Red Hat Satellite Product Life Cycle

Overview

Red Hat provides a published product life cycle for the Red Hat Satellite server (“Satellite”) and its associated federation enablement component, the Red Hat Satellite Capsule Server ("Capsule"), for customers and partners to effectively plan, deploy, and support their management of Red Hat infrastructure.

The life cycle associated with Red Hat Satellite, which spans stated time periods for each major version, identifies the various maintenance levels, split into production phases, from the initial release date (or General Availability (GA) to the End of Life (EOL).

The production phases reference an X.Y version of Satellite, though multiple X.Y versions of the product may be supported simultaneously, see the N-2 Support Policy image below. Customers are expected to upgrade their Satellite and Capsule(s) servers to the most current supported version of the product in a timely manner, as older “minor” (represented by the .Y portion) versions may be phased out of service per the Red Hat Satellite Support Policy. Bug fixes and feature work will target only the latest major versions of the product, though some allowance may be given for high-security risk items.

Red Hat Satellite Support Policy

Satellite N-2 with EUS Support Policy Notes:
  1. The support policy is defined as N-2, where N is the latest ".Y" (minor) release of Satellite, effectively meaning that the current and the 2 previous versions will be concurrently supported within the same time frame.
  2. While upgrading, the N-1 Support Policy is applied for Capsules, meaning that Capsules running the immediate previous (.Y) version along with the current version of the Satellite server will be supported.
  3. When a version hits the End of Life (EOL) while still able to sync repositories, no technical support will be provided other than for Satellite upgrade issues to a fully supported version.
  4. Please note that the Red Hat Satellite lifecycle and releases are independent of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Product Life Cycle.
  5. EUS is only available on selected versions, beginning with Red Hat Satellite 6.16.

Software updates to Satellite are delivered via errata advisories. Errata can be released individually or aggregated in the form of a Z-Stream (X.Y.Z) on an as-needed basis or yet aggregated as a minor release. Errata may contain security and bug fixes, as well as feature enhancements that have been verified for the appropriate Satellite release and architecture. Security errata and urgent bug-fix errata may be released independently of errata advisories.

Z-streams are targeted to be delivered during the Full Support phase of any given Satellite minor release, from GA to the Full Support Ends as listed on the Red Hat Satellite Life-Cycle Dates table below.

Life Cycle Phases

Full Support

Whenever a Satellite version reaches General Availability (GA), it enters the Full Support Phase. During the Full Support Phase, Red Hat will define Critical and Important Security errata advisories (RHSAs), and Urgent and Selected (at Red Hat's discretion) High Priority Bug Fix errata advisories (RHBAs) will be released as they become available. Other low-priority errata advisories may be delivered as appropriate. Additionally, new or improved hardware support and select enhanced software functionality may be provided at the discretion of Red Hat. Satellite Z-Streams releases are available only during the Full Support phase.

Maintenance Support

During the Maintenance Support phase, qualified Critical and Important Security errata advisories (RHSAs) and Urgent and Selected High Priority Bug Fix errata advisories (RHBAs) will be released as they become available. Other bug fixes (RHBA) and enhancements (RHEA) errata advisories may be released at Red Hat’s discretion, but should not be expected.

Extended Update Support Add-On

Selected Satellite versions (starting with version 6.16) may enter the Extended Update Support (EUS) Phase as an optional, paid add-on for a duration of one year following the conclusion of the Maintenance Support Phase. During the EUS Phase, Red Hat will define Critical and Important Security errata advisories (RHSAs), and Urgent and Selected Priority Bug Fix errata advisories (RHBAs) will be released as they become available. Other bug fixes (RHBA) and enhancements (RHEA) errata advisories may be released at Red Hat’s discretion, but should not be expected.

Red Hat will continue to offer Satellite Z-Streams releases during the Extended Update Support phase. This provides a predictable cadence of updates and fixes to the EUS repositories. For more information about the EUS offering, please refer to Red Hat Satellite Extended Update Support (EUS) Offering Overview + FAQ. Please contact your Red Hat Sales associate for details on how to purchase this offering.

End of Life (EOL)

Whenever a version hits the End of the Maintenance Support Phase, it automatically enters the End of Life (EOL) milestone, where no Errata or software updates will be provided for these versions, and while still able to sync repositories, no technical support will be provided other than for satellite upgrade issues to a fully supported version. To continue receiving the appropriate technical support, customers are requested to upgrade to a fully supported Red Hat Satellite and Capsule version.

For more information on how to upgrade your Satellite 6 system, please refer to the tool Red Hat Satellite Upgrade Helper. Or for assistance in planning your upgrade, please contact Red Hat Technical Support.

Life Cycle Dates

The Satellite product 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 across the entire life cycle. Red Hat publishes this life cycle in an effort to provide as much transparency as possible and may make exceptions from these policies as conflicts may arise.

Red Hat Satellite Scope of Coverage

Support will be provided for use according to the published Scope of Coverage for Satellite. To encourage the rapid adoption of new enterprise hardware and software while keeping the high standard of stability inherent in the Red Hat Enterprise products, the Red Hat Satellite 6 product life cycle is divided into three phases of maintenance, described below.

Virtualization

Red Hat supports versions of Red Hat Satellite server that are still within their supported product 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.

The Certified Hypervisors and Guest Operating Systems in Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Red Hat Virtualization, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM provides details on the supported combinations of operating systems, versions, and hardware architectures.

Dependent Software

Red Hat Satellite server may be dependent on software that enables functionality or serves as part of the underlying platform. This software (e.g., Oracle, Red Hat Enterprise Linux) may include asynchronous product support life cycles. If such software has ended its standard production life cycle (e.g., the end of Maintenance Support 2 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux), customers may be required to upgrade to a more recent version of Satellite. For example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Life Phase and/or Extended Lifecycle Support are not considered standard production life cycle phases and will not be a supported platform for either Satellite or Satellite Proxy.

The satellite maintenance repository delivers Red Hat Ansible packages for use in the satellite-clone tool. These packages are supported for use in the satellite-clone tool only. Any other use of these packages, from this repository, is not supported by a Satellite Subscription.

Client Systems

Red Hat Satellite server is a systems-management platform for currently supported products. Versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux that are within the Full, Maintenance phases, and those supported with the Extended Lifecycle Support add-on are supported when versions of Satellite are released. Versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux supported by the "Extended Life Cycle Support Long-Life Add-On" are not.

Additionally, Client systems that have extended beyond their individual support life cycles will not be supported. For specific information about supported client systems, please see the Red Hat Satellite Server Reference Manual and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Product Life Cycle guidance page.

Retired Products

Red Hat Satellite Historical Product Life Cycle Information