Overview
Red Hat provides support and maintenance over stated time periods for the major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (i.e. versions 2.1, 3, 4, or 5) "Life Cycle". The Life Cycle allows customers and partners to effectively plan, deploy and support Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The Life Cycle identifies the various levels of maintenance for each major release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux over a total period of seven years from the initial release date, which is often referred to as the general availability date.
Software updates to Red Hat Enterprise Linux are delivered via errata advisories. Errata can be released individually on an as-needed basis or aggregated as a minor release (e.g. version 5.2). Errata may contain security and bug fixes, as well as feature enhancements. All errata are thoroughly tested and qualified against the appropriate Red Hat Enterprise Linux release(s).
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle is designed to reduce the level of change within each major release over time increasing predictability and decreasing maintenance costs. All released errata will remain accessible to active subscribers for the entire Life Cycle. Red Hat published this Life Cycle in an effort to provide as much transparency as possibly and may make exceptions from these policies as conflicts may arise.
Every major version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is maintained and supported independently during the seven year life cycle. For each major version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, any errata will only be applied incrementally to the previously released errata.
* This is a schematic view of the Life Cycle, time-spans and dates within the 7 year life cycle are subject to adjustment.
During the entire Life Cycle, Red Hat makes commercially reasonable efforts to maintain binary compatibility for the core runtime environment across all minor releases and asynchronous errata (possible exceptions include critical security issues). Furthermore, major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux contain a limited set of backward-compatible libraries from the previous major versions to aid with the migration of applications from one major release to another.
Details
The seven year life cycle for a major release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is divided into three phases.
The following table details what type of software maintenance is performed during each phase of the seven year life cycle:
| Life Cycle Phase | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Description | Production 1 | Production 2 | Production 3 |
| Unlimited Incident Technical Support1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Asynchronous Security Errata | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Asynchronous Bug Fix Errata2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Minor Releases | Yes | Yes | No |
| Refreshed Hardware Enablement3 | Native | Limited4 Native | Through Virtualization |
| Software Enhancements | Yes5 | No | No |
| Updated install images | Yes | No | No |
- Full details of Support Services are provided as part of the Subscription Agreement.
- Red Hat can choose to address catastrophic issues with significant business impact for the customer through a Hotfix as a temporary measure while the bugfix errata is being created.
- Native hardware enablement is provided by backporting hardware drivers, etc. Hardware enablement through virtualization is achieved by running a prior version of Enterprise Linux as a virtual guest on a newer version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. See below for details (Virtualization).
- Limited to hardware that does not require substantial software changes, see text for details (Production 2).
- Major releases are the primary vehicle for software enhancements.
Production 1 Life Cycle Phasei:
During Production 1, at a minimum, qualified security errata of important and critical impact, as well as, urgent priority bug-fix errata may be released independent of minor releases.
If available, refreshed hardware enablement and select enhanced software functionality may be provided at the discretion of Red Hat, generally via minor releases. Minor releases will also include all available and qualified errata. The focus for minor releases during this life cycle phase lies on resolving defects of medium or higher priority with increasingly strict inclusion criteria.
Updated install images will be provided for minor releases during the Production 1 life cycle phase.
Production 2 Life Cycle Phaseii:
During the Production 2 life cycle phase, at a minimum, qualified security errata of important or critical impact, as well as, urgent priority bug-fix errata may be released independent of minor releases.
If available, refreshed hardware enablement that does not require substantial software changes may be provided at the discretion of Red Hat via minor releases. New software functionality is not available during this phase. All available and qualified errata will be provided via the minor releases. The focus for minor releases during this life cycle phase lies on resolving defects with a minimum priority of high.
Updated install images will only be provided for minor releases during the Production 2 life cycle phase if required due to installer changes at Red Hat's discretion.
Production 3 Life Cycle Phaseiii:
During Production 3, at a minimum, qualified security errata of important or critical impact and selected mission critical bug fixes may be released independent of minor releases.
No new functionality, new hardware enablement or updated installation images are planned for release in Production 3 life cycle phase. There are no minor releases planned during this phase.
Virtualization
Red Hat intends to support versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, that are still within their seven year life cycle, running as virtualized guests on later versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. However to qualify as supported, Red Hat may require that both the guest and host versions have the latest available errata applied.
Hardware certification (including the associated hardware limits) is based on the version of Enterprise Linux that is being used as the host. Red Hat, at its discretion, may provide additional optimization for specific virtualization scenarios (such as para-virtualized drivers).
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtualization support matrix provides details on the supported combinations of operating systems, versions, and hardware architectures.
Life Cycle Dates
| General Availability: | May 17, 2002 |
| End of Production 1 phase: | Nov 30, 2004 |
| End of Production 2 phase: | May 31, 2005 |
| End of Production 3 phase: | May 31, 2009 |
| General Availability: | October 23, 2003 |
| End of Production 1 phase: | July 20, 2006 |
| End of Production 2 phase: | June 30, 2007 |
| End of Production 3 phase: | October 31, 2010 |
| General Availability: | February 14, 2005 |
| End of Production 1 phase: | March 31, 2009 |
| End of Production 2 phase: | No earlier than Q4 of 2009 |
| End of Production 3 phase: | February 29, 2012 |
| General Availability: | March 15, 2007 |
| End of Production 1 phase: | March 31, 2011 |
| End of Production 2 phase: | No earlier than Q1 of 2012 |
| End of Production 3 phase: | March 31, 2014 |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 release notes
Server:
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization (v. 5 server) Advisories
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Optional Productivity Applications (v. 5 server) Advisories
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Clustering (v. 5 server) Advisories
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Cluster-Storage (v. 5 server) Advisories
Client:
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) Advisories
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Multi OS (v.5 client) Advisories
i. The Production1 life cycle phase was formerly called the "Full Support" phase.
ii. The Production 2 life cycle phase was formerly called the "Deployment" or "Transition" phase.
iii. The Production 3 life cycle phase was formerly called the "Maintenance" phase.