Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Life Cycle Policy (non-current versions)

Overview

Red Hat provides a published product life cycle for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (“OpenShift” or “OCP”), in order for customers and partners to effectively plan, deploy, and support their infrastructure. 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.

All released errata will remain accessible to active subscribers across the entire life cycle.

For step-by-step instructions on how to migrate to Red Hat OpenShift 4, including tools and best practices, check out the Migration from OpenShift 3 to 4 documentation.

OpenShift Container Platform v4

This life cycle section describes non-current major Red Hat OpenShift 4 versions, for the life cycle pertaining to the latest release of OpenShift, please see the OpenShift Life Cycle page. Information documented below is shown to provide historical context and references to changes that have occured to various portions of the OCP life cycle as changes have been applied. However these designations, denoted on this page as they not longer pertain to 'active' (supported) version of the OCP life cycle.

Maintenance Support - Notes

For OpenShift releases 4.7 to 4.11, inclusive
This phase commences after the Full Support phase for the respective GA and has a duration of 12 months. For instances where the full support phase for the version is beyond 6 months, the duration of the maintenance phase is reduced so the accumulated Full and Maintenance support phases for a release are 18 months.

Extended Update Support Add-On's - Notes

Commencing with OpenShift Container Platform 4.8, Red Hat denotes all even numbered minor releases (eg 4.8, 4.10, 4.12) as Extended Update Support (EUS) releases.

Extended Update Support Add-On - Term 1

Commencing with OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 (The OCP 4.12 Extended Update Support Add-on Term 1 and Term 2 are only available on the x86_64 architecture. Commencing with OCP 4.14 the Extended Update Support Add-on Term 1 and Term 2 includes support across all supported architectures.), Red Hat offers and optional six months of Extended Update Support (EUS) Extended Update Support Add-On - Term 1 for all EUS denoted releases. The Extended Update Support Add-On - Term 1 phase will follow the maintenance phase for the given release.

Extended Update Support Add-On - Term 2

Commencing with OpenShift Container Platform 4.12, Red Hat offers and optional twelve months of Extended Update Support denoted as, Extended Update Support Add-On - Term 2, which commences at the end of the Extended Update Support Add-On - Term 1 phase for EUS releases. Starting with OpenShift Container Platform 4.14, EUS terms are also available across the IBM Power, Arm and IBM Z variants. .

Extended Life Phase

Applicable only for the 4.8 release

During the Extended Life Phase, an OpenShift Container Platform subscription provides continued access to previously released content on the Red Hat Customer Portal, as well as other content such as documentation and the Red Hat Knowledgebase.

For versions of products in the Extended Life Phase, Red Hat will provide limited ongoing technical support. No bug fixes, security fixes, hardware enablement or root-cause analysis will be available during this phase, and support will be provided on existing installations only.

Red Hat reserves the right to terminate the ongoing support in the Extended Life Phase for a particular version of OpenShift Container Platform at any time.

OpenShift Container Platform v3

This life cycle encompasses stated time periods OpenShift v3. The life cycle is split into production phases, each identifying the various levels of maintenance over a period of time from the initial release date. The production phases reference a major version of the product, though multiple minor (X.Y) versions of the product may be supported at the same time.

Life Cycle Phases

Full Support

Full support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement^[5&6]. Likewise, Development Support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement.

During the Full Support Phase, qualified Critical and Important Security errata advisories (RHSAs) and Urgent and Selected High Priority Bug Fix errata advisories (RHBAs) may be released as they become available, all other available fix and qualified patches may be released via periodic updates. Customers are expected to upgrade their OpenShift environment to the most current supported version. On request, and at Red Hat’s discretion, qualified Critical Security errata advisories (RHSAs) and Critical Bug Fix errata advisories (RHBAs) may be made available to non-current minor versions.

Non-current releases within the full support phase which are no longer eligible for maintenance updates of any kind are marked as unmaintained. The following tables outlines the schedule for which minor versions of OpenShift v3 will no longer be eligible for maintenance updates:

v3.X End of Maintenance Schedule

Note: End of minor stream maintenance occurs at the end of the denoted months.

Maintenance Support

Maintenance support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement^[5&6]. 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 severity, as well as select mission-critical bug-fix patches, will be released, if and when available.

No new software certifications or enhancements will be provided while the product is in this phase.

Extended Life Phase

The Extended Life Phase (ELP), is for customers who intend to use OpenShift beyond the post-retirement (Maintenance Support) period^[5&6]. Customers are required to maintain active subscriptions to continue receiving access to all previously released content, documentation, Kbase articles, as well as receive limited technical support. During this phase, there are no bug fixes, security fixes, new certifications, hardware enablement, feature enhancements, or root cause analysis available.

Historical GA/Phase End/EOL Dates

Layered and Dependant Components

Layered Offering On OpenShift

OpenShift Container Platform provides a variety of runtimes and application frameworks (provided directly from Red Hat) or our partners. All of the layered content or container offerings provided by Red Hat, our partners and/or third party providers maintain an independent lifecycle from OpenShift. As a result, it is important that you check with the content providers to see how that content is tested, certified and supported on the particular version of OpenShift you are running.

For Red Hat provided products or offerings we maintain this lifecycle and testing information in the following locations:

OpenShift Container Storage (OCS)

OpenShift Container Storage (OCS) 3.X which provides persistent storage for OpenShift Container Platform 3.X is supported until Jun 2022, to match the End-of-Maintenance Support of OCP 3.X. More information on the support for versions of OCS can be found in the OCS Interoperability Matrix.

Footnotes

1. Red Hat can choose to address critical or important bug fixes upon request, with significant business impact for the customer through a hot fix, as a temporary measure while the bug fix patch is being created.
2. The latest Major and Minor releases are the primary source for software enhancements. Roll-ups, updates, and patches are specifically reserved for bug fixes.
3. Latest security update information available at: https://access.redhat.com/site/security/updates/
4. OpenShift 3.x running on POWER 9 (in compatibility mode with POWER 8) follows the POWER 8 support scope.
5. Scope of coverage available at: https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/production/soc/
6. Service level agreements available at: https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/production/sla