Great for managing onprem + cloud Kubernetes clusters
What do you like best about the product?
SUSE Rancher is widely-used and it supports all major cloud providers and on-premise Kubernetes clusters. It gives one management plane for all clusters, a common place to authenticate, do API calls (via Terraform, curl or Rancher CLI) and have role-based access via SAML, Active Directory and others. Regularly updated to the newest Kubernetes versions. Knowledgable support organization. Easy to implement, does not require consultants, can just read their online docs.
What do you dislike about the product?
The support is good, but how support subscription costs are calculated has changed a couple times in the last couple years. It was node-based, but is now CPU-based.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Managing multiple clusters in onprem and cloud providers, role based access
Worst Support for SUSE RANCHER
What do you like best about the product?
The SUSE rancher platform is good and robust.
What do you dislike about the product?
Support from SUSE for RANCHER is the worst. Even Production outage cases are not taken seriously and has to send multile reminders and escaltion.
Funny thing is SUSE does not even validate their support numbers are working or not. Example: India contact numbers are not reachable.
https://www.suse.com/support/handbook/support-contact-numbers/
India: +91 000800 919 0610
SUSE rancher v2 doe snot support rotating aws authentication keys and the workaround provided is very complicated. whereas other comeptetors have proper working and easy solutions.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We converted our Onprem servers into kubernetes cluster using SUSE Rancher. Therby allowing to utilise it effectively.
Efficiency and options without giving up interoperability
What do you like best about the product?
Open approach to be able to integrate other solutions, adoption does not imply giving up integrating other tools
What do you dislike about the product?
There are two levels of support; for development environments or horizontal scaling, it might make more sense to go with the community version.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Rancher allows us to securely manage different development teams, with a Role-based approach that simplifies the platform developer's experience.
Supports high availability clusters and ongoing production without downtime
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for SUSE Linux Enterprise is SAP clusters.
A quick, specific example of how I use SUSE Linux Enterprise with my SAP clusters is that we are using high availability clusters to make available the SAP infrastructure in the day-to-day activities.
How has it helped my organization?
SUSE Linux Enterprise has positively impacted my organization by supporting multi-Linux distributions.
The benefit of supporting multiple distributions with SUSE Linux Enterprise in my organization is that previously we were using open-source CentOS, and now that Red Hat has disconnected security support for CentOS, SUSE always stands up for helping in the CentOS area.
What is most valuable?
In my experience, the best features SUSE Linux Enterprise offers include high availability and node architectures, specifically cluster node architecture.
What I appreciate about the high availability and cluster node architecture in SUSE Linux Enterprise is that SUSE has a high availability cluster with syncing, and in production environments where zero downtime is expected, the high availability SAP cluster helps us to keep production up 24/7.
SUSE is always providing high availability support with security, synchronizations, and the best performance line in SUSE Linux Enterprise.
What needs improvement?
Whatever SUSE has is a better solution, and I'm not that much of an expert to suggest improvements or say how SUSE can improve, because SUSE is always improving themselves, and I know that soon they are launching SUSE Linux Enterprise 16 as well.
If SUSE Linux Enterprise could have more documentation related to the operating system or open-source code, then I believe it would definitely be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SUSE Linux Enterprise for the past eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
As of now, I don't have any challenges to add about my use case with SUSE Linux Enterprise and SAP clusters because everything is up to date as we are keeping it as it is.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the customer service 10 out of 10 because SUSE has 24/7 availability support, extended support, security, multi-Linux distribution support, upgradation, and everything is user-friendly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
What other advice do I have?
The advice I would give to others looking into using SUSE Linux Enterprise is that they should know that SUSE has high availability support, extended support, security, and everything they need, and I will share my use cases with them and recommend they also go with SUSE. I rate SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Streamlined Kubernetes Management with Enterprise-Grade Control
What do you like best about the product?
Rancher has made kubernetes adoption in our enterprise much smoother. I really appreciate how it centralize the management of multiple cluster across different environments whether on-prem or cloud.
The intuitive UI along with RBAC helps us maintain governance while giving teams autonomy.
Its built-in monitoring and logging integration reduce the need for separate tools.
Rancher has also simplified scaling our workloads and ensured consistent security policies across clusters, which was a big win for our operation team.
What do you dislike about the product?
The initial setup can feel complex for teams who are new to kubernetes and documentation could be more beginner-friendly.
While the UI is powerful, sometimes it lags when managing very large clusters.
Also upgrading Rancher version across production environments requires care planning, its not always seamless as we'd like.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Rancher is helping us bring consistency and control to our kubernetes strategy.
Before adapting it, managing multiple cluster across different teams and environments was fragmented and time consuming.
