.php/FAQ .
When using Btrfs for root le systems on your machine, make sure there is enough free space.
Check the available space on all mounted partitions. In the worst case, an upgrade needs as
much disk space as the current root le system (without /.snapshot ) for a new snapshot.
The following recommendations have been proven:

For all le systems, including Btrfs, you need enough free disk space to download and
install big RPMs. The space of old RPMs is only freed after new RPMs are installed.

For Btrfs with snapshots, you need as a minimum as much free space as your current instal-
lation takes. We recommend having twice as much free space as the current installation.
If you do not have enough free space, you can try to delete old snapshots with snapper :

# snapper list
# snapper delete NUMBER

However, this may not help in all cases. Before migration, most snapshots occupy only
little space.

3.5 Listing installed packages and repositories

You can save a list of installed packages, for example when doing a fresh install of a new major
SLE release or reverting to the old version.

17 Checking disk space on Btrfs root file systems SLES 15 SP4

 Note
Be aware that not all installed packages or used repositories are available in newer re-
leases of SUSE Linux Enterprise. Some may have been renamed and others replaced. It
is also possible that some packages are still available for legacy purposes while another
package is used by default. Therefore some manual editing of the les might be necessary.
This can be done with any text editor.

1. Create a le named repositories.bak.repo containing a list of all used repositories:

# zypper lr -e repositories.bak

2. Also create a le named installed-software.bak containing a list of all installed pack-
ages:

# rpm -qa --queryformat '%{NAME}\n' >

installed-software.bak

3. Back up both les. The repositories and installed packages can be restored with the fol-
lowing commands:

# zypper ar repositories.bak.repo
# zypper install $(cat installed-software.bak)

Note: Number of packages increases with an update to a

new major release
A system upgraded to a new major version (SLE  X+1 ) may contain more packages
than the initial system (SLE  X ). It will also contain more packages than a fresh
installation of SLE  X+1 with the same pattern selection. Reasons for this are:

Packages were split to allow a more ne-grained package selection. For ex-
ample, 37 texlive packages on SLE 11 were split into over 3000 packages
on SLE 15.

When a package has been split, all new packages are installed in the upgrade
case to retain the same functionality as with the previous version. However,
the new default for a fresh installation of SLE  X+1 may be to not install all
packages.

18 Listing installed packages and repositories SLES 15 SP4

 Legacy packages from SLE  X may be kept for compatibility reasons.

Package dependencies and the scope of patterns may have changed.

3.6 Disable the LTSS extension

If you upgrade a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server system with Long Term Service Pack Support
(LTSS) to a version that is still under general support, the upgrade will fail with the error No
migration available . This happens because zypper migration tries to migrate all reposi-
tories , but there is no LTSS repository for the new version yet.
To x this issue, disable the LTSS extension before the upgrade.

1. Check if the LTSS extension is enabled:

> sudo SUSEConnect --list-extensions | grep LTSS

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS 12 SP4 x86_64 (Installed)
Deactivate with: SUSEConnect -d -p SLES-LTSS/12.4/x86_64

2. Disable the LTSS extension with the command from the SUSEConnect output above:

> sudo SUSEConnect -d -p SLES-LTSS/12.4/x86_64

Deregistered SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS 12 SP4 x86_64
To server: https://scc.suse.com/

3. Verify the LTSS repository is no longer present with zypper lr .

3.7 Perform version-specific upgrade steps

Depending on the SUSE Linux Enterprise version you upgrade from, you need to perform dif-
ferent additional tasks. The following sections provide an overview of version-specific upgrade
steps.

19 Disable the LTSS extension SLES 15 SP4

3.7.1 Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4

Important: Direct upgrades from SLES 11 to SLES 15 SP4 are no

longer supported
As of SLES 15 SP4, upgrading from SLES 11 directly is no longer supported. For details
about this upgrade, refer to Supported upgrade paths per version.

If you are using PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Java MD5-based certificates on SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server 11 SP4, prepare your system as described in the following sections. In addition, make
sure to check the other sections of this chapter for further required preparations.

3.7.1.1 Migrate your PostgreSQL database

If you are using a PostgreSQL database on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, you need to upgrade
your database. For more information, see Section 3.8, “Migrate your PostgreSQL database”.

3.7.1.2 Migrate your MySQL database

If you are using a MySQL database on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, you need to upgrade your
database. As of SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, SUSE switched from MySQL to MariaDB. Before you
start any upgrade, it is highly recommended to back up your database. For more information,
see Section 3.9, “Migrate your MySQL or MariaDB database”.

3.7.1.3 Create non-MD5 server certificates for Java applications

As a security measure, MD5-based certificates are no longer supported in Java. If you have
certificates created as MD5, follow the steps in Section 3.10, “Create non-MD5 server certificates for
Java applications” to re-create them.

3.7.2 Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5

If you are using PostgreSQL, MariaDB, or Java MD5-based certificates on SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server 12 SP5, prepare your system as described in the following sections. In addition, make
sure to check the other sections of this chapter for further required preparations.

20 Upgrading from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 SLES 15 SP4

3.7.2.1 Migrate your PostgreSQL database

If you are using a PostgreSQL database on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, you need to upgrade
your database. For more information, see Section 3.8, “Migrate your PostgreSQL database”.

3.7.2.2 Migrate your MariaDB database

If you are using a MariaDB database on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, you need to upgrade
your database. For more information, see Section 3.9, “Migrate your MySQL or MariaDB database”.

3.7.2.3 Create non-MD5 server certificates for Java applications

As a security measure, MD5-based certificates are no longer supported in Java. If you have
certificates created as MD5, follow the steps in Section 3.10, “Create non-MD5 server certificates for
Java applications” to re-create them.

3.8 Migrate your PostgreSQL database

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 ships with the PostgreSQL database versions 13 and 14.
While version 14 is the default, versions 13 is still provided through the Legacy module for
upgrades from earlier versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Because of the required migration work of the database, there is no automatic upgrade process.
As such, the switch from one version to another needs to be performed manually.
The migration process is conducted by the pg_upgrade command, which is an alternative
method of the classic dump and reload. In comparison with the “dump and reload” method,
pg_upgrade makes the migration less time-consuming.

The program les for each PostgreSQL version are stored in different, version-dependent directo-
ries. For example, in /usr/lib/postgresql96/ for version 9.6, in /usr/lib/postgresql10/
for version 10, and in /usr/lib/postgres13/ for version 13. Note that the versioning poli-
cy of PostgreSQL has changed between the major versions 9.6 and 10. For details, see https://
www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/ .

21 Migrate your PostgreSQL database SLES 15 SP4

 Important: Upgrading from SLE 11
When upgrading from SLE 11, postgresql94 will be uninstalled and cannot be used for
the database migration to a higher PostgreSQL version. Therefore in this case make sure
to migrate the PostgreSQL database before you upgrade your system.

