Upgrade the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server public images of existing instances to the commercial edition -

Starting from October 30, 2021, Alibaba Cloud provides access to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) paid public images for commercial use. As of April 1, 2022, image updates and technical support will be available only for the commercial edition. Images affected by this change include free SLES images and SLES images obtained from outside Alibaba Cloud. If you have Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances that use these images, you can follow the instructions in this topic to upgrade your SLES images to the commercial edition.

Background information

Starting from April 1, 2022, Alibaba Cloud no longer provides image updates and SUSE technical support for SLES instances that were created from free SLES public images and user-created SLES images. This limitation also extends to SLES instances that are migrated from on-premises machines or other cloud service providers. You can fix this by upgrading to SLES commercial edition with Alibaba Cloud. You can upgrade the SLES images of these instances to the commercial edition in the ECS console. This is not a mandatory requirement, and will not affect the use of existing SLES instances. However, you will be unable to obtain image updates and SUSE technical support starting from April 1, 2022.

For the announcement on commercial availability of SLES public images, see SUSE Linux Enterprise Server will be commercialized on October 30, 2021.

Precautions

If you upgrade an SLES image to the commercial edition, you are charged for the image based on the price at the time of upgrade.
If you want to continue using free Linux instances, you can try Alibaba Cloud Linux. Alibaba Cloud Linux is provided by Alibaba Cloud as a free alternative to SLES.
The commercial edition upgrade includes only SLES images, and does not include SLES for SAP images.
The SLES images of existing instances that reside in the classic network cannot be upgraded to the commercial edition. If you have instances that reside in the classic network and the SLES images of these instances must be upgraded to the commercial edition, migrate the instances to virtual private clouds (VPCs) and then upgrade the SLES images. For information about how to migrate instances from the classic network to VPCs, see Migrate ECS instances from the classic network to a VPC. If you encounter issues, submit a ticket.

Procedure

If you have SLES instances whose images have not been upgraded to the commerical edition, a notification about the commercial availability of SLES images is generated on the Instances page in the ECS console. You can upgrade the SLES images as needed.

Important

Alibaba Cloud provides its own Subscription Management Tool (SMT) service, which automatically registers your instances when you upgrade your operating system. If the instance you want to upgrade is migrated from a third-party cloud service provider and has been registered with their SMT service, you need to disassociate the instance from the SMT service first. After you disassociate your instance from its previous SMT service, you will no longer be able to obtain installation and update packages from your previous service provider.

Run the following commands to disassociate the SMT service:

SUSEConnect --de-register
SUSEConnect --cleanup

Before you upgrade your SLES images, you must use your Alibaba Cloud account to authorize Alibaba Cloud to run the register command after you pay for the upgrade order to obtain the SLES update repository. Perform the following operations:

Use your Alibaba Cloud account to log on to the Resource Access Management (RAM) console.
Create a RAM role named AliyunECSAssistantRunCommandRole and change the trust policy of the role to the following content.
Note
The role name must be AliyunECSAssistantRunCommandRole. Otherwise, the register command cannot be run.
```
{
            "Statement": [
            {
                "Action": "sts:AssumeRole",
                "Effect": "Allow",
                "Principal": {
                "Service": [
                    "ecs.aliyuncs.com"
                ]
                }
            }
],
            "Version": "1"
}
                        
```
For more information about how to create a RAM role and change its trust policy, see Attach an instance RAM role to an ECS instance.
Attach the AliyunECSAssistantRunCommandRolePolicy policy to the role. The policy contains the following content:
```
{
    "Version": "1",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "ecs:RunCommand",
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}
```
For more information about how to attach the policy to the RAM role, see Control access to resources by using RAM users.
Log on to the ECS console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Instances & Images > Instances.
In the section above the instance list, you can view the upgrade notification about SLES images.
Click Upgrade Now.
Upgrade the SLES images to the commercial edition as prompted.
You can also choose not to upgrade the images to the commercial edition.
After you place an upgrade order and complete the payment, Alibaba Cloud is authorized to call the RunCommand operation to run the register command. The SLES images can be upgraded and SUSE operating systems can be registered. The registration process takes several seconds. We recommend that you wait and then go to the Instances page, refresh the page and confirm the number of remaining instances whose SLES images must be upgraded, and then upgrade the images.
After SLES images are upgraded, you can obtain the SLES update repository and technical support for SUSE.