With rancher we now have a single pane of glass to monitor, secure and scale cluster across cloud and on-prem. It has solved the challenges around governance, access control, and cluster lifecycle management.
Efficient and Scalable Kubernetes Management with SUSE Rancher
What do you like best about the product?
I value the centralized management that Rancher offers for multiple Kubernetes clusters, along with its intuitive user interface and robust role-based access control (RBAC) features. Rancher simplifies the process of scaling applications, and its integration with CI/CD pipelines contributes to more efficient deployment workflows. We use Rancher daily to manage and monitor production Kubernetes clusters, which shows its reliability and stability. Integrates well with existing CI/CD pipelines, monitoring tools, and multi-cloud Kubernetes clusters, though some initial setup is required. SUSE provides responsive and knowledgeable support, which helps quickly resolve issues during cluster management. It is easy to implement, Rancher is straightforward in familiar environments, though initial cluster configuration can take some planning.
What do you dislike about the product?
The platform offers robust capabilities, but the initial setup and configuration process can be challenging for those who are new to Kubernetes. Certain advanced features also demand a solid understanding of Kubernetes concepts, which may present a steep learning curve for beginners.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
SUSE Rancher helps us manage multiple Kubernetes clusters from a single platform, reducing complexity and the risk of errors. It also simplifies deployment, scaling, and monitoring of containerized applications, which saves time and improves reliability. Overall, it increases operational efficiency, ensures high availability, and streamlines our application management.
SUSE Rancher is a mature, enterprise-grade solution that combines ease of use with powerful features
What do you like best about the product?
SUSE provides top-tier enterprise support, backed by a knowledgeable team and a strong open-source community. Whether you're troubleshooting an issue or planning a large-scale deployment, SUSE’s support channels are responsive and effective. The integration with SUSE’s broader enterprise offerings also ensures continuity and reliability for mission-critical workloads. One of Rancher's most appreciated features is its clear, well-structured documentation. From initial setup to advanced configurations, the guides are intuitive and beginner-friendly, yet detailed enough for seasoned DevOps professionals. The documentation includes practical examples, troubleshooting tips, and architectural insights that make onboarding and scaling straightforward.
What do you dislike about the product?
Although Rancher is user-friendly at the surface level, advanced configurations—such as setting up service meshes, customizing RBAC, or integrating external authentication providers—can require a deeper understanding of Kubernetes internals. This may pose a challenge for teams new to container orchestration. Rancher also requires a complex upgrade process requiring users to follow detailed, multi-step procedures. While the documentation is thorough, the upgrade process can be time-consuming and error-prone if not followed precisely.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
In today’s distributed enterprise environments, managing Kubernetes clusters across multiple regions, cloud providers, and data centers can be a logistical and operational nightmare. SUSE Rancher directly addresses this challenge by providing a centralized, scalable, and secure platform that enables a single team to manage Kubernetes infrastructure globally.
Has delivered expert training and enabled smooth migrations using automated deployment tools
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for
SUSE Linux Enterprise involves deploying
SUSE Linux Enterprise and using it with the YaST installer to guide, set up the system, partition, and select the packages.
I also use SUSE Linux Enterprise to deliver training on SUSE Linux administration and Linux administration in general, teaching how to create users, partition the system, browse the file system, create symbolic links or hard links, and create VMs on AWS with the SUSE flavor.
How has it helped my organization?
SUSE Linux Enterprise has positively impacted my organization by resulting in more contracts signed, including a recent customer from Austria working on
SUSE Rancher, which means having employees skilled in
SUSE Rancher gives us the opportunity to bring this workload to our company and grow our revenue.
For my team, there are more than 10 contracts signed for SUSE products; however, I don't have much insight about the global contracts signed or a summary since I do not occupy a management position.
What is most valuable?
The best features SUSE Linux Enterprise offers include a streamlined installation process with the YaST installer, thorough documentation, and tools such as AutoYaST that enable automated, repeatable deployment; however, a new user may face a learning curve, especially if unfamiliar with SUSE-specific tools.
The need to register a system for updates and support can complicate deployment in an isolated environment. SUSE Linux Enterprise is recognized for its stability and reliability in production environments, with YaST providing a centralized interface for managing system settings, updates, and services, making routine administration straightforward.
Performance is strong out of the box, and the system is optimized for enterprise workloads; nevertheless, the official repositories prioritize stability, so some newer or less common packages may not be immediately available. Advanced configuration may still require command line expertise, and while SUSE Linux Enterprise is designed for scalability with built-in support for high availability, clustering, and seamless integration with major cloud platforms, leveraging advanced features requires careful planning and expertise, and some management tools can introduce resource overhead, particularly on smaller systems.
What needs improvement?