The procedure below describes the database migration from version 12 to 13. When using a
different version as start or target, replace the version numbers accordingly.
To perform the database migration, do the following:

1. Make sure the following preconditions are fulfilled:

If not already done, upgrade any package of the old PostgreSQL version to the latest
release through a maintenance update.

Create a backup of your existing database.

Install the packages of the new PostgreSQL major version. For SLE 15 SP4 this means
to install postgresql13-server and all the packages it depends on.

Install the package postgresql13-contrib which contains the command pg_up-

grade .

Make sure you have enough free space in your PostgreSQL data area, which is /var/
lib/pgsql/data by default. If space is tight, try to reduce size with the following
SQL command on each database (can take very long!):

VACUUM FULL

2. Stop the PostgreSQL server with either:

# /usr/sbin/rcpostgresql stop

or

# systemctl stop postgresql.service

(depending on the SLE version you use as the start version for your upgrade).

3. Rename your old data directory:

# mv /var/lib/pgsql/data /var/lib/pgsql/data.old

22 Migrate your PostgreSQL database SLES 15 SP4

 4. Initialize your new database instance either manually with initdb or by starting and
stopping PostgreSQL, which will do it automatically:

# /usr/sbin/rcpostgresql start
# /usr/sbin/rcpostgresql stop

or

# systemctl start postgresql.service

# systemctl stop postgresql.service

(depending on the SLE version you use as the start version for your upgrade).

5. If you have changed your configuration les in the old version, consider transferring these
changes to the new configuration les. This may affect the les postgresql.auto.conf ,
postgresql.conf , pg_hba.conf and pg_ident.conf . The old versions of these les are
located in /var/lib/pgsql/data.old/ , the new versions can be found in /var/lib/
pgsql/data .
Note that copying the old configuration les is not recommended, because this may over-
write new options, new defaults and changed comments.

6. Start the migration process as user postgres :

# su - postgres
postgres > pg_upgrade \
--old-datadir "/var/lib/pgsql/data.old" \
--new-datadir "/var/lib/pgsql/data" \
--old-bindir "/usr/lib/postgresql12/bin/" \
--new-bindir "/usr/lib/postgresql13/bin/"

7. Start your new database instance with either:

# /usr/sbin/rcpostgresql start

or

# systemctl start postgresql.service

(depending on the SLE version you use as the start version for your upgrade).

8. Check if the migration was successful. The scope of the test depends on your use case and
there is no general tool to automate this step.

23 Migrate your PostgreSQL database SLES 15 SP4

 9. Remove any old PostgreSQL packages and your old data directory:

# zypper search -s postgresql12| xargs zypper rm -u

# rm -rf /var/lib/pgsql/data.old

For more information about upgrading databases or using alternative methods such as
logical replication, refer to the official PostgreSQL documentation at https://www.post-
gresql.org/docs/13/upgrading.html .

3.9 Migrate your MySQL or MariaDB database

As of SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, SUSE switched from MySQL to MariaDB. Before you start any
upgrade, it is highly recommended to back up your database.
To perform the database migration, do the following:

1. Create a dump le:

# mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases --add-drop-database > mysql_backup.sql

By default, mysqldump does not dump the INFORMATION_SCHEMA or perfor-

mance_schema database. For more details refer to https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mari-
adb-dumpmysqldump/ .

2. Store your dump le, the configuration le /etc/my.cnf , and the directory /etc/
mysql/ for later investigation (not installation!) in a safe place.

3. Perform the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server upgrade. After the upgrade, your former con-
figuration le /etc/my.cnf will still be intact. You can nd the new configuration in the
le /etc/my.cnf.rpmnew .

4. Configure your MariaDB database to your needs. Do not use the former configuration le
and directory, but use it as a reminder and adapt it.

5. Make sure you start the MariaDB server:

# systemctl start mariadb

If you want to start the MariaDB server on every boot, enable the service:

# systemctl enable mariadb

24 Migrate your MySQL or MariaDB database SLES 15 SP4

 6. Verify that MariaDB is running properly by connecting to the database:

# mariadb -u root -p

3.10 Create non-MD5 server certificates for Java

applications
As a security measure, MD5-based certificates are no longer supported in Java. If you have
certificates created as MD5, re-create your certificates with the following steps:

1. Open a terminal and log in as root .

2. Create a private key:

# openssl genrsa -out server.key 1024

If you want a stronger key, replace 1024 with a higher number, for example, 4096 .

3. Create a certificate signing request (CSR):

# openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

4. Self-sign the certificate:

# openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

5. Create the PEM le:

# cat server.key server.crt > server.pem

6. Place the les server.crt , server.csr , server.key , and server.pem in the respec-
tive directories where the keys can be found. For Tomcat, for example, this directory is
/etc/tomcat/ssl/ .

3.11 Shut down virtual machine guests

If your machine serves as a VM Host Server for KVM or Xen, make sure to properly shut down
all running VM Guests prior to the update. Otherwise you may not be able to access the guests
after the update.

25 Create non-MD5 server certificates for Java applications SLES 15 SP4

3.12 Adjust your SMT client setup
If the machine you want to upgrade is registered as a client against an SMT server, take care
of the following:
Check if the version of the clientSetup4SMT.sh script on your host is up to date. clientSet-
up4SMT.sh from older versions of SMT cannot manage SMT 12 clients. If you apply software
patches regularly on your SMT server, you can always nd the latest version of clientSet-
up4SMT.sh at <SMT_HOSTNAME>/repo/tools/clientSetup4SMT.sh .

In case upgrading your machine to a higher version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server fails, dereg-
ister the machine from the SMT server as described in Procedure 3.1. Afterward, restart the up-
grade process.

PROCEDURE 3.1: DEREGISTERING A SUSE LINUX ENTERPRISE CLIENT FROM AN SMT SERVER

1. Log in to the client machine.

2. The following step depends on the current operating system of the client:

For SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, execute the following commands:

> sudo suse_register -E

> sudo rm -f /etc/SUSEConnect
> sudo rm -rf /etc/zypp/credentials.d/*
> sudo rm -rf /etc/zypp/repos.d/*
> sudo rm -f /etc/zypp/services.d/*
> sudo rm -f /var/cache/SuseRegister/*
> sudo rm -f /etc/suseRegister*
> sudo rm -f /var/cache/SuseRegister/lastzmdconfig.cache
> sudo rm -f /etc/zmd/deviceid
> sudo rm -f /etc/zmd/secret

For SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, execute the following commands:

> sudo SUSEConnect --de-register

> sudo SUSEConnect --cleanup
> sudo rm -f /etc/SUSEConnect
> sudo rm -rf /etc/zypp/credentials.d/*
> sudo rm -rf /etc/zypp/repos.d/*
> sudo rm -f /etc/zypp/services.d/*

3. Log in to the SMT server.

26 Adjust your SMT client setup SLES 15 SP4

 4. Check if the client has successfully been deregistered by listing all client registrations:

> sudo smt-list-registrations

5. If the client's host name is still listed in the output of this command, get the client's Unique
ID from the rst column. (The client might be listed with multiple IDs.)

