Kia Zhi Tang (Ryen Tang)

Kia Zhi Tang (Ryen Tang)

Technology Evangelist, Infrastructure as Code Developer, Automation Guru

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Getting SLES distro environment on Windows for DevOps

7 minute read

Previously, I blogged about Getting Ubuntu distro environment on Windows for DevOps, Getting openSUSE distro environment on Windows for DevOps and some may wonder if Ubuntu or openSUSE the only options for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

As such, I will share my experience on how you can obtain SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) distro for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and addresses the following questions below.

  • Can I have other linux distro?
  • Can it be deployed on a Windows Server?
  • Can it be upgraded so that it does not reach end of life?

I decided to blog this walk-through on how you can enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), maintain your linux distro environment and upgrade the linux distro instance to stay ahead. Let’s get started with command lines.

Getting Started with SLES on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

In this blog post, I will be documenting the basic steps in getting Bash and other common linux tools from SLES distro working on Windows 10 using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) feature.

What is actually Windows Subsystem for Linux? In short, it is a Windows feature on Windows 10 that allows developers to run linux environment directly on Windows without deploying a virtual machine. That means you get to use Bash and many other tools that focus primarily on linux first to work on Windows.

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Pre-requisite requirements

  • Windows 10 Build 16215 or later
  • Windows Server 1709 or later

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Enable Windows Subsystem for Linux feature on Windows 10

To enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux Feature on Windows 10 and reboot the Windows 10 using PowerShell.

Note: A reboot of the Windows 10 operating system is required after enabling the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature

  • Launch Windows PowerShell with elevated privileges
  • Use the Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature PowerShell cmdlet to enable the feature
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Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature `
    -FeatureName "Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux" `
    -Online `
    -NoRestart:$False ;

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How to obtain SLES distro instance for Windows

Once you have verified that your current environment meets the pre-requisite requirements and you have enabled the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature.

Let’s get started with obtaining SLES distro instance with Windows Subsystem for Linux for Windows 10 or Windows Server.

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Downloading SLES distro instance

In this example, we will use Invoke-WebRequest PowerShell cmdlet to download the linux distro application package to your home folder.

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# Download SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 WSL application
Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Uri "https://aka.ms/wsl-sles-12" `
    -OutFile "~\SLES-12_v1.appx" `
    -UseBasicParsing ;

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Installation for Windows 10

Natively, you can use Add-AppxPackage PowerShell cmdlet to add the linux distro application package to your Windows 10.

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# Install the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 WSL application
Add-AppxPackage `
    -Path "~\SLES-12_v1.appx" ;

During your initial launch of SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES) on Windows 10, you will be requested to configure your new UNIX username and password.

Note: You will also be prompted to input your SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES) registration code. If you have the registration code, you can input them and get it registered. If not, you can leave it blank and skip the registration for now. You can always enter the registration code later by using the SUSEConnect -r command.

Note: This setup a normal non-administrative user account that will login by default when you launch the distro. The username and password does not require to be same as your Windows user account. To elevate privileges in the distro instance, use sudo and input your password. For more information, you are refer to this documentation here.

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Installation for Windows Server

For Windows Server, you will have use Rename-Item PowerShell cmdlet to rename the linux distro application package extension to a compressed file extension.

Since the file has been renamed to a compressed file extension, you will use Expand-Archive PowerShell cmdlet to expand the compressed file to your home folder or ~\.wsl\distro\ custom home folder location.

After the file has been expanded to the destination, use the Start-Process PowerShell cmdlet to launch the executable to begin the initial configuration of the linux distro instance.

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# Rename the file extension to compressed file extension
Rename-Item `
    -Path "~\SLES-12_v1.appx" `
    -NewName "SLES-12_v1.zip" ;

# Expand the compressed file to destination
Expand-Archive `
    -Path "~\SLES-12_v1.zip" `
    -DestinationPath "~\.wsl\distro\SLES" ;

# Launch the distro setup
Start-Process `
    -FilePath "~\.wsl\distro\SLES\SLES-12.exe" ;

Once the SLES-12.exe is running, the installation will begin and you will be requested to configure your new UNIX username and password.

Note: You will also be prompted to input your SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES) registration code. If you have the registration code, you can input them and get it registered. If not, you can leave it blank and skip the registration for now. You can always enter the registration code later by using the SUSEConnect -r command.

Note: This setup a normal non-administrative user account that will login by default when you launch the distro. The username and password does not require to be same as your Windows user account. To elevate privileges in the distro instance, use sudo and input your password. For more information, you are refer to this documentation here.

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How to update the SLES distro instance

When you switched into the linux distro for the first time, you will need to use the linux distro’s preferred package manager to update and upgrade those installed packages. This is because most of the linux distro are shipped with an empty/minimal package catalog.

For SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES), we will use SUSEConnect --regcode $YOUR_REGISTRATION_CODE command to register our registration code to obtain the SLES 12.2 repository uri and perform zypper patch --no-confirm command to patch the current SLES 12.2 operating system.

Once the current SLES 12.2 is fully patched, you will use zypper install --no-confirm zypper-migration-plugin command to install the migration plugin package.

Lastly, you will use zypper migration command to migrate the current SLES 12.2 to SLES 12.3 version.

Note: Microsoft does not maintain those linux distro and the linux distro instance running on Windows Subsystem for Linux are not maintained by Windows Updates.

Note: To update SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES), you will need to register your SLES in order to obtain updates and you can obtain a free developer subscription for 365 days by registering yourself from here to obtain the registration code.

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# Add your SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES) registration code
sudo SUSEConnect --regcode $YOUR_REGISTRATION_CODE

# Install the latest patches
sudo zypper patch --no-confirm

# Install the zypper-migration-plugin package and dependencies
sudo zypper install --no-confirm zypper-migration-plugin

# Start the migration to update SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES)
sudo zypper migration

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How to switch into SLES distro shell environment

After you have configured and updated your SLES distro instance, you can always quickly switch into the linux distro shell environment by doing the following below.

  • Launch Command Prompt or PowerShell Console
  • Input wsl or bash to switch into SLES distro shell environment

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How to validate SLES distro instance version

To check the SLES distro instance version, use the cat command with /etc/os-release path.

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# Display SLES version
cat /etc/os-release

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How to perform an in-place upgrade to SLES 15.0

If you are still using SLES 12.3 distro instance and wanted to use SLES 15.0, you can use SUSEConnect --cleanup command to remove those old repository uri and use SUSEConnect --regcode $YOUR_REGISTRATION_CODE -p SLES/15.0/x86_64 to add new repository uri to the package manager.

After the package manager is configured, use SUSEConnect -p sle-module-basesystem/15.0/x86_64 to select the base system module from the extensions list and use zypper dist-upgrade --force-resolution to perform the distro upgrade to SLES 15.0.

Lastly, remove those orphaned packages if you preferred to do so.

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# Remove all previous registrations
sudo SUSEConnect --cleanup

# Register SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15.0 repositories
sudo SUSEConnect --regcode $YOUR_REGISTRATION_CODE -p SLES/15.0/x86_64

# Select SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15.0 base system module
sudo SUSEConnect -p sle-module-basesystem/15.0/x86_64

# Installed packages
sudo zypper dist-upgrade --force-resolution

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

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Conclusion

There you have it. You can deploy this feature on Windows 10 or Windows Server and keep the instance up to date with that linux distro before it reaches end of life.

If you find that this information useful, feel free to bookmark this or share it with your colleagues and friends.

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References

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