Red Hat End of Life
Understanding Red Hat’s lifecycle and end-of-life policies is crucial for effective management, risk mitigation, and long-term strategic planning in organizations using Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This knowledge enables IT professionals to make proactive decisions, ensuring continuous system reliability and security.
What is the Red Hat Lifecycle?
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) lifecycle typically spans 10 years and consists of three main phases: Full Support, Maintenance Support, and Extended Life. Full Support (first 5 years) provides comprehensive updates, including new features and hardware support. Maintenance Support (next 5 years) focuses on critical updates and stability.
What is Red Hat Extended Life Phase?
The Red Hat Extended Life Phase is the final stage of RHEL support. It offers limited technical assistance for existing installations but no new updates or patches. Users can access previous content and documentation, providing time to plan migrations to newer, supported versions while maintaining minimal support.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Support Lifecycle Overview
Red Hat’s product lifecycle is designed to provide long-term stability and support for enterprise users while encouraging timely upgrades to maintain security and access to new features. The lifecycle typically spans 10 years and consists of several phases, each offering different levels of support and updates.
Red Hat Support Phases
Full Support:
- This initial phase, usually lasting 5 years, provides comprehensive support including all types of updates: security fixes, bug fixes, and new features. It includes hardware enablement, software enhancements, and regular minor releases with cumulative updates.
Maintenance Support:
- Following Full Support, this 5-year phase focuses on stability rather than new features. It provides critical security updates and high-priority bug fixes, but no new hardware support or feature enhancements.
Extended Life Phase:
- In this final phase, Red Hat offers limited technical support for existing installations. Users retain access to previously released content and documentation, but no new updates, bug fixes, or security patches are provided.
Additional Support Options:
- Extended Update Support (EUS): Allows standardization on a specific minor release for 24 months.
- Enhanced Extended Update Support: Offers support for 48 months (available for RHEL 9+).
- Extended Life-cycle Support (ELS): Provides limited support during the Extended Life Phase.
Implications of Red Hat End of Life
When a RHEL version reaches end of life, it loses access to ongoing security updates, bug fixes, and technical support. This can expose systems to security vulnerabilities, lead to compliance issues, and limit compatibility with new hardware and software.
To mitigate these risks and maintain optimal performance and security, it’s strongly recommended to upgrade end-of-life products to supported versions. This ensures ongoing security, stability, and performance improvements, as well as access to the latest features and technical assistance.
Understanding these phases helps organizations plan their RHEL deployments, updates, and migrations effectively, balancing the need for stability with the importance of staying current and secure.
Subscribe to our Quarterly EOSL Updates
It’s easy to overlook or lose track of EOSL dates. Select your OEMs and receive accurate EOL and EOSL dates across multiple vendors with our quarterly EOSL email newsletter.
Red Hat End of Life Cycle
| Version | General Availability | Full Support Ends | Maintenance Support Ends | Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) | Extended Life Phase Ends | Final Minor Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 18-May-22 | 31-May-27 | 31-May-32 | 31-May-35 | Ongoing | 9.1 |
| 8 | 7-May-19 | 31-May-24 | 31-May-29 | 31-May-32 | Ongoing | 8.1 |
| 7 | 10-Jun-14 | 6-Aug-19 | 30-Jun-24 | 30-Jun-28 | Ongoing | 7.9 |
| 6 | 10-Nov-10 | 10-May-16 | 30-Nov-20 | 30-Jun-24 | Ongoing | 6.1 |
| 5 | 15-Mar-07 | 8-Jan-13 | 31-Mar-17 | 30-Nov-20 | Ongoing | 5.11 |
Is Red Hat 7 an EOL?
As of August 2024, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 is not yet EOL. It entered the Maintenance Support phase on August 6, 2019, and is scheduled to reach end of Maintenance Support on June 30, 2024. Extended Life-cycle Support (ELS) will be available until June 30, 2028.
Is RHEL 7.9 the last release?
Yes, RHEL 7.9 is the final minor release for the RHEL 7 series. It was released on September 30, 2020, and will receive updates through the end of the RHEL 7 lifecycle.
Is RHEL 8.4 an EOL?
No, RHEL 8.4 is not EOL. However, its Extended Update Support (EUS) ended on May 31, 2023. The entire RHEL 8 series is still in its Maintenance Support phase until May 31, 2029.
Is RHEL 6 end-of-life?
Yes, RHEL 6 reached its end of Maintenance Support on November 30, 2020. It is currently in the Extended Life Phase. Extended Life-cycle Support (ELS) for RHEL 6 is available until June 30, 2024.
Let’s talk mission critical support.
As a Top Gun client, you’ll notice a superior level of commitment and personalized support – day or night – from the most experienced technical engineering team in the industry.
Proven. Trusted. Reliable.