6. Delete the registration for this client:

> sudo smt-delete-registration -g UNIQUE_ID

7. If the client is listed with multiple IDs, repeat the step above for each of its unique IDs.

8. Check if the client has now successfully been deregistered by re-running:

> sudo smt-list-registrations

3.13 Changes in AutoYaST profiles from SLE 12 to 15

To learn how to migrate your AutoYaST profiles, see Book “AutoYaST Guide”, .

3.14 Upgrading a Subscription Management Tool

(SMT) server
A server running SMT requires a special upgrade procedure. Please refer to Book “Repository
Mirroring Tool Guide”, Chapter 3 “Migrate from SMT to RMT” in the Repository Mirroring Tool Guide.

3.15 Temporarily disabling kernel multiversion

support
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server allows installing multiple kernel versions by enabling the respec-
tive settings in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf . Support for this feature needs to be temporarily dis-
abled to upgrade to a service pack. When the update has successfully finished, multiversion
support can be re-enabled. To disable multiversion support, comment the respective lines in /
etc/zypp/zypp.conf . The result should look similar to:

#multiversion = provides:multiversion(kernel)

27 Changes in AutoYaST profiles from SLE 12 to 15 SLES 15 SP4

#multiversion.kernels = latest,running

To re-activate this feature after a successful update, remove the comment signs. For more in-
formation about multiversion support, refer to Book “Administration Guide”, Chapter 27 “Installing
multiple kernel versions”, Section 27.1 “Enabling and configuring multiversion support”.

3.16 Upgrading on IBM Z

Upgrading a SUSE Linux Enterprise installation on IBM Z requires the Upgrade=1 kernel para-
meter, for example via the parmfile. See Section 5.6, “The parmfile—automating the system config-
uration”.

3.17 IBM POWER: Starting an X server

On SLES 12 for IBM POWER the display manager is configured not to start a local X server by
default. This setting was reversed on SLES 12 SP1—the display manager now starts an X server.
To avoid problems during upgrade, the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server setting is not changed auto-
matically. If you want the display manager to start an X server after the upgrade, change the set-
ting of DISPLAYMANAGER_STARTS_XSERVER in /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager as follows:

DISPLAYMANAGER_STARTS_XSERVER="yes"

28 Upgrading on IBM Z SLES 15 SP4

4 Upgrading offline

This chapter describes how to upgrade an existing SUSE Linux Enterprise installa-
tion using YaST which is booted from an installation medium. The YaST installer
can, for example, be started from a DVD, over the network, or from the hard disk
the system resides on.

4.1 Conceptual overview

Before upgrading your system, read Chapter 3, Preparing the upgrade rst.
To upgrade your system, boot from an installation source, as you would do for a fresh installa-
tion. However, when the boot screen appears, you need to select Upgrade (instead of Installation).
The upgrade can be started from:

Removable media. This includes media such as CDs, DVDs or USB mass storage devices.
For more information, see Section 4.2, “Starting the upgrade from an installation medium”.

Network resource. You can either boot from the local medium and then select the re-
spective network installation type, or boot via PXE. For more information, see Section 4.3,
“Starting the upgrade from a network source”.

4.2 Starting the upgrade from an installation medium

The procedure below describes booting from a DVD, but you can also use another local instal-
lation medium like an ISO image on a USB mass storage device. The medium and boot method
to select depends on the system architecture and on whether the machine has a traditional BIOS
or UEFI.

PROCEDURE 4.1: MANUALLY UPGRADING TO SUSE LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 15 SP4

1. Select and prepare a boot medium, see Book “Deployment Guide”.

2. Insert the Unified Installer DVD for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 and boot your
machine. A Welcome screen is displayed, followed by the boot screen.

3. Optional: To force the installer to only install packages from the DVD and not from network
sources, add the boot option media_upgrade=1 .

29 Conceptual overview SLES 15 SP4

 4. Start up the system by selecting Upgrade in the boot menu.

5. Proceed with the upgrade process as described in Section 4.4, “Upgrading SUSE Linux Enter-
prise”.

4.3 Starting the upgrade from a network source

To start an upgrade from a network installation source, make sure that the following require-
ments are met:
REQUIREMENTS FOR UPGRADING FROM A NETWORK INSTALLATION SOURCE

Network installation source

A network installation source is set up according to Book “Deployment Guide”, Chapter 16
“Setting up a network installation source”.

Network connection and network services

Both the installation server and the target machine must have a functioning network con-
nection. Required network services are:

Domain Name Service

DHCP (only needed for booting via PXE, IP can be set manually during setup)

OpenSLP (optional)

Boot medium
A bootable SUSE Linux Enterprise DVD, ISO image or functioning PXE setup. For details
about booting via PXE, see Book “Deployment Guide”, Chapter  17 “Preparing network boot
environment”, Section 17.4 “Preparing the target system for PXE boot”. Refer to Book “Deployment
Guide”, Chapter  11 “Remote installation” for in-depth information on starting the upgrade
from a remote server.

4.3.1 Manually upgrading via network installation source—booting

from DVD
This procedure describes booting from a DVD as an example, but you can also use another local
installation medium like an ISO image on a USB mass storage device. The way to select the boot
method and to start up the system from the medium depends on the system architecture and on
whether the machine has a traditional BIOS or UEFI. For details, see the links below.

30 Starting the upgrade from a network source SLES 15 SP4

 1. Insert the Unified Installer DVD for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 and boot your
machine. A Welcome screen is displayed, followed by the boot screen.

2. Select the type of network installation source you want to use (FTP, HTTP, NFS, SMB, or
SLP). Usually you get this choice by pressing F4 , but in case your machine is equipped
with UEFI instead of a traditional BIOS, you may need to manually adjust boot parameters.
For details, see Book “Deployment Guide”, Chapter 7 “Boot parameters” and Book “Deployment
Guide”, Chapter 8 “Installation steps”.

3. Proceed with the upgrade process as described in Section 4.4, “Upgrading SUSE Linux Enter-
prise”.

4.3.2 Manually upgrading via network installation source—booting

via PXE
To perform an upgrade from a network installation source using PXE boot, proceed as follows:

1. Adjust the setup of your DHCP server to provide the address information needed for boot-
ing via PXE. For details, see Book “Deployment Guide”, Chapter 17 “Preparing network boot
environment”, Section 17.1.1 “Dynamic address assignment”.

2. Set up a TFTP server to hold the boot image needed for booting via PXE. Use the Installer
DVD for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 for this or follow the instructions in Book
“Deployment Guide”, Chapter 17 “Preparing network boot environment”, Section 17.2 “Setting up
a TFTP server”.

3. Prepare PXE Boot and Wake-on-LAN on the target machine.

4. Initiate the boot of the target system and use VNC to remotely connect to the installation
routine running on this machine. For more information, see Book “Deployment Guide”,
Chapter 11 “Remote installation”, Section 11.3 “Monitoring installation via VNC”.