SUSE Linux Enterprise is a mature and reliable platform, but there are areas where it can be improved. Modernizing the system management tools is important as many users appreciate YaST for its centralized management, but there is a growing demand for more modern, web-based, and modular tools. The introduction of tools such as Agama, a web-based installer, and Cockpit in newer releases is a step in the right direction.
SUSE has made progress with multi-Linux support, allowing organizations to manage and support not just SUSE systems but also other distributions such as Red Hat and CentOS; continuing to expand these capabilities, especially for hybrid and multi-cloud environments, will help organizations manage diverse infrastructure more effectively.
Security is a top concern, and further strengthening default security policies, simplifying compliance management, and integrating advanced vulnerability management tools would be a valuable improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SUSE Linux Enterprise for more than six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SUSE Linux Enterprise is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SUSE Linux Enterprise is widely recognized for its strong scalability, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to global enterprises. It can scale horizontally or vertically, horizontally by adding more servers and vertically by increasing resources on an existing instance.
How are customer service and support?
Vendor support is another strong point of SUSE Linux Enterprise, with the support team generally being responsive and knowledgeable, offering 24/7 assistance for critical issues. There is a wealth of resources available, including a comprehensive knowledge base and proactive support options.
Initial support interaction may follow a scripted process before more complex issues are escalated to specialized engineers. The quality of support can vary depending on the region.
SUSE Linux Enterprise provides a stable, secure, and well-supported platform for enterprise workloads, with powerful management tools and robust support for clustering, cloud, and containers. The main challenges include the initial learning curve for SUSE-specific tools, the need for system registration, and limited availability of the latest packages in the official repositories. Customer support is really super.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are actually using both SUSE Linux Enterprise and
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so we didn't switch; rather, we are using both, and it's ultimately the customer who decides to choose, although we try to provide them with ideas.
Before choosing SUSE Linux Enterprise, we evaluated other options; however, in our environment, particularly production and customer production environments, we prefer enterprise versions, and for Linux, it is either SUSE or Red Hat, leaving us with limited choices for deploying Linux in an enterprise setting.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment from using SUSE Linux Enterprise, with more people engaged on projects needing SUSE skills and more revenue for the company.
What other advice do I have?
I rate SUSE Linux Enterprise a 10 out of 10 because it keeps improving, with great products such as SUSE Rancher, and it stands out as the best product in the market.
I advise others looking into using SUSE Linux Enterprise to clearly define their requirements, such as workload types, scalability needs, compliance standards, and integration with existing infrastructure before committing, as SUSE Linux Enterprise excels in regulated, mission-critical, and hybrid environments. They should also invest in learning SUSE tools and take advantage of vendor support.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
A robust Kubernetes management platform for enterprises.
What do you like best about the product?
Easy to use solution very complete and to integrate with providers. Is able to manage Suse Virtualization clusters.
What do you dislike about the product?
Rancher would be easier to deploy if pre-made virtual appliances or ISO were provided.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Suse Rancher allow us to have a unified management interface for all our Kubernetes clusters, Suse Virtualization clusters included.
Great product backed by a great team
What do you like best about the product?
One of the key reasons we chose SUSE Rancher is that it is not only backed by a strong open-source community, but it also offers enterprise-grade support. This was critical for us, as Rancher is a core platform technology underpinning our production business services.
Rancher provides excellent flexibility by being cloud- and infrastructure-agnostic. This future-proofs our deployments and gives us the ability to scale seamlessly into other cloud providers or our on-premises datacentres if required.
After iterating through a few design approaches, Rancher proved straightforward to set up, integrate, run and manage. Having the option of a paid, “production-ready” assessment carried out by a SUSE Rancher expert also gave us peace of mind that we were on the right track.
Although the SUSE Security (NeuVector ) solution has been somewhat fiddly at times and has produced a few false positives, it has nonetheless proven to be a valuable addition to Rancher. It provides us with enterprise-grade, zero-trust container security by continually scanning across the container lifecycle, providing runtime security, sophisticated threat detection, and compliance features.
Finally, I want to highlight the support we’ve received from the SUSE customer success and account management team. They have been fantastic—highly responsive, supportive, and committed to delivering an excellent customer experience.
What do you dislike about the product?
I wouldn’t say there is any specific that I dislike about SUSE Rancher, the only real thing I would highlight would be the issues we have had with SUSE security (NeuVector).
The support team have been pretty responsive though when we have highlighted issues or logged support tickets
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The main problems it is currently solving for us are centralising container platform management, reducing operational overhead through easier platform updates (a single-pane solution), improving scalability, and tightening security through SUSE NeuVector.
As we roll it out further across more business areas and refine our workflows, I expect we will also see significant improvements in the speed of deployments.
