Red Hat Application Services Product Update and Support Policy


Overview

Red Hat provides support and maintenance over stated time periods for the major versions of Red Hat Application Services products (i.e., EAP versions 5.x, 6.x, and 7.x). The published life cycle calendars for Red Hat Application Services products allow customers and partners to effectively plan, deploy, and support Red Hat Application Services products.

The life cycle associated with a Red Hat Application Services product identifies the various levels of maintenance for each release of that product over a period of time from the initial release—or general availability (GA)—to the end of the maintenance phase. Red Hat Application Services product life cycles are generally three, five, or seven years in length, depending on the product. For certain Red Hat Application Services products (as described below), an optional add-on Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) subscription may be purchased to extend the life cycle by three (3) additional years.

Software updates to Red Hat Application Services products, if and when available, are delivered via software patches. Patches can be released individually on an as-needed basis, aggregated as part of a Cumulative Patch (CP), or included in a minor release (e.g., EAP version 7.3). Patches will contain security and/or bug fixes. Feature enhancements are generally introduced in minor and major releases—not as patches or in CPs. Red Hat's goal is to maintain compatibility across the full life cycle of a product family (e.g., EAP 7.x patches, EAP 7.x CPs, and EAP 7.x minor releases are in the same EAP 7 product family). Patches, CPs, and minor releases are tested and qualified against prior releases for a given product family. Red Hat will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide compatibility with the initial major release (e.g., EAP 7.0). Where incompatibilities arise, they will be documented in the release notes or may be reported as bugs.

NOTE: Defect and security fixes are only provided for the latest Minor, Micro or CP release, therefore upgrading to the latest release is required in order to receive the current updates. Additionally, upgrades and patches are expected to be applied to a supported configuration as published.

Red Hat Application Services life cycles are designed to reduce the level of change within each major release over time, increasing predictability and decreasing maintenance costs. Released patches, CPs, and minor releases will remain accessible to active subscribers for the entire life cycle of a product family. Red Hat publishes product life cycle calendars in an effort to provide as much transparency as possibly but may make exceptions from these policies if unforeseeable conflicts arise (such as the end-of-life (EOL) of a dependent component or platform) that are outside of Red Hat’s control.

Each major version of a Red Hat Application Services product has its own life cycle that will include one or more minor releases and related patch updates. During the entire life cycle, Red Hat makes commercially reasonable efforts to maintain API-level compatibility across all minor releases and asynchronous patches (e.g., EAP 7.1 will maintain API-level compatibility with EAP 7.0, the parent release of the EAP 7 family). Possible exceptions to this rule could include fixes introduced to address Critical impact security issues. Furthermore, major versions of Red Hat Application Services products endeavor to maintain significant backward-compatibility with previous versions (e.g., EAP 7.0 endeavors to maintain significant backward compatibility with EAP 6.x) to aid with the migration of applications from one major release to another.

Life Cycle Phases

The life cycle for a major release of Red Hat Application Services products is divided into three primary phases: the Full Support Phase, the Maintenance Phase, and the Extended Life Phase.

More information is contained in the Red Hat Application Services Product Update and Support Policy FAQ.

Phase 1: Full Support

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Start Date: General Availability

Full support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement. Likewise, Development Support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement. All available and qualified patches will be applied via periodic product updates and CPs, or as required for qualified security patches.

Phase 2: Maintenance Support

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Start Date: no less than one (1) year after General Availability.

Production support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement. Likewise, Development Support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement. During the maintenance phase, qualified security patches of Critical or Important impact, as well as select mission-critical bug-fix patches, will be released.

Phase 3: Extended Life Support

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Extended Life support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement. Unlike our Full Support and Maintenance Support phases, this support phase requires an ELS subscription in addition to a supported product’s base subscription. Extended Life Support subscriptions of Red Hat Application Services products provide decreasing support and maintenance over time as described below.

Troubleshooting for Application Services product releases in the ELS Life Cycle Phase is limited to the latest minor release.

Container distributions of Application Services products in the ELS Life Cycle Phase will be marked "Deprecated" in the Red Hat Container Catalog. See the article Deprecation of Red Hat Runtimes product container images in the Red Hat Container Catalog for more detail.

ELS-1:

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ELS-1 delivers Critical impact security fixes and selected urgent-priority bug fixes, if and when available. Customers may request specific security or bug fixes and are encouraged to continue applying patch releases. ELS-1 is generally available for 3 years following the end of Maintenance Support.