5. Proceed with the upgrade process as described in Section 4.4, “Upgrading SUSE Linux Enter-
prise”.

4.4 Upgrading SUSE Linux Enterprise

31 Manually upgrading via network installation source—booting via PXE SLES 15 SP4
Before you upgrade your system, read Chapter 3, Preparing the upgrade rst. To perform an auto-
mated migration, proceed as follows:

Note: SUSE Customer Center and Internet connection

If the system you want to upgrade is registered with the SUSE Customer Center,
make sure to have an Internet connection during the following procedure.

1. After you have booted (either from an installation medium or the network), select the
Upgrade entry on the boot screen.

Warning: Wrong choice may lead to data loss

Make sure you select Upgrade at this point. If you select Installation by mistake, your
data partition will be overwritten with a fresh installation.

YaST starts the installation system.

2. On the Welcome screen, choose Language and Keyboard. Proceed with Next.
YaST checks your partitions for already installed SUSE Linux Enterprise systems.

3. On the Select for Upgrade screen, select the partition to upgrade and click Next.

4. YaST mounts the selected partition and displays the license agreement for the upgraded
product. To continue, accept the license.

5. On the Previously Used Repositories screen, adjust the status of the repositories. By default
all repositories are removed. If you have not added any custom repositories, do not change
the settings. The packages for the upgrade will be installed from DVD, and you can op-
tionally enable the default online repositories in the next step.
If you have custom repositories, you have two choices:

Leave the repository in state Removed. Software that was installed from this reposi-
tory will be removed during the upgrade. Use this method if no version of the repos-
itory that matches the new release is available.

Update and enable the repository if it matches the new release. Change its URL by
clicking the repository in the list, and then click Change. Enable the repository by
checking Toggle Status until it is set to Enable.

32 Upgrading SUSE Linux Enterprise SLES 15 SP4

 Do not keep repositories from the previous release, as the system may be unstable or not
work at all. Then proceed by clicking Next.

6. The next step depends on whether the upgraded system is registered with the SUSE Cus-
tomer Center or not.

a. If the system is not registered with the SUSE Customer Center, YaST displays a pop-up
message suggesting using a second installation medium, the SLE-15-SP4-Full- ARCH -
GM-media1.iso image.
If you do not have that medium, the system cannot be upgraded without registration.

b. If the system is registered with the SUSE Customer Center, YaST will show possible
migration targets and a summary.
Select one migration target from the list and proceed with Next.

7. In the next dialog you can optionally add an additional installation medium. If you have
additional installation media, activate the I would like to install an additional Add On Product
option and specify the media type.

8. Review the Installation Settings for the upgrade.

9. If all settings are according to your wishes, start the installation and removal procedure
by clicking Update.

Tip: Upgrade failure on SMT clients

If the machine to upgrade is an SMT client, and the upgrade fails, see Procedure 3.1,
“Deregistering a SUSE Linux Enterprise client from an SMT server” and restart the upgrade
procedure afterward.

10. After the upgrade process has finished successfully, perform post-upgrade checks as de-
scribed in Section 6.1, “Post-upgrade checks”.

4.5 Upgrading with AutoYaST

The upgrade process can be executed automatically. For details, see Book “AutoYaST Guide”, Chap-
ter 4 “Configuration and installation options”, Section 4.10 “Upgrade”.

33 Upgrading with AutoYaST SLES 15 SP4

4.6 Upgrading with SUSE Manager
SUSE Manager is a server solution for providing updates, patches, and security fixes for SUSE
Linux Enterprise clients. It comes with a set of tools and a Web-based user interface for man-
agement tasks. See https://www.suse.com/products/suse-manager/ for more information about
SUSE Manager.
You can perform a system upgrade using SUSE Manager. The AutoYaST technology allows up-
grades from one major version to the next.
If your machine is managed by SUSE Manager, update it as described in the SUSE Manager
documentation. The Client Migration procedure is described in the SUSE Manager Upgrade Guide,
available at https://documentation.suse.com/suma/ .

4.7 Updating registration status after rollback

When performing a service pack upgrade, it is necessary to change the configuration on the
registration server to provide access to the new repositories. If the upgrade process is interrupted
or reverted (via restoring from a backup or snapshot), the information on the registration server
is inconsistent with the status of the system. This may lead to you being prevented from accessing
update repositories or to wrong repositories being used on the client.
When a rollback is done via Snapper, the system notifies the registration server to ensure access
to the correct repositories is set up during the boot process. If the system was restored with
another method, or the communication with the registration server fails, trigger the rollback on
the client manually. An example for manually triggering a rollback can be that the server was
not accessible because of network issues. To do a rollback, execute:

> sudo snapper rollback

We suggest always checking that the correct repositories are set up on the system, especially
after refreshing the service using:

> sudo zypper ref -s

This functionality is available in the rollback-helper package.

34 Upgrading with SUSE Manager SLES 15 SP4

4.8 Registering your system
If the system was not registered before running the upgrade you can register your system at any
time using the Product Registration module in YaST.
Registering your systems has these advantages:

Eligibility for support

Availability of security updates and bug fixes

Access to SUSE Customer Center

1. Start YaST and select Software Product Registration to open the Registration dialog.

2. Provide the E-mail address associated with the SUSE account you or your organization
uses to manage subscriptions. In case you do not have a SUSE account yet, go to the SUSE
Customer Center home page (https://scc.suse.com/ ) to create one.

3. Enter the Registration Code you received with your copy of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

4. If one or more local registration servers are available on your network, you can choose
one of them from a list.

5. To start the registration, proceed with Next.

After successful registration, YaST lists extensions, add-ons, and modules that are available
for your system. To select and install them, proceed with Book “Deployment Guide”, Chap-
ter 9 “Registering SUSE Linux Enterprise and managing modules/extensions”, Section 9.4 “Managing
modules and extensions in a running system”.

35 Registering your system SLES 15 SP4

5 Upgrading online

SUSE offers an intuitive graphical and a simple command-line tool to upgrade a

running system to a new service pack. Both provide support for “rollback” of service
packs and more. This chapter provides step-by-step instructions on how to perform
a service pack upgrade using these tools.

5.1 Conceptual overview

SUSE releases new service packs for the SUSE Linux Enterprise family at regular intervals. To
make it easy for customers to migrate to a new service pack and minimize downtime, SUSE
supports migrating online while the system is running.
Starting with SLE  12, YaST Wagon has been replaced by YaST migration (GUI) and Zypper
migration (command line). This has the following advantages:

The system is always in a defined state until the rst RPM is updated.

Canceling is possible until the rst RPM is updated.

Simple recovery if there is an error.

It is possible to do a “rollback” via system tools—no backup or restore needed.

Use of all active repositories.

The ability to skip a service pack

Warning: Online migration not supported for major releases

The online migration is only supported for migrating between service packs. Online mi-
gration is not supported for upgrading to new major releases. For details, see Chapter 1,
Upgrade paths and methods.

