Almost half a year after its previous 6.0 release, openSUSE has unveiled Leap Micro 6.1, a rebrand of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 6.1, the latest iteration of its highly reliable and immutable container and virtual machine host designed specifically for edge computing applications.
Among the noteworthy updates is the inclusion of a new opensuse-migration-tool. It is specifically designed to streamline upgrades, making transitions between releases smoother and less stressful.
Additionally, the Leap Micro 6.1 release introduces soft-reboot support, allowing users to activate software changes without requiring a full system rebootโa feature that significantly minimizes downtime when kernel or bootloader updates arenโt necessary.
For those seeking enhanced security, two-factor authentication (TOTP) is now available for PAM logins, adding an extra layer of protection.
Moreover, Leap Micro 6.1 includes tools such as vhostmd for SAP Virtualization, improvements to the jeos-firstboot wizard, and more, providing a comprehensive platform for edge and cloud-native environments.
In addition to those mentioned above, the new release introduces RAM compression via ZRAM, which allows users to compress main memory, thereby gaining more computing resources on smaller systems.
ZRAM also enables the use of a compressed area of main memory as a swap device, with the option to back it by a block device. This capability supports complex setups with limited resources, offering faster I/O operations and memory savings.
Lastly, certain features and packages have been removed in Leap Micro 6.1 to streamline the system. Notably, busybox, salt-master, and k3s are no longer included.
Itโs important to note that the release of Leap Micro 6.1 also signals the end of life for Leap Micro 5.5. Users still running 5.5 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to either Leap Micro 6.0 or 6.1 to continue benefiting from support and updates.
For detailed release notes, users can refer to the official SUSE documentation, which provides extensive information about changes affecting all architectures, installation procedures, and migration paths.
openSUSE’s announcement is here.