ELS-2:

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ELS-2 support is offered after the end of the ELS-1. ELS-2 provides limited ongoing technical support to include: Advice and guidance for migrating to current product releases, problem evaluation and workarounds. Bug fixes, security fixes, hardware enablement or root-cause analysis (other than to determine possible workarounds) are not available during this phase, and support is limited to existing installations only. Existing installations are product installations that were completed before the support phase (ELS-2) started. Red Hat discourages deploying new installations after the Maintenance phase of support ends. While the existing product installations can and should be maintained, new deployments should be made using fully supported versions.

The duration of ELS-2 support is scheduled for 3 years and may be extended on a product-by-product basis. Red Hat reserves the right to terminate the ongoing support in the ELS-2 for a particular product at any time beyond the initial 3 year period.

Life Cycle Phase Comparison Table

The following table details each type of software maintenance performed during a typical life cycle:

  Life-Cycle Phase
Description Full Support Maintenance Support ELS-1 ELS-2
Unlimited-incident technical support1 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Access to Product Knowledgebase Yes Yes Yes Yes
Access to Product Downloads Yes Yes Yes Yes
Access to Product Discussions Yes Yes Yes Yes
Access to Support, Configuration and Troubleshooting Tools Yes Yes Yes Yes
Asynchronous Security Patches4 Yes Yes Yes5 No
Asynchronous Bug-Fix Patches2 Yes Yes Yes5 No
Minor Releases Yes No No No
Software Enhancements Yes3 No No No
New Certifications (JVMs, DBs, etc.) Yes Yes No No
  1. Full details of support services are provided as part of the Subscription Agreement.
  2. Red Hat can choose to address catastrophic issues with significant business impact for the customer through a hotfix, as a temporary measure while the bug-fix patch is being created.
  3. Major and Minor releases are the primary source for software enhancements. Rollups, updates, and patches are specifically reserved for bug fixes.
  4. Latest security update information available at: access.redhat.com/site/security/updates/. Security patches are provided at Red Hat's discretion and based on Red Hat's analysis of the impact of the vulnerability to individual products and components.
  5. Red Hat provides Critical impact security fixes and selected urgent-priority bug fixes, if and when available. Additionally, Red Hat will generally continue to proactively provide the Critical impact security fixes if and when available independent of customer requests.

Life Cycle Duration

Red Hat Application Services product life cycles are generally three, five, or seven years in length as described below.

Long-life Product Life Cycle

A Long-life Product Life Cycle of seven years is generally applied to foundation products, such at Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. As depicted below, the seven-year cycle includes four years of Full Support and three years of Maintenance Support. Extensions beyond the seventh year (“Extended Life Support”) are available under a separate subscription, scope of coverage, and SLA.

Long-life Product Life Cycle
Phase 1 Full Support (4 years) Phase 2 Maintenance Support (3 years) Phase 3 Extended Life Support (3-6 years)
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Year 11 Year 12 Year 13

Standard Product Life Cycle

A Standard Product Life Cycle of five years applies to most Red Hat Application Services products. The Standard Product Life Cycle is also composed of two phases, Full Support and Maintenance Support. Extensions beyond the fifth year (“Extended Life Support”) are available under a separate subscription, scope of coverage, and SLA.

Standard Product Life Cycle
Phase 1 Full Support (3 years) Phase 2 Maintenance Support (2 years) Phase 3 Extended Life Support (3-6 years)
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Year 11

Limited Product Life Cycle

The Limited Product Life Cycle of three years is generally applied to newer product areas and rapidly changing technologies such as development frameworks. The Limited Product Life Cycle is only composed of one phase, the Full Support Phase, however, variations may include a Maintenance Phase for some product releases. Extensions beyond the third year (“Extended Life Support”) are available under a separate subscription, scope of coverage, and SLA.

Limited Product Life Cycle
Phase 1 Full Support (3 years) Phase 3 Extended Life Support (3-6 years)
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8 Year 9

Product Life Cycle Dates

Listed below are the life cycle dates for all currently supported Red Hat Application Services products. Life cycle dates for product releases that have reached their end of support life can be found on the Archived JBoss Product Life Cycle Information page.

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform

JBoss Enterprise Application Platform expansion pack (JBoss EAP XP or EAP XP)

JBoss Enterprise Application Platform expansion pack (JBoss EAP XP) is subject to a separate Support and Life Cycle Policy.
Please refer to the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform expansion pack (JBoss EAP XP or EAP XP) Life Cycle Policy page.