Use the offline migration to upgrade to a new major release. For details, see Chapter 4,
Upgrading offline.

36 Conceptual overview SLES 15 SP4

 Important: Upgrading SUSE Manager clients
If the system to upgrade is a SUSE Manager client, it cannot be upgraded by YaST on-
line migration or zypper migration . Use the Client Migration procedure instead. It is
described in the SUSE Manager Upgrade Guide (https://documentation.suse.com/suma/) .

5.2 Service pack migration workflow

A service pack migration can be executed by either YaST, zypper , or AutoYaST.
Before you can start a service pack migration, your system must be registered at the SUSE
Customer Center or a local RMT server. SUSE Manager can also be used.
Regardless of the method, a service pack migration consists of the following steps:

1. Find possible migration targets on your registered systems.

2. Select one migration target.

3. Request and enable new repositories.

4. Run the migration.

The list of migration targets depends on the products you have installed and registered. If you
have an extension installed for which the new SP is not yet available, it could be that no migra-
tion target is offered to you.
The list of migration targets available for your host will always be retrieved from the SUSE
Customer Center and depend on products or extensions installed.

37 Service pack migration workflow SLES 15 SP4

5.3 Canceling service pack migration
A service pack migration can only be canceled at specific stages during the migration process:

1. Until the package upgrade starts, there are only minimal changes on the system, such
as changes to services and repositories. Restore /etc/zypp/repos.d/* to revert to the
previous state.

2. After the package upgrade starts, you can revert to the previous state by using a Snapper
snapshot (see Book “Administration Guide”, Chapter 10 “System recovery and snapshot manage-
ment with Snapper”).

3. After the migration target was selected, SUSE Customer Center changes the repository
data. To revert this state manually, use SUSEConnect --rollback .

5.4 Upgrading with the online migration tool (YaST)

To perform a service pack migration with YaST, use the Online Migration tool. By default, YaST
does not install any packages from a third-party repository. If a package was installed from
a third-party repository, YaST prevents packages from being replaced with the same package
coming from SUSE.

Note: Reduce installation size

When performing the Service Pack migration, YaST will install all recommended pack-
ages. Especially in the case of custom minimal installations, this may increase the instal-
lation size of the system significantly.
To change this default behavior and allow only required packages, adjust the solver.on-
lyRequires option in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf .

solver.onlyRequires = true

Additionally, edit the le /etc/zypp/zypper.conf and change the installRecom-

mends option.

installRecommends=false

38 Canceling service pack migration SLES 15 SP4

 This changes the behavior of all package operations, such as the installation of patches
or new packages. To change the behavior of Zypper for a single invocation, use the pa-
rameter --no-recommends .

To start the service pack migration, do the following:

1. Deactivate all unused extensions on your registration server to avoid future dependency
conflicts. If you forget an extension, YaST will later detect unused extension repositories
and deactivate them.

2. If you are logged in to a GNOME session running on the machine you are going to up-
date, switch to a text console. Running the update from within a GNOME session is not
recommended. Note that this does not apply when being logged in from a remote machine
(unless you are running a VNC session with GNOME).

3. Run YaST online update to get the latest package updates for your system.

4. Install the package yast2-migration and its dependencies (in YaST under Software Soft-
ware Management).

5. Restart YaST, otherwise the newly installed module will not be shown in the control center.

6. In YaST, choose Online Migration (depending on the version of SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server that you are upgrading from, this module is categorized under either System or
Software). YaST will show possible migration targets and a summary. If more than one
migration target is available for your system, select one from the list.

7. Select one migration target from the list and proceed with Next.

8. If the migration tool offers update repositories, it is recommended to proceed with Yes.

9. If the online migration tool nds obsolete repositories from DVD or a local server, it is
highly recommended to disable them. Obsolete repositories are for a previous service pack.
Old repositories from SUSE Customer Center or RMT are removed automatically.
If the registration server does not offer migrations for a module or extension, its repository
configuration will remain unchanged. This usually happens with 3rd party repositories
such as the NVIDIA Compute Module that are not specific to a product version or service
pack. If necessary, you can manually check the repository configuration after the migra-
tion.

39 Upgrading with the online migration tool (YaST) SLES 15 SP4

 10. Check the summary and proceed with the migration by clicking Next. Confirm with Start
Update.

11. After the successful migration restart your system.

5.5 Upgrading with Zypper

To perform a service pack migration with Zypper, use the command line tool zypper migra-
tion from the package zypper-migration-plugin .

Note: Reduce installation size

When performing the Service Pack migration, YaST will install all recommended pack-
ages. Especially in the case of custom minimal installations, this may increase the instal-
lation size of the system significantly.
To change this default behavior and allow only required packages, adjust the solver.on-
lyRequires option in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf .

solver.onlyRequires = true

Additionally, edit the le /etc/zypp/zypper.conf and change the installRecom-

mends option.

installRecommends=false

This changes the behavior of all package operations, such as the installation of patches
or new packages. To change the behavior of Zypper for a single invocation, use the pa-
rameter --no-recommends .

To start the service pack migration, do the following:

1. If you are logged in to a GNOME session running on the machine you are going to up-
date, switch to a text console. Running the update from within a GNOME session is not
recommended. Note that this does not apply when being logged in from a remote machine
(unless you are running a VNC session with GNOME).

2. Register your SUSE Linux Enterprise machine if you have not done so:

> sudo SUSEConnect --regcode YOUR_REGISTRATION_CODE

40 Upgrading with Zypper SLES 15 SP4

 3. Start the migration:

> sudo zypper migration

Some notes about the migration process:

If more than one migration target is available for your system, Zypper allows you
to select one SP from the list. This is the same as skipping one or more SPs. Keep
in mind, online migration for base products (SLES, SLED) remains available only
between the SPs of a major version.

By default, Zypper uses the option --no-allow-vendor-change which is passed to

zypper dup . If a package was installed from a third-party repository, this option
prevents packages from being replaced with the same package coming from SUSE.

If Zypper nds obsolete repositories coming from DVD or a local server, it is highly
recommended to disable them. Old SUSE Customer Center or RMT repositories are
removed automatically.

4. Review all the changes, especially the packages that are going to be removed. Proceed by
typing y (the exact number of packages to upgrade can vary on your system):

266 packages to upgrade, 54 to downgrade, 17 new, 8 to reinstall, 5 to remove, 1 to

change arch.
Overall download size: 285.1 MiB. Already cached: 0 B After the operation,
additional 139.8 MiB will be used.
Continue? [y/n/? shows all options] (y):

Use the Shift – Page ↑ or Shift – Page ↓ keys to scroll in your shell.

5. After successful migration restart your system.

5.6 Upgrading with plain Zypper

If your system is not registered because you do not have access to the Internet or a registration
server, migrating to a new service pack is not possible with YaST Migration or zypper mi-
gration . In this case you can still migrate to a new service pack with plain Zypper and some
manual interactions.

