|Index|Release Notes
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2

Release Notes

 
Publication Date: 2026-05-05, Version: 15.2.20220930

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a modern, modular operating system for both multimodal and traditional IT. This document provides a high-level overview of features, capabilities, and limitations of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 and highlights important product updates.

These release notes are updated periodically. The latest version of these release notes is always available at https://documentation.suse.com/releasenotes. General documentation can be found at https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP2.

1 About the release notes

 

These Release Notes are identical across all architectures, and the most recent version is always available online at https://documentation.suse.com/releasenotes.

Entries are only listed once but they can be referenced in several places if they are important and belong to more than one section.

Release notes usually only list changes that happened between two subsequent releases. Certain important entries from the release notes of previous product versions are repeated. To make these entries easier to identify, they contain a note to that effect.

However, repeated entries are provided as a courtesy only. Therefore, if you are skipping one or more service packs, check the release notes of the skipped service packs as well. If you are only reading the release notes of the current release, you could miss important changes.

2 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

 

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 is a multimodal operating system that paves the way for IT transformation in the software-defined era. The modern and modular OS helps simplify multimodal IT, makes traditional IT infrastructure efficient and provides an engaging platform for developers. As a result, you can easily deploy and transition business-critical workloads across on-premise and public cloud environments.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2, with its multimodal design, helps organizations transform their IT landscape by bridging traditional and software-defined infrastructure.

2.1 Interoperability and Hardware Support

 

Designed for interoperability, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server integrates into classical Unix and Windows environments, supports open standard interfaces for systems management, and has been certified for IPv6 compatibility.

This modular, general purpose operating system runs on four processor architectures and is available with optional extensions that provide advanced capabilities for tasks such as real time computing and high availability clustering.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is optimized to run as a high performing guest on leading hypervisors and supports an unlimited number of virtual machines per physical system with a single subscription. This makes it the perfect guest operating system for virtual computing.

2.2 What Is New?

 

2.2.1 General Changes in SLE 15

 

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 introduces many innovative changes compared to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12. The most important changes are listed below.

Migration from openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Starting with SLE 15, we support migrating from openSUSE Leap 15 to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15. Even if you decide to start out with the free community distribution you can later easily upgrade to a distribution with enterprise-class support.

Extended Package Search

Use the new Zypper command zypper search-packages to search across all SUSE repositories available for your product even if they are not yet enabled. This functionality makes it easier for administrators and system architects to find the software packages needed. To do so, it leverages the SUSE Customer Center.

SUSE Software Development Kit

With SLE 15, the SUSE Software Development Kit is now integrated into the products. Development packages are packaged alongside regular packages. In addition, the Development Tools module contains tools for development.

RMT Replaces SMT

SMT (Subscription Management Tool) has been removed. Instead, RMT (Repository Mirroring Tool) now allows mirroring SUSE repositories and custom repositories. You can then register systems directly with RMT. In environments with tightened security, RMT can also proxy other RMT servers. If you are planning to migrate SLE 12 clients to version 15, RMT is the supported product to handle such migrations. If you still need to use SMT for these migrations, beware that the migrated clients will have all installation modules enabled.

Major updates to the software selection:
 
Salt

SLE 15 SP2 can be managed via Salt, making it integrate better with modern management solutions, such as SUSE Manager.

Python 3

As the first enterprise distribution, SLE 15 offers full support for Python 3 development in addition to Python 2.

Directory Server

389 Directory Server replaces OpenLDAP as the LDAP directory service.

2.2.2 Changes in 15 SP2

 

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 introduces changes compared to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SP1. The most important changes are listed below.

Media Changes

The Unified Installer and Packages DVDs known from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 are deprecated and have been replaced by the following media:

  • Online Installation Media: All SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 products can be installed with this stand alone media, after entering a registration key. The necessary packages are fetched from online repositories only. For information about available modules, see Section 3.1, “Modules in the SLE 15 SP2 Product Line”.

  • Full Installation Media: All SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 products can be installed without network connection with this media, for offline installation scenarios. The media contains all necessary packages. It consists of directories with module repositories which need to be added manually as needed. RMT (Repository Mirroring Tool) and SUSE Manager provide additional options for disconnected or managed installation.

Kernel

SLE 15 SP2 includes the Linux 5.3 kernel. This new kernel release includes upstream features such as 16 million additionally usable IPv4 addresses, utilization clamping support in the task scheduler, power-efficient userspace waiting with the umwait x86_64 instructions and many more.

Vagrant Boxes

SLES 15 SP2 and SLED 15 SP2 will be available as a Vagrant Box. You can obtain boxes for the following architectures:

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server:

    • x86_64: libvirt and VirtualBox

    • AArch64: libvirt

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop:

    • x86_64: libvirt and VirtualBox

For more information, see Section 5.15.7.4, “Vagrant Boxes for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop”.

2.3 Important Sections of This Document

 

If you are upgrading from a previous SUSE Linux Enterprise Server release, you should review at least the following sections:

2.4 Security, Standards, and Certification

 

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 has been submitted to the certification bodies for:

For more information about certification, see https://www.suse.com/support/security/certifications/.

2.5 Documentation and other information

 

2.5.1 Available on the product media

 

  • Read the READMEs on the media.

  • Get the detailed change log information about a particular package from the RPM (where FILENAME.rpm is the name of the RPM):

    rpm --changelog -qp FILENAME.rpm

  • Check the ChangeLog file in the top level of the installation medium for a chronological log of all changes made to the updated packages.

  • Find more information in the docu directory of the installation medium of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2. This directory includes PDF versions of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 Installation Quick Start Guide.

  • Get list of manual pages with usage information about a particular package from the RPM (where FILENAME.rpm is the name of the RPM):

    rpm --docfiles -qp FILENAME.rpm | grep man

2.5.2 Online documentation

 

2.6 Support and life cycle

 

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is backed by award-winning support from SUSE, an established technology leader with a proven history of delivering enterprise-quality support services.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 has a 13-year life cycle, with 10 years of General Support and 3 years of Extended Support. The current version (SP2) will be fully maintained and supported until 6 months after the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3.

If you need additional time to design, validate and test your upgrade plans, Long Term Service Pack Support can extend the support duration. You can buy an additional 12 to 36 months in twelve month increments. This means, you receive a total of 3 to 5 years of support per Service Pack.

For more information, check our Support Policy page https://www.suse.com/support/policy-products/ or the Long Term Service Pack Support Page https://www.suse.com/products/long-term-service-pack-support/.

2.7 Support statement for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

 

To receive support, you need an appropriate subscription with SUSE. For more information, see https://www.suse.com/support/?id=SUSE_Linux_Enterprise_Server.

The following definitions apply:

L1

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

L2

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

L3

Problem resolution, which means technical support designed to resolve problems by engaging engineering to resolve product defects which have been identified by Level 2 Support.

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