Red Hat Mobile Application Platform Support Policy

Overview

Red Hat offers services for each major release of Red Hat Mobile Application Platform with designated support policies. Support policies are defined by a base entitlement.

Red Hat provides support and maintenance over stated time periods for the major versions of Middleware products (i.e., versions 2.x, 3.x, or 4.x). The published life cycle calendars for Red Hat products allow customers and partners to effectively plan, deploy, and support Red Hat Middleware products.

The life cycle associated with a Red Hat Mobile Application Platform (RHMAP) 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.

Software updates are deployed in our Cloud hosted environment on a regular basis and include enhancements and 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., version 5.1). Patches may 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., Red Hat Mobile Application Platform 3.x patches and 3.x CPs, are in the same 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., 3.0). Where incompatibilities arise, they will be documented in the release notes or may be reported as bugs.

Red Hat 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.

Life Cycle Phases

The life cycle for a major release of Red Hat Mobile Application Platform is divided into two primary phases: the Full Support Phase and the Maintenance Phase.

Phase 1: Full Support

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

Start Date: no less than two (2) years 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.

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

Life-Cycle Phase
Description Full Support Maintenance Support

Unlimited-incident technical support1

Yes Yes
Asynchronous Security Patches Yes Yes

Asynchronous Bug-Fix Patches2

Yes Yes
Minor Releases Yes No
Software Enhancements

Yes3

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 releases are the primary source for software enhancements.