41 Upgrading with plain Zypper SLES 15 SP4

 Important: For unregistered systems only
This migration path to a new service pack is only supported for unregistered systems that
do not have access to the Internet or a registration server. This may, for example, be the
case for machines in a specially protected network. If you have a registered system, use
YaST or Zypper migration.

Important: Installation sources

This migration path requires that the system you are going to migrate has access to the
installation sources. For example, this can be done by setting up an RMT server or an
SLP server.
It is also required that the system has access to an up-to-date update repository for the
installed product version.

1. If you are logged in to a graphical session running on the machine you are going to migrate,
log out of that session and switch to a text console. Running the update from within a
graphical session is not recommended. Note that this does not apply when being logged
in from a remote machine (unless you are running a VNC session with X).

2. Update the package management tools with the old SUSE Linux Enterprise repositories:

> sudo zypper patch --updatestack-only

3. Get a list of packages that currently do not have a repository assigned to them (orphaned
packages). These packages will not be migrated and there is no guarantee that they will
work after the migration (because other packages they rely on may have changed in such
a way that they are no longer compatible). To get the list, run:

> sudo zypper packages --orphaned

Carefully review the list and remove all orphaned packages that are no longer needed.
Make a note of all remaining orphaned packages, you will need it later for comparison.

4. Get a list of all repositories that the system is currently subscribed to by running:

> sudo zypper repos -u

Update each repository URL so that its product version number is 15-SP4 . For example,
if the URL of a repository is

42 Upgrading with plain Zypper SLES 15 SP4

 http://rmt.example.com/repo/SUSE/Products/SLE-15-SP2-Product-SLES/x86_64/product/

change it to

http://rmt.example.com/repo/SUSE/Products/SLE-15-SP3-Product-SLES/x86_64/product/

This needs to be done with all repositories that are enabled. You may want to consider also
doing this for repositories that are currently disabled, to avoid having wrong installation
sources in the system when activating them at a later point in time.
To change the repository URLs you have the following options:

a. Using YaST Software Software Repositories. Select a repository and click Edit to
make the required change. Repeat this for all repositories.

b. Using Zypper. Remove the old repository by running

> sudo zypper removerepo OLD_REPO_ID

Then add the corresponding new repository by running

> sudo zypper addrepo -f URL NAME-15-SP4

c. By editing repository configuration les in /etc/zypp/repos.d . Each repository is

represented by one configuration le. Changing the value for the baseurl parameter
is required in each le.

5. Review your changes by running zypper repos -u and update the repositories by run-
ning:

> sudo zypper refresh -f -s

In case updating a repository fails, double-check whether you entered the wrong URL. If
the problem cannot be xed, it is recommended to disable the failing repository.
If all repositories are correctly configured, run

> sudo zypper refresh -f -s

again, to make sure all repositories are up-to-date.

6. Before starting the migration it is recommended do a test run rst:

> sudo zypper dup -D --no-allow-vendor-change --no-recommends

43 Upgrading with plain Zypper SLES 15 SP4

 The parameter -D will perform a dry run that simulates the migration without actually
changing the system. If problems occur, x them before proceeding. In case the test run
succeeds, perform the real migration by running:

> sudo zypper dup --no-allow-vendor-change --no-recommends

-no-allow-vendor-change ensures that third-party RPMs will not overwrite RPMs from
the base system. The option --no-recommends ensures that packages deselected during
initial installation will not be added again.

7. When the migration has finished and the system has booted into the new service pack
version, run the check for orphaned packages again:

> sudo zypper packages --orphaned

Compare the new list with the one you generated before starting the migration. If new
packages appear in the list, it may be because they were moved to a different module in
the new service pack. If you did not have that module in the previous installation, the
package did not get updated.
You can check to which module a package belongs at https://scc.suse.com/packages . Add
the missing modules using zypper addrepo or the YaST Software Repositories module,
and update the orphaned packages afterwards by running:

> sudo zypper install --no-recommends LIST OF PACKAGES

8. You have successfully migrated to a new service pack!

5.7 Rolling back a service pack

If a service pack does not work for you, SUSE Linux Enterprise supports reverting the system to
the state before the service pack migration was started. Prerequisite is a Btrfs root partition with
snapshots enabled (this has been the default since SLES 12). See Book “Administration Guide”,
Chapter 10 “System recovery and snapshot management with Snapper” for details.

1. Get a list of all Snapper snapshots:

> sudo snapper list

44 Rolling back a service pack SLES 15 SP4

 Review the output to locate the snapshot that was created immediately before the service
pack migration was started. The column Description contains a corresponding statement
and the snapshot is marked as important in the column Userdata. Memorize the snapshot
number from the column # and its date from the column Date.

2. Reboot the system. From the boot menu, select Start boot loader from a read-only snapshot
and then choose the snapshot with the date and number you memorized in the previous
step. A second boot menu (the one from the snapshot) is loaded. Select the entry starting
with SLES 15 SP4 and boot it.

3. The system boots into the previous state with the system partition mounted read-only.
Log in as root and check whether you have chosen the correct snapshot. Also make sure
everything works as expected. Note that since the root le system is mounted read-only,
restrictions in functionality may apply.
In case of problems or if you have booted the wrong snapshot, reboot and choose a different
snapshot to boot from—up to this point no permanent changes have been made. If the
snapshot is correct and works as expected, make the change permanent by running the
following command:

> sudo snapper rollback

Reboot the machine. On the boot screen, choose the default boot entry to reboot into the
reinstated system.

4. Check if the repository configuration has been properly reset. Furthermore, check if all
products are properly registered. If either one is not the case, updating the system at a
later point in time may no longer work, or the system may be updated using the wrong
package repositories.
Make sure the system can access the Internet before starting this procedure.

a. Refresh services and repositories by running

> sudo zypper ref -fs

b. Get a list of active repositories by running

> sudo zypper lr

45 Rolling back a service pack SLES 15 SP4

 Carefully check the output of this command. No services and repositories that were
added for the update should be listed. For example, if you are rolling back from
SLES 15 SP4 to SLES15 GA, the list must contain the SLES15-GA repositories, and
not the SLES15-SP4 repositories.
If wrong repositories are listed, delete them and, if necessary, replace them with the
versions matching your product or service pack version. For a list of repositories for
the supported migration paths refer to Section 2.3, “Module dependencies and lifecycles”.
(Note that manual intervention should not be necessary, as the repositories should
be updated automatically, but it is a best practice to verify and make any necessary
corrections.)

c. Last, check the registration status for all products installed by running

> sudo SUSEConnect --status

All products should be reported as being Registered . If this is not the case, repair
the registration by running

> sudo SUSEConnect --rollback

Now you have successfully reverted the system to the state that was captured immediately before
the service pack migration was started.

