Examples
-
"Major release 5" → 5.y.z
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"Major release 4" → 4.y.z
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"Major release 3" → 3.y.z
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ROSA with HCP update life cycle
Overview
Red Hat provides a published product life cycle for Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS in order for customers and partners to effectively plan, deploy, and support their applications running on the platform. Red Hat publishes this life cycle to provide as much transparency as possible and might make exceptions from these policies as conflicts arise.
Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS is a managed instance of Red Hat OpenShift and maintains an independent release schedule. More details about the managed offering can be found in the Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS service definition. The availability of Security Advisories and Bug Fix Advisories for a specific version are dependent upon the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform life cycle policy and subject to the Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS maintenance schedule.
Additional resources
Definitions
| Version format | Major | Minor | Patch | Major.minor.patch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
x |
y |
z |
x.y.z |
|
Example |
4 |
5 |
21 |
4.5.21 |
- Major releases or X-releases
-
Referred to only as major releases or X-releases (X.y.z).
- Minor releases or Y-releases
-
Referred to only as minor releases or Y-releases (x.Y.z).
Examples-
"Minor release 4" → 4.4.z
-
"Minor release 5" → 4.5.z
-
"Minor release 6" → 4.6.z
-
- Patch releases or Z-releases
-
Referred to only as patch releases or Z-releases (x.y.Z).
Examples-
"Patch release 14 of minor release 5" → 4.5.14
-
"Patch release 25 of minor release 5" → 4.5.25
-
"Patch release 26 of minor release 6" → 4.6.26
-
Major versions (X.y.z)
Major versions of Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS, for example version 4, are supported for one year following the release of a subsequent major version or the retirement of the product.
Example
-
If version 5 were made available on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS on January 1, version 4 would be allowed to continue running on managed clusters for 12 months, until December 31. After this time, clusters would need to be upgraded or migrated to version 5.
Minor versions (x.Y.z)
Starting with the 4.8 OpenShift Container Platform minor version, Red Hat supports all minor versions for at least a 16 month period following general availability of the given minor version. Patch versions are not affected by the support period.
Customers are notified 60, 30, and 15 days before the end of the support period. Clusters must be upgraded to the latest patch version of the oldest supported minor version before the end of the support period, or Red Hat will automatically upgrade the control plane to the next supported minor version.
Example
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A customer’s cluster is currently running on 4.13.8. The 4.13 minor version became generally available on May 17, 2023.
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On July 19, August 16, and September 2, 2024, the customer is notified that their cluster will enter "Limited Support" status on September 17, 2024 if the cluster has not already been upgraded to a supported minor version.
-
The cluster must be upgraded to 4.14 or later by September 17, 2024.
-
If the upgrade has not been performed, the cluster’s control plane will be automatically upgraded to 4.14.26, and there will be no automatic upgrades to the cluster’s worker nodes.
Additional resources
Patch versions (x.y.Z)
During the period in which a minor version is supported, Red Hat supports all OpenShift Container Platform patch versions unless otherwise specified.
For reasons of platform security and stability, a patch release may be deprecated, which would prevent installations of that release and trigger mandatory upgrades off that release.
Example
-
4.7.6 is found to contain a critical CVE.
-
Any releases impacted by the CVE will be removed from the supported patch release list. In addition, any clusters running 4.7.6 will be scheduled for automatic upgrades within 48 hours.
Limited support status
When a cluster transitions to a Limited Support status, Red Hat no longer proactively monitors the cluster, the SLA is no longer applicable, and credits requested against the SLA are denied. It does not mean that you no longer have product support. In some cases, the cluster can return to a fully-supported status if you remediate the violating factors. However, in other cases, you might have to delete and recreate the cluster.
A cluster might transition to a Limited Support status for many reasons, including the following scenarios:
- If you remove or replace any native Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS components or any other component that is installed and managed by Red Hat
-
If cluster administrator permissