Red Hat Enterprise Linux Legacy Extended Support Offerings

Overview

This page documents Red Hat Enterprise Linux's legacy extended maintenance offerings: Extended Update Support (EUS), Enhanced EUS, Update Services for SAP Solutions (E4S), and Extended Life-cycle Support (ELS). These offerings provided extended errata coverage for specific minor releases beyond the standard support window.

These offerings are being superseded by Extended Life Cycle (ELC), which unifies them into a single 6-year support model for eligible even-numbered minor releases. New deployments should plan for ELC rather than these legacy offerings. Existing subscriptions on active streams continue through their committed end dates.

For the current RHEL lifecycle policy, production phases, planning guides, and ELC details, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle page.

Planning Guides

The planning guides below are provided for historical reference and for customers currently using the legacy extended support offerings documented on this page. They illustrate the minor release cadence and extended support stream timelines for each RHEL major version.

For current lifecycle planning information and ELC planning guides, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle page.

RHEL 8

RHEL 9

RHEL 10

Errata and Support Policy

Throughout this document, references to standard errata criteria mean the following:

• Security errata (RHSA): Critical, Important, and Moderate CVEs with a CVSS score of 7 or higher as defined by Red Hat in a Red Hat Security Advisory (RHSA)
• Bug fix errata (RHBA): Urgent and Selected High Priority Bug Fixes as defined by Red Hat in a Red Hat Bug Advisory (RHBA)

All errata are provided at Red Hat's discretion. See the Issue Severity Classification page for security severity definitions.

Transitioning to Extended Life Cycle (ELC)

If you are currently using one of the legacy extended maintenance offerings, the table below shows when your current stream ends and what ELC-equivalent support is available going forward.

Key dates:

• TUS — Fully retired as of May 2025. No active streams.
• E4S — Last legacy stream is RHEL 10.4. SAP customers on RHEL 10.6 and later use ELC.
• EUS / Enhanced EUS — Existing streams continue through their committed end dates. New minor releases are covered by ELC.

Extended Update Support (EUS) Add-onⁱⁱⁱ

EUS provides 24 months of support from minor release GA, delivering an independent stream of errata per the standard errata criteria for a specific minor release in parallel to subsequent minor releases.

EUS is not offered on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop. EUS is included with x86-64 RHEL Server Premium subscriptions and may be purchased as an Add-on to standard subscriptions, IBM Power LE, and IBM Z subscriptions. Starting with RHEL 9, EUS may also be purchased for Workstations.

Active and Planned EUS Streams

Please see this Knowledgebase Article for more details on EUS.

Enhanced Extended Update Support Add-on

Enhanced EUS provides 48 months of support from minor release GA, delivering errata per the standard errata criteria. Available for RHEL 9 and 10 only. Enhanced EUS is not included with RHEL Premium Subscriptions and is not available for self-support subscriptions or Workstation.

Active and Planned Enhanced EUS Streams

Please see this Knowledgebase Article for more details on RHEL 9 EUS and Enhanced EUS.

Update Services for SAP Solutions (E4S)

E4S provides 48 months of support from minor release GA on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP Solutions subscription, delivering errata per the standard errata criteria. SAP customers on RHEL 10.6 and later will use ELC instead of E4S.

Active and Planned E4S Streams

Note: RHEL 8.10 is the final RHEL 8 release, and maintenance is defined by the Maintenance Support Phase policy. For more information on configuring SAP Solutions on RHEL 8.10, please follow this link.

EUS/Enhanced EUS Maintenance Policy

The maintenance policy for EUS and Enhanced EUS consists of addressing (a) security-related issues and (b) Urgent bugs for a specified list of packages.

Security Maintenance

• Red Hat may provide errata per the standard errata criteria for packages within Red Hat Enterprise Linux as long as the package is not in end of life.
• Packages within RHEL 8, 9, and 10 Application Streams may have a shorter life cycle than a specific RHEL minor release. Please refer to the Application Streams life cycle for more details.
• The policy applies ONLY on current active minor releases per the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle policy.

Bug Fix Maintenance

• The inclusions list below is a minimum set of packages that apply to Urgent bug fixes:
  • bind, bash, chrony, grub2, grubby, glibc, gnutls, httpd, kernel, libgcrypt, libvirt, nss, openssh, openssl, python 3.6 (RHEL 8), python 3.9 (RHEL 9), python 3.12 (RHEL 10), qemu-kvm, rpm, sudo, systemd, wget, yum / dnf
• Urgent bugs not on the list may be addressed at Red Hat discretion.
• The policy applies ONLY on current active minor releases per the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle Policy.

Note: Active minor releases refers to the period of time a specific minor release is maintained. For example, RHEL 10.0 with EUS is active for 24 months from general availability.

Extended Life-cycle Support (ELS) Add-On

RHEL 7 ELS

RHEL 7 is currently in its ELS period. RHEL 7 ELS delivers errata per the standard errata criteria for the last minor release. RHEL 7 ELS covers IBM Z and x86 (64-bit only) and also includes maintenance for Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP Solutions, High Availability, and Resilient Storage add-ons.

• RHEL 7 ELS Maintenance Policy

Note: Only Standard or Premium subscriptions to RHEL Server are eligible for ELS. RHEL ELS should be purchased before the start date of the ELS period (June 30, 2024 for RHEL 7). Otherwise, the subscription must be back-dated to the ELS period start date.

RHEL 6 ELS Long-Life

RHEL 6 has completed its ELS period and is now in ELS Long-Life. ELS Long-Life provides continued support through renewable annual term extensions beyond the original ELS end date. Each term provides fixed-date annual coverage:

RHEL 6 ELS covers IBM z Systems and x86 (32-bit and 64-bit). See the RHEL 6 ELS Inclusion List.

Note: Only Standard or Premium subscriptions to RHEL Server are eligible for ELS Long-Life.

Life-cycle Dates

All future dates mentioned for "End of Full Support" and "End of Maintenance Support" are close approximations, non definitive, and subject to change.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life-cycle Dates

All future dates mentioned are close approximations, non-definitive, and subject to change.

Retired Life Cycle Dates

To see the Life-cycle dates for older major, minor, and extended maintenance versions which are no longer receiving updates, please refer to /articles/4038291