5.8 Upgrading with SUSE Manager

SUSE Manager is a server solution for providing updates, patches, and security fixes for SUSE
Linux Enterprise clients. It comes with a set of tools and a Web-based user interface for man-
agement tasks. See https://www.suse.com/products/suse-manager/ for more information about
SUSE Manager.
SP Migration allows migrating from one Service Pack (SP) to another within one major version
(for example, from SLES 15 GA to SLES 15 SP4).
If your machine is managed by SUSE Manager, update it as described in the SUSE Manager
documentation. The Client Migration procedure is described in the SUSE Manager Upgrade Guide,
available at https://documentation.suse.com/suma/ .

46 Upgrading with SUSE Manager SLES 15 SP4

5.9 Upgrading from openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server
You can upgrade an openSUSE Leap installation to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The procedure
is similar to Section 5.4, “Upgrading with the online migration tool (YaST)”, but requires some additional
steps. Before executing this procedure on a production system, we recommend to rst run it on
a test system that replicates your production setup.
To nd out which openSUSE Leap versions are supported for migration, refer to Section  1.2,
“Supported upgrade paths to SLES 15 SP4”.

Warning: Not all openSUSE packages can be migrated

openSUSE provides more packages than SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Most of the addi-
tional packages are available through SUSE Package Hub and will be migrated. Any ad-
ditional packages that are not available through SUSE Package Hub will no longer receive
updates after the migration and should therefore be removed afterward.
Make sure that all packages you need for operating your system are available in the SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Package Hub repositories. For more information about
SUSE Package Hub, refer to https://packagehub.suse.com/ .

PROCEDURE 5.1: UPGRADING OPENSUSE LEAP TO SUSE LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER

To migrate from openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, execute the following
steps:

1. Switch to a TTY, for example by pressing Ctrl – Alt – F1 . Then log in as root .

2. Install the yast2-registration and rollback-helper packages:

# zypper in yast2-registration rollback-helper

3. Enable the rollback-helper service:

# systemctl enable rollback

4. Register the system with the SUSE Customer Center:

# yast2 registration

47 Upgrading from openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES 15 SP4
 5. Perform the migration:

# yast2 migration

In case of package conflicts, YaST presents a list of resolutions to choose from.

6. Remove orphaned packages:

# zypper rm $(zypper --no-refresh packages --orphaned | gawk '{print $5}' | tail -n

+5)

7. Reboot the system:

# reboot

You have now successfully migrated your system to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
If you run into a problem after the migration, you can revert the migration like a service pack
upgrade. For instructions, refer to Section 5.7, “Rolling back a service pack”.

48 Upgrading from openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES 15 SP4
6 Finishing the upgrade

After the upgrade, you need to perform some additional tasks. The following chap-
ter guides you through these steps.

6.1 Post-upgrade checks

Check for any “orphaned packages”. During an upgrade procedure, packages may be re-
named, removed, merged, or split. As a result, certain packages can become orphaned and
unsupported. Orphaned packages are not automatically removed. The following command
gives you a list of these:

> zypper packages --orphaned --unneeded

Use the list to determine which packages are still needed and which packages can be safely
removed.

Check for any *.rpmnew and *.rpmsave les, examine their content, and possibly merge
desirable changes. When an upgrade includes changes to a default configuration le, in-
stead of overwriting the configuration le, the package creates one of these le types.
While *.rpmnew contains the new default configuration and leaves your original le un-
touched, *.rpmsave is a copy of your original configuration that has been replaced by
the new default le.
You do not need to search the whole le system for *.rpmnew and *.rpmsave les, the
most important are stored in the /etc directory. Use the following command to list them:

> find /etc/ -name "*.rpmnew" -o -name "*.rpmsave"

6.2 Enable the Python 3 module

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 uses Python 3.6 by default. Python 3.9 was added in SLES
15 SP3 as a more recent alternative. This version is no longer supported as of SLES 15 SP4.
Instead, recent Python versions with important updates and security fixes are available through
the Python 3 module.

49 Post-upgrade checks SLES 15 SP4

If you installed Python 3.9 under SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3, enable the Python 3
module with:

> sudo SUSEConnect -p sle-module-python3/15.4/x86_64.

Alternatively, you can return to the default Python version by removing 3.9 with zypper remove
-u python39 .

6.3 Reformat XFS v4 devices

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server supports the “on-disk format” (v5) of the XFS le system. The
main advantages of this format are automatic checksums of all XFS metadata, le type support,
and support for a larger number of access control lists for a le.
Note that this format is not supported by SUSE Linux Enterprise kernels older than version
3.12, by xfsprogs older than version 3.2.0, and GRUB 2 versions released before SUSE Linux
Enterprise 12.

Important: V4 is deprecated
XFS is deprecating le systems with the V4 format. This le system format was created
by the command:

> sudo mkfs.xfs -m crc=0 DEVICE

The format was used in SLE 11 and older releases, and it currently creates a warning
message by dmesg :

Deprecated V4 format (crc=0) will not be supported after September 2030

If you see the message above in the output of the dmesg command, it is recommended
that you update your le system to the V5 format:

1. Back up your data to another device.

2. Create the le system on the device.

> sudo mkfs.xfs -m crc=1 DEVICE

50 Reformat XFS v4 devices SLES 15 SP4

 3. Restore the data from the backup on the updated device.

51 Reformat XFS v4 devices SLES 15 SP4

7 Backports of source code

SUSE extensively uses backports, for example for the migration of current software
fixes and features into released SUSE Linux Enterprise packages. The information in
this chapter explains why it can be misleading to compare version numbers to judge
the capabilities and the security of SUSE Linux Enterprise software packages. This
chapter also explains how SUSE keeps the system software secure and current while
maintaining compatibility for your application software on top of SUSE Linux Enter-
prise products. You will also learn how to check which public security issues actu-
ally are addressed in your SUSE Linux Enterprise system software, and the current
status of your software.

7.1 Reasons for backporting

Upstream developers are primarily concerned with advancing the software they develop. Often
they combine fixing bugs with introducing new features which have not yet received extensive
testing and which may introduce new bugs.
For distribution developers, it is important to distinguish between:

bugfixes with a limited potential for disrupting functionality; and

changes that may disrupt existing functionality.

Usually, distribution developers do not follow all upstream changes when a package has become
part of a released distribution. Usually they stick instead with the upstream version that they
initially released and create patches based on upstream changes to x bugs. This practice is
known as backporting.
Distribution developers generally will only introduce a newer version of software in two cases:

when the changes between their packages and the upstream versions have become so large
that backporting is no longer feasible, or

for software that inherently ages badly, like anti-malware software.

52 Reasons for backporting SLES 15 SP4

SUSE uses backports extensively as we strike a good balance between several concerns for en-
terprise software. The most important of them are:

Having stable interfaces (APIs) that software vendors can rely on when building products
for use on SUSE's enterprise products.

Ensuring that packages used in the release of SUSE's enterprise products are of the highest
quality and have been thoroughly tested, both in themselves and as part of the whole
enterprise product.

Maintaining the various certifications of SUSE's enterprise products by other vendors, like
certifications for Oracle or SAP products.

