How am I supported on a specific RHEL release?

Updated -

ISSUE

  • The information on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle page is not specific or detailed enough to determine the supportability of an issue.

  • I have an issue and am not sure if and when a fix can be made available to me.

  • Are there different inclusion criteria for Red Hat Enterprise Linux depending on the Production Phase of the current minor release?

ENVIRONMENT

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (All Versions)

RESOLUTION

Three data points determine supportability of a customer issue:

  • Which minor release the issue is reported against

  • Where in the Life Cycle is the RHEL major release today

  • What active entitlements are in the customer's account

This article attempts to cover the most common questions around reactive Support for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. However, this is not to be considered an all encompassing reference. Some notable examples that are specifically not included are the efforts of the Red Hat Quality Engineering, Red Hat Documentation, and Red Hat Security teams that work proactively to support installations in successive releases.

Examples:

  • If a support issue is logged against a package belonging in the current active minor release and given the inclusion criteria of the current production phase in the Life Cycle, customers are entitled to both Red Hat Support and Engineering support of the release at that point. Customers can therefore report bugs and download/install fixes which are delivered within the current release.

  • If a support issue is logged against a non-current package revision within a current minor release or belonging in a non-current minor release, customers are still entitled to Red Hat Support. However, Engineering fixes can only be proposed in a future active minor release and delivered (if applicable, given the inclusion criteria of the Life Cycle) in the current active minor release.

    • Non-current minor release "support" defined:

      • If a defect has been investigated to determine root cause and identified as resolved within the current active minor release, Red Hat Support shall advise the customer to update to the relevant released package. A fix to a defect cannot be back ported to a non-current minor release.

      • If a defect has not been investigated to determine root cause nor identified as resolved within the current active minor release, Red Hat Support shall request the customer to first try to reproduce the issue with the relevant package in the current active minor release.

        • If the package in the current active minor release resolves the issue, the customer is advised to commit this package into their production environment.

        • If the package in the current active minor release does not resolve the issue, and a fix is available, Red Hat Support can propose the fix to the next active minor release and possibly an asynchronously delivered erratum (if the request meets the asynchronous release criteria).

      • NOTE: Customers are not required to update their systems to the active minor release in its entirety, only the specific relevant affected packages.

      • NOTE: For most situations, a fix to a defect must first be committed to an applicable upstream project by it’s community prior to being proposed in a RHEL minor release.

  • If a support issue is logged against a package belonging in a current active EUS release (Extended Update Support), then a customer is entitled to both Red Hat Support and Engineering support, assuming it meets the EUS inclusion criteria and current RHEL minor release inclusion criteria.

    • EUS Add-On "support" defined:

      • If a defect was already fixed in a minor release, then Red Hat Support can propose that Red Hat Engineering back port the fix to the specific active EUS release.

      • If a defect is new to the product, then Red Hat Support can propose the defect be fixed in the current active minor release, as well as propose that Red Hat Engineering back port the fix to the specific active EUS release.

    • NOTE: A fix to a defect must first be committed to the latest active minor release before being committed to the specific active EUS release to ensure no regressions with successive updates.

  • If a support issue is logged against a supported package and architecture associated with an ELS release (Extended Life Cycle Support), then bug fixes are proposed and developed against the latest active minor release. For example, if a customer has an ELS Add-On subscription but is running RHEL 6.9, all proposed fixes are developed against RHEL 6.10. Note that official support is not denied against earlier non-current minor releases, but fixes against an ELS Add-On subscription are committed against the latest minor release.

  • If a defect has been fixed and included in a released Errata, Red Hat Support will not provide a workaround. Red Hat Support recommends that customers update their systems with the applicable Errata.

GLOSSARY

  • Supportability - Defined as support by the Red Hat Support organization and/or Red Hat Engineering. For example, there may be a situation where a customer can be supported by Red Hat Support, but not supported by Engineering depending on which minor release against which the issue is reported, where in the Life Cycle the Red Hat Enterprise Linux major release is today, and what active entitlements are in the customer's account.

  • Major release - Examples: RHEL 7, 8.

  • Minor release - Examples: RHEL 7.9, 8.4.

  • Current active minor release - a minor release stream that still receives fixes, updates, and/or security errata based on the Life Cycle.

  • Non-current minor release  (an expired minor release) - one that is no longer active, and therefore does not receive fixes, updates, and/or security errata.

  • Asynchronously delivered - fixes are delivered between minor releases as needed or on-demand.

  • EUS Add-On (Extended Update Support) - EUS Add-On delivers an independent, extended stream of those Red Hat defined Critical and Important (Applies to Important CVEs that occur on or after October 1, 2019) impact RHSAs and selected (at Red Hat discretion) Urgent Priority RHBAs that are available after that specific minor release and in parallel to subsequent minor releases. See the list of packages included for RHEL 7 here. Please reference the RHEL 8 EUS Support Maintenance Policy.

  • ELS Add-On (Extended Life Cycle Support) - ELS Add-On provides critical impact security fixes and selected urgent priority defect fixes that are available and qualified for a subset of the packages beyond the production phases of the life cycle. For ELS Add-On subscribers, Red Hat will generally continue to provide the critical impact security fixes independent of customer requests.

REFERENCES

Comments