Support Policy for the Red Hat Driver Update Program

The Red Hat Driver Update Program (DUP) was created to allow earlier certification of hardware that requires updated Red Hat Enterprise Linux drivers for enablement. The program provides early access to select drivers from the forthcoming update release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux in a format that can be used with the currently-shipping update release of the operating system. Without the DUP package, certification would be delayed until the next update release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux became available. Hardware that has been certified using a DUP package will have a Red Hat Knowledgebase entry associated with its listing in the Red Hat Certification Catalog (https://access.redhat.com/certification) that explains the need for the package and the location where the package can be downloaded. A DUP package should only be installed if a Red Hat Knowledgebase entry states that it is required for proper enablement of the hardware. We do not otherwise recommend the use of DUP packages, even if the driver provided by the DUP package matches a driver in use by your hardware.

Red Hat will provide technical support to customers with an active, supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux entitlement on any system that utilizes a Red Hat-produced DUP package, but no updates to DUP packages will be delivered once the next minor update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released. Any changes to the driver after the release of the next minor update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux would be provided via an updated kernel package, which is our standard method for delivery of kernel bugfixes, and would be made available through normal package delivery mechanisms. We would not update the DUP package to contain those changes.

For example, if a DUP package were produced for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 to enable a network card on a server undergoing certification, the source of that driver would be Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3. Red Hat could fix critical bugs in the driver and respin the DUP package to contain those changes until the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3. When 8.3 is released, any further changes to the driver would appear in a GA kernel (8.3, 8.4, 8.5, etc.) or an errata kernel that follows a GA release (8.3.z, 8.4.z, 8.5.z etc.). We would not respin the 8.2 DUP package after the 8.3 launch to contain those changes. A customer using a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 DUP package after the launch of 8.3 would be directed to update to the 8.3 or newer kernel to obtain any needed fixes for the driver.

For more information on the Driver Update Program, please see the article entitled "Where can I download Driver Update Program (DUP) disks?", available here: https://access.redhat.com/articles/64322