Allowing SUSE's developers to focus on making the next product version, rather than
spreading their focus thinly across a wide range of releases.

Keeping a clear view of what is in a particular enterprise release, so that our support can
provide accurate and timely information about it.

7.2 Reasons against backports

It is a general policy rule that no new upstream versions of a package are introduced into our
enterprise products. This rule is not an absolute rule however. For certain types of packages, in
particular anti-virus software, security concerns weigh heavier than the conservative approach
that is preferable from the perspective of quality assurance. For packages in that class, occasion-
ally newer versions are introduced into a released version of an enterprise product line.
Sometimes also for other types of packages the choice is made to introduce a new version rather
than a backport. This is done when producing a backport is not economically feasible or when
there is a very relevant technical reason to introduce the newer version.

7.3 The implications of backports for interpreting

version numbers
Because of the practice of backporting, one cannot simply compare version numbers to deter-
mine whether a SUSE package contains a x for a particular issue or has had a particular feature
added to it. With backporting, the upstream part of a SUSE package's version number merely

53 Reasons against backports SLES 15 SP4

indicates what upstream version the SUSE package is based on. It may contain bug fixes and
features that are not in the corresponding upstream release, but that have been backported into
the SUSE package.
One particular area where this limited value of version numbers when backporting is involved
can cause problems is with security scanning tools. Some security vulnerability scanning tools
(or particular tests in such tools) operate solely on version information. These tools and tests are
therefore prone to generating “false positives” (when a piece of software is incorrectly identified
as vulnerable) when backports are involved. When evaluating reports from security scanning
tools, always check whether an entry is based on a version number or on an actual vulnerability
test.

7.4 Checking for fixed bugs and backported features

Information about backported bug fixes and features is stored in several locations:

The package's changelog:

> rpm-q --changelog name-of-installed-package

> rpm -qp --changelog packagefile.rpmpackagefile.rpm

The output briey documents the change history of the package.

The package changelog may contain entries like bsc#1234 (“BugzillaSuse. Com”) that
refer to bugs in SUSE's Bugzilla tracking system or links to other bugtracking systems.
Because of confidentiality policies, not all such information may be accessible to you.

A package may contain a /usr/share/doc/PACKAGENAME /README.SUSE le which con-

tains general, high-level information specific to the SUSE package.

The RPM source package contains the patches that were applied during the building of the
regular binary RPMs as separate les that can be interpreted if you are familiar with read-
ing source code. See Book “Administration Guide”, Chapter 9 “Managing software with command
line tools”, Section 9.1.3.5 “Installing or downloading source packages” for installing sources of
SUSE Linux Enterprise software. See Book “Administration Guide”, Chapter 9 “Managing soft-

54 Checking for fixed bugs and backported features SLES 15 SP4

 ware with command line tools”, Section 9.2.5 “Installing and compiling source packages” for build-
ing packages on SUSE Linux Enterprise. See the Maximum RPM (http://www.rpm.org/max-
rpm/) book for details about software package builds for SUSE Linux Enterprise.

For security bug fixes, consult the SUSE security announcements (https://www.suse.com/
support/security/) . These often refer to bugs through standardized names like
CAN-2005-2495 which are maintained by the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)
(http://cve.mitre.org) project.

55 Checking for fixed bugs and backported features SLES 15 SP4

A GNU licenses
formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for
This appendix contains the GNU Free Docu- which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generat-
ed HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only.
mentation License version 1.2. The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as
are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For
works in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near the
GNU free documentation license most prominent appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named sub-unit of the Document whose title either is pre-
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, cisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another lan-
Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies guage. (Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as "Acknowledge-
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. ments", "Dedications", "Endorsements", or "History".) To "Preserve the Title" of such a section
when you modify the Document means that it remains a section "Entitled XYZ" according to
this definition.
0. PREAMBLE
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included
document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication
and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or non-commercially. that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this
Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their License.
work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others.
This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of the document must 2. VERBATIM COPYING
themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which
is a copyleft license designed for free software. You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or non-
We have designed this License to use it for manuals for free software, because free software commercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying
needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other
freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct
be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you
printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of
or reference. copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly
display copies.
1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed 3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a
notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the
the conditions stated herein. The "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts,
member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you". You accept the license if you you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts:
copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law. Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers
A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover
of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language. must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may
add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as
A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that
long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated
deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the
as verbatim copying in other respects.
Document's overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly
within that overall subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to t legibly, you should put the
Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter rst ones listed (as many as t reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto
of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, adjacent pages.
philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them. If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you
The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or
those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general net-
License. If a section does not t the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be work-using public has access to download using public-standard network protocols a complete
designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the latter option, you
does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none. must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quanti-
ty, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until
The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or
at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your
Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. A
agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.
Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before
A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a for-
redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an
mat whose specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the doc-
updated version of the Document.
ument straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic
paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable
for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for
input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent le format whose markup,
or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification
by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial
amount of text. A copy that is not "Transparent" is called "Opaque".
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Tex-
info input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and stan-
dard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification. Examples
of transparent image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary

56 SLES 15 SP4
 The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use
4. MODIFICATIONS
their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of
sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this 5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution
and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under
must do these things in the Modified Version: the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the
combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and
A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the
list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you
Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any,
preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.
be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a
previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission. The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invari-
ant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding
authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least ve at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if
of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of
than ve), unless they release you from this requirement. Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History" in the various original
publisher. documents, forming one section Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled
"Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
Entitled "Endorsements".
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other
copyright notices.
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public
permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under
shown in the Addendum below. this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a
single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License
G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover
for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
Texts given in the Document's license notice.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License. this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow
this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title, and add to it an item
stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version
as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled "History" in the Document, 7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given
on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent docu-
the previous sentence. ments or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate"
if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the com-
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to
pilation's users beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in
a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in
an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not
the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the
themselves derivative works of the Document.
"History" section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published
at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then

version it refers to gives permission. if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts
may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic
K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", Preserve the Title equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on
of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate.
contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and 8. TRANSLATION
in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the
section titles. Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the

M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be included Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires

in the Modified Version. special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some
or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You
N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled "Endorsements" or to conflict in may include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document, and
title with any Invariant Section. any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this
O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers. License and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement
between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Se- original version will prevail.
condary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option
If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", or "History", the
designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of
requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the
Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from
actual title.
any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but endorse-
ments of your Modified Version by various parties--for example, statements of peer review
9. TERMINATION
or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly pro-
standard.
vided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the
You may add a passage of up to ve words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25
Document is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However,
words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only
parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their
one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through
licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the
same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are
acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit
permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.

57 SLES 15 SP4
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documen-
tation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present
version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/
copyleft/ .
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies
that a particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have
the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any
later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the
Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever
published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU
Free Documentation License”.

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the
“with...Texts.” line with this:

with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the
Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three,
merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing
these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General
Public License, to permit their use in free software.

58 SLES 15 SP4