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
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.
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.
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.
SUSE Rancher makes managing Kubernetes clusters easy and consistent.
What do you like best about the product?
The most helpful aspect of SUSE Rancher is its easy-to-learn, consistent interface, which simplifies multi-cluster management regardless of where the clusters are running. The documentation is thorough and support is responsive, making troubleshooting and on-boarding smooth. Rancher’s reliability and seamless migration capabilities have been invaluable, allowing our developers to move workloads between on-prem and cloud with minimal changes. Integration with common Kubernetes tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, and CI/CD platforms is straightforward, and the platform’s security features, especially admission control, add an extra layer of protection.
What do you dislike about the product?
The least helpful aspect of SUSE Rancher, at least with us, is that running Rancher you need to have a management cluster to manager your downstream clusters. So if you are in the cloud, that management cluster now cost you money. It does not need to be a large cluster, but it still uses resources. SUSE Rancher can also be pretty complex, with lost of parts and pieces troubleshooting can sometimes be a bear.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The greatest problem that it is solving for us is seamless intergration for our developers no matter where the cluster sits. We are going from on-prim clusters to cloud clusters, so from a developer standpoint moving workloads is seemless and easier. The developer does not need to learn the cloud service providers portal to deploy their app. The interface for the developer is the same whether it is on-prim or in the cloud.
Stable OS supports SAP landscape but licensing changes required
What is our primary use case?
I use it for the corporate SAP landscape.
How has it helped my organization?
It provides a stable and reliable OS. I recommended it based on its stability and functionality.
What is most valuable?
It has a stable and reliable OS. I recommended it based on its stability and functionality.
What needs improvement?
The functionality is good, but the licensing subscription model needs improvement. The license we subscribed to should carry over within the same instance family. Why are we required to re-subscribe when upgrading within the same family? Why are we effectively paying double fees during an upgrade?
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We chose this solution because it was recommended by our managed service provider and it is known to be a good OS for SAP.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are facing an issue with licensing usage. The subscription does not carry over within the same instance family, so upgrading an instance results in overlapping or double subscription fees.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not consider alternate solutions because it was highly recommended by the managed service vendor.
What other advice do I have?
We are facing an issue with licensing usage. The subscription does not carry over within the same instance family, so upgrading an instance results in overlapping or double subscription fees.
Has good kernel modules and upgrades
What is our primary use case?
I've been using SUSE Linux Enterprise for a petroleum company client. They run it as their primary server hosting environment, connected to NAS and various external applications and hardware. We integrate it with Spacewalk for management, which is known by different names on other distributions.
What is most valuable?
I like how the tool handles kernel modules and upgrades - we rarely have issues after upgrades, unlike with other Linux distributions like Oracle Linux or Ubuntu. The kernel module management is excellent. Changes made in one version typically work the same in other versions too, which isn't always the case with other distributions. There's also lots of information and community support available if you run into any problems, both on the official website and in forums and user groups. I know many people who use it specifically, so it's easy to get independent support if needed. I've been working with the tool for a long time, since 2003, before they became SUSE Linux Enterprise. It's always been one of the most admin-friendly Linux versions.
What needs improvement?
Depending on the underlying hardware, setting up and running services can sometimes be problematic. It's not always uniform—you can't necessarily move a service from one system to another and have it work seamlessly.
Additionally, error handling needs improvement. The system should be more transparent when there's an error, rather than just declaring a generic error. It would be helpful if it could provide more specific information about the problem on that particular system. As it stands, you can waste a lot of time trying to troubleshoot these vague errors.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten since we do the regular upgrade cycles.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable, and I rate its scalability an eight out of ten. Our usage will triple in the coming 18 months. We're pushing our on-premises clients to adopt cloud modules. When they move to the cloud, they can centralize many international and local business systems into one point, which will increase users. We have diverse geographical setups, and moving to the cloud will bring all users onto one or two systems.
Right now, we might have 15 users in one place using one system, not always SUSE Linux Enterprise. We want to consolidate everything because it makes system administration easier. Currently, our technical resources need to know many different products, which is challenging since some of us are experts in certain areas but not others. It's difficult. We're trying to make things easier from an administrator's perspective.
How are customer service and support?
I've never had problems with SUSE Linux Enterprise's customer support. They're very responsive when we log cases with them. I usually get a response within 24 hours. I work with suppliers like Qualys and Acronis, but SUSE Linux Enterprise is generally the fastest to respond. Their support team is always willing to help, and the engineers are happy to share knowledge. This level of support is very impressive compared to other vendors I work with.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of SUSE Linux Enterprise is very easy. Its GUI-based interface is self-explanatory. Someone with basic IT knowledge who pays attention could set up a system. For higher-end integration, more technical expertise is needed. An entry-level Linux administrator could set it up by receiving a basic document.
On a scale of one to ten, with ten being very easy setup, SUSE Linux Enterprise rates an eight.
Regarding deployment time, it's less than an hour, never more than an hour. However, this can depend on the hardware - if the hardware is slower, the installation and everything will go slower.
There is currently a mix of deployment options. It is deployed both on the cloud and on-premises.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SUSE Linux Enterprise is reasonably priced compared to other operating systems. I find it's a much better option for us than Oracle, for example, because of the pricing structure. The pricing is easier to explain to clients and makes it easier to get clients' commitment. The licensing is also simpler to manage and keep track of. Their responsiveness is great - they give feedback very quickly when we ask questions about licensing or other aspects. This helps ensure we're always at the gold standard regarding licensing and everything related to SUSE Linux Enterprise.
What other advice do I have?
None of our current clients are looking at AI features. We mainly work with traditional clients using custom-built systems developed over the past 20-30 years, so there's limited room for improvement or AI integration. However, we may potentially be involved in an AI-related project in 2025, but that would involve a redesign and isn't confirmed yet. For now, we don't use AI for our client work.
I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.
Maximizing Efficiency with Rancher
What do you like best about the product?
Rancher makes handling containers simple by integrating with several platforms. Rancher Desktop made it straightforward to switch from Docker Desktop to a containerd-based one. It also improves our understanding of our container configuration by masking the more technical portions of Kubernetes.
What do you dislike about the product?
I haven't discovered any major issues yet, however it does log me out by itself after a while.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Rancher is really useful for container management. It secures our clusters and makes it simple to manage application logs and pod configurations.
