The developers of the openSUSE project have presented the first release of the new edition of the openSUSE distribution — 'Leap Micro', based on work from the MicroOS project. The openSUSE Leap Micro distribution is positioned as a community version of the commercial product SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2, which explains the unusual version number — 5.2, chosen to synchronize the release numbering in both distributions. The support period for openSUSE Leap Micro 5.2 will last for 4 years.
Available for download are builds for x86_64 and ARM64 (Aarch64) architectures, provided both with an installer (Offline builds, size 370MB) and as ready-to-use boot images: 570MB (pre-configured), 740MB (with Real-Time kernel), and 820MB. The images can run under hypervisors Xen and KVM or on hardware, including Raspberry Pi boards. For configuration, the cloud-init toolkit can be used to pass settings at each boot or Combustion to set up configurations during the first boot.
A key feature of Leap Micro is the atomic update installation mechanism, which downloads and applies updates automatically. Unlike the atomic updates based on ostree and snap used in Fedora and Ubuntu, openSUSE Leap Micro employs the standard package manager and filesystem snapshot mechanism instead of building separate atomic images and deploying additional delivery infrastructure. Live patches are supported for updating the Linux kernel without rebooting and halting operations.
The root partition is mounted in read-only mode and does not change during operation. Btrfs is used as the filesystem, with snapshots serving as the basis for atomic switching between system states before and after updates are applied. In case of problems after updates, the system can be rolled back to a previous state. Integrated tools with runtime support for Podman/CRI-O and Docker are provided for running isolated containers.
Among the applications of Leap Micro is its use as a base system for virtualization platforms and container isolation, as well as its application in decentralized environments and microservices-based systems. Leap Micro is also a vital component in shaping the next generation of the SUSE Linux distribution, which plans to split the core of the distribution into two parts: a trimmed-down 'host OS' for running on hardware and a layer for application support, focused on running in containers. virtual machines.
The new concept implies that the 'host OS' will develop a minimal environment necessary for supporting and managing hardware, while all applications and user-space components will run not in a mixed environment, but in separate containers or virtual machines that operate on top of the 'host OS' and are isolated from each other.
Source: opennet.ru