Red Hat Data Grid

Red Hat JBoss Web Server

Red Hat build of Quarkus

Red Hat build of Quarkus is subject to a separate Support and Life Cycle Policy.
Please refer to the Red Hat build of Quarkus Life Cycle and Support Policies page for details and life cycle dates.

Red Hat build of Keycloak

Red Hat support for Spring Boot

Red Hat build of Node.js

Open Liberty

Open Liberty is maintained by IBM but provided as part of many Red Hat subscriptions. The life cycle and support policies for Open Liberty are documented at Open Liberty Support Life Cycle.

Red Hat Fuse

Red Hat JBoss Fuse Service Works

Red Hat AMQ Broker

Red Hat AMQ Interconnect

Red Hat Service Interconnect

Streams for Apache Kafka (formally known as AMQ Streams)

Red Hat AMQ

Red Hat 3scale API Management

Red Hat Process Automation Manager (formerly Red Hat JBoss BPM Suite)

Red Hat Decision Manager (Formerly Red Hat JBoss BRMS)

Red Hat Integration and Application Foundations Products

Listed below are the life cycle dates for the supported components included with the Red Hat Integration and Application Foundation offerings.

Red Hat build of OptaPlanner

Red Hat build of Debezium

Red Hat build of Apicurio Registry

Red Hat build of Apache Camel

The Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4 now integrates previously separate components of Camel extensions for Quarkus and Camel for Spring Boot. As a result, it offers a unified lifecycle moving forward.

Red Hat build of Apache Camel

Listed below are the life cycle dates for the previous releases of Red Hat build of Apache Camel 3.

Red Hat build of Apache Camel-Camel K

Red Hat build of Apache Camel for Quarkus

Red Hat build of Apache Camel for Spring Boot

Red Hat JBoss Core Services Collection Lifecycle Dates

Listed below are the life cycle dates for all currently supported Red Hat JBoss Core Services Collection services. Life cycle dates for Core Service releases that have reached their end of support life can be found on the Archived JBoss Product Life Cycle Information page.

Red Hat Single Sign-On

Apache HTTP Server

Web Connectors

Family GA End of Full Support End of Maintenance Support
1.2.461 May 2016 Jul 2024 Jul 2025

Note: The most recent version of the latest major release of Web Connectors is supported.

Apache Jsvc

Family GA End of Full Support End of Maintenance Support
1.3.31 Jun 2023 Jul 2024 Jul 2025
1.2.41 Nov 2021 Jul 2024 Jul 2025
1.1.01 May 2016 Jul 2024 Jul 2025

Note: The most recent version of the latest major release of Apache Jsvc is supported.

Products that are not listed above are either no longer actively sold or have reached the end of their supported Life Cycle. For more information check the Archived JBoss Product Life Cycle Information page.


