Huawei’s KunLun server to run SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Huawei has announced its partnership with SUSE to bring SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as the preferred standard OS for its KunLun RAS 2.0. The open source platform supposedly comes with reliability, availability and serviceability features for the server, and the combination brings an ‘always online’ offering for enterprises.

At CeBIT 2016, Huawei and SUSE jointly launched KunLun as the world’s first 32-socket mission critical server. That tie-up influenced both the companies to move a step ahead and ultimately made SUSE Linux Enterprise Server the preferred standard operating system.

“Now we bring our partnership to a new level by releasing the industry’s first standard Linux OS that supports KunLun RAS 2.0. The OS will help KunLun deliver reliability that is parallel to, and even surpasses that of traditional high-end UNIX servers. These benefits will translate into a better return on investment for our customers,” said Wang Zhen, vice president for IT, server product line, Huawei.

The operating system for KunLun is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 2. It supports RAS 2.0 features that allow customers to add or remove CPU and memory resources without shutting down the system.

“SUSE leads the industry by releasing the preferred standard OS that supports KunLun RAS 2.0 features, including CPU and memory hot swap,” said Ralf Flaxa, president of engineering at SUSE. The SUSE team led by Flaxa is also developing an in-service kernel upgrade feature in order to deliver all the latest updates to the Linux-backed platform.

Huawei has designed KunLun to address the high reliability, performance and scalability requirements of mission-critical environments by leveraging the x86 ecosystem. The company claims that the server can overcome the longstanding restrictions of enclosed architectures.