Open Enterprise Server (OES) is a server operating system published by OpenText. It was first published by Novell in March 2005 to succeed their NetWare product. Unlike NetWare, OES is a Linux distribution—specifically, one based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The first major release of Open Enterprise Server (OES 1) could run either with a [Linux kernel](https://bliptext.com/articles/linux-[kernel](https://bliptext.com/articles/kernel-operating-system)) (with a NetWare compatibility layer) or Novell's NetWare kernel (with a Linux compatibility layer). Novell discontinued the NetWare kernel prior to the release of OES 2, but NetWare 6.5 SP7, and later SP8, can run as a paravirtualized guest inside the Xen hypervisor (officially supported until 7 March 2012, Novell self-supported until 7 March 2015).

OES 1 and OES 2

Novell released OES 1, the first version of OES, on 25 March 2005. Since some users wanted backward compatibility with NetWare, Novell offered two installation options: OES-NetWare and OES-Linux. These are two different operating systems with different kernels and different userlands. OES-NetWare is NetWare v6.5 equipped with NetWare Loadable Modules for various Novell services (such as NetWare Core Protocol, Novell eDirectory, Novell Storage Services, and iPrint) and open-source software (such as OpenSSH, Apache Tomcat, and the Apache HTTP Server). OES-Linux is based on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) with added NetWare services ported to the Linux kernel: e.g. the NetWare Core Protocol, Novell eDirectory, Novell Storage Services, and iPrint. Novell released OES 2, the second version of OES, on 12 October 2007. It was the first SLES-Linux-kernel-only OES, but it retained the OES-NetWare operating system option, as NetWare 6.5 SP7 can run as a paravirtualized guest inside the Xen hypervisor. The SLES base of the OES 2 was later updated to SLES 10 SP1. Features introduced in OES 2 include: See also (based on different OES editions):

OES 11

OES 11 was released on 12 December 2011 based on SLES 11 SP1 64-bit. The NetWare Kernel was removed after OES 2. This is the first version of OES to be 64-bit (x86_64) only. NetWare 6.5 SP8 was still possible to run as a 32-bit only para-virtualized guest inside the Xen hypervisor.

OES 2015

OES 2018 & 2023

Micro Focus released OES 2018 in November 2017, with three service releases (the last being OES 2018 SP3 in July 2021). All releases were all based on SLES 12 and its service packs. While SUSE was sold by Micro Focus in 2018, SLES support and updates are included with an OES installation, provided at least one OES component is installed. OES 2023 was released in October 2022, using a base of SLES 15 SP4. It includes a new Unified Management Console (UMC) to supersede iManager for server management, TLS 1.3 support and was bundled with NetIQ eDirectory 9.2.7. Breaking with previous convention, OES 23.4 (rather than SP1) was released in October 2023, and was rebranded to OpenText, after their purchase of Micro Focus earlier in the year. General support was extended to 3 years from the usual 2 years of previous releases.

Release summary

End-of-support schedule

Components