Change Log

See Red Hat Application Services Product Update and Support Policy Regular Maintenance for more information about how Red Hat maintains the information on this page and additional rationale behind the changes made.
Date Change
August 25, 2024 Updated the page with the following changes in order to clarify policies especially regarding fixing of security vulnerabilities:
  • Added clarifying text to Footnote #4 in the life cycle phase comparison table
  • Updated the ELS-1 phase description to clarify that "Customers may request specific security or bug fixes and are encouraged to continue applying patch releases."
August 1, 2024 With the release of Red Hat build of Apicurio Registry version 2.6, the life cycle dates for version 2.6 have been added and the life cycle dates for version 2.5 have been updated.
July 12, 2024 Camel K 1.10 Life Cycle update: Full Support Ends changed from: "Next release of Camel K 2.0", to: "June 30, 2024" and Maintenance Support Ends changed from: "Next release of Camel K + 3 months", to: "June 30, 2025".
June 6, 2024 The product known as AMQ Streams is now known as Streams for Apache Kafka.
May 23, 2024 The Red Hat build of Quarkus life cycle table has been removed from this page and moved to a new page the details the complete set of Life Cycle and Support policies for Red Hat build of Quarkus. The new page is: Red Hat build of Quarkus Life Cycle and Support Policies
March 19, 2024 Red Hat build of Apache Camel - Camel 4 EOL moved from Oct 2026 to Oct 2028 and adjustments for full support and maintenance phase Life Cycle were updated accordingly.
March 13, 2024 Red Hat build of Apicurio Registry dates changed to reflect all releases.
February 16, 2024 Updated Camel-K 1.10.0 life cycle dates. Full Support changed from ending at the next release of Camel-K OR March 1, 2024 to ending at the next release of Camel-K 2. and Maintenance Support life cycle was changed from next release of Camel-K + 1 month to next release of Camel-K + 3 months.
December 7, 2023 Updated Red Hat Data Grid version 8.x life cycle dates. Extended End-of-Full-Support and added both an ELS-1 and ELS-2 life cycle phase.
November 15, 2023 Added Red Hat build of Keycloak to the life cycle database and page.
July 11, 2023 Added Red Hat Service Interconnect to the life cycle database and page.
May 25, 2023 The EAP 7.x Full Support life cycle phase has been extended from ending in June 2023 to ending on December 31, 2023. This change was made to ensure EAP 7 would continue to be in the Full Support phase while EAP is being released and adopted.
May 11, 2023 The ELS-2 life cycle phases for three product versions have been extended to allow customers more time to migrate to the latest major versions:
  • EAP 6.x - extended from June 30, 2025 to December 30, 2028
  • JBoss Web Server (JWS) 3.x - extended from May 31, 2026 to December 30, 2028
  • Red Hat Data Grid (RHDG) 7.x - added ELS-2 phase that extends to July 31, 2027
May 8, 2023 The life cycle for the 2.4.x releases of the Red Hat JBoss Core Services component Apache HTTP Server has been extended. Each life cycle phase has been extended 4 years. Full Support now ends in July of 2028 and Maintenance Support ends in July of 2029.
Mar 6, 2023 Red Hat JBoss Web Server product has added an ELS-1 Life Cycle phase. This 2-year Extended Life Support phase allows customers with JWS entitlements to continue to receive support (according to the Life Cycle Phases terms above) through July of 2027.
Feb 22, 2023 3scale Life Cycle phases extended 1 year
Jan 30, 2023 Updated the table of contents and many of the individual life cycle tables to reflect the Red Hat Application Foundations (RHAF) offering:
  • Re-organized tables of contents at the top of the document to better show organization of what is included in RHAF
  • Added separate life cycle tables for the products that were formally included in the Red Hat Integration offering/bundle
Dec 22, 2022 Updated the product names for a number of products to align with the naming approved by Red Hat branding. These include:
  • "Red Hat Integration - Debezium" changed to "Red Hat build of Debezium"
  • "Red Hat Integration - Service Registry" changed to "Red Hat build of Apicurio Registry"
  • "Red Hat Integration - Camel K" changed to "Camel K"
  • "Red Hat Integration - Camel Extensions for Quarkus" changed to "Camel Extensions for Quarkus"
  • "Red Hat Integration - Camel for Spring Boot" changed to "Camel for Spring Boot"
  • "Red Hat Integration - Operator" removed and added to the archive page
Jul 28, 2022 Removed the description of the "grandfathering" of the policy about receiving Troubleshooting support while in ELS being limited to the last/current minor release because that target date has passed. See the entry below for Sept 24, 2021
Jul 21, 2022 Updated the Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform(EAP) 7.x life cycle table to reflect the extension of the Full Support phase to June 30, 2023 - a one year extension. By that time a new Major version should be available.
Jul 11, 2022 Removed the life cycle table and information for Red Hat JBoss Operations Network (JON). That information can now be found in the Archive
Jun 8, 2022 Updated the Red Hat Single Sign-On (RH-SSO) 7.x life cycle table, extending the Maintenance Support phase to now end on June 30, 2025, aligned with EAP 7.
Jun 8, 2022 Updated the Red Hat Data Grid (RHDG) 8.x life cycle table, extending the Maintenance Support phase one year to now end in April of 2026.
Jun 6, 2022 Updated the EAP 7.x life cycle table, extending the Maintenance Support phase one year to now end on June 30, 2025. No change to the Full or ELS Support phases.
Sep 24, 2021 Clarified that the policy about customers needing to be on the latest minor release of a product in order to receive troubleshooting support will not apply to customers with existing subscriptions until February 28, 2022.
Sep 8, 2021 Added statement and link to article about container images being marked Deprecated when moving into ELS phase.
Aug 31, 2021 Updated the examples of versions and how they relate to EAP 7 versus versions 5 and 6.
Aug 30, 2021 Changed many instances of "Middleware" to "Application Services"
Aug 30, 2021 Clarified that customer needing patches and troubleshooting support must be on the latest minor release of a product.