Initial Server Setup with SLES 12

Introduction

This tutorial covers Initial Server Setup with SLES 12 on SLES 12. SLES 12 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16) is SUSE’s enterprise-grade Linux distribution. It uses the zypper package manager, AppArmor for mandatory access control, and systemctl for service management.

Prerequisites

A fresh SLES 12 installation with root or sudo access is required. Ensure your system is registered with the SUSE Customer Center (SCC) for package updates.

Step 1 — Update System Packages

Update all installed packages:

zypper refresh
zypper update -y

Step 2 — Create a Sudo User

useradd -m -s /bin/bash deploy
passwd deploy
usermod -aG wheel deploy

Step 3 — Configure SSH Security

sed -i "s/^#PasswordAuthentication yes/PasswordAuthentication no/" /etc/ssh/sshd_config
systemctl restart sshd

Step 4 — Enable Firewall

systemctl enable --now firewalld
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=ssh
firewall-cmd --reload

AppArmor Considerations

Note: SLES 12 uses AppArmor for mandatory access control. Check AppArmor status with aa-status and enforce profiles with aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/<profile>.

Conclusion

You have successfully completed: Initial Server Setup with SLES 12. For more SLES 12 tutorials, see our full SLES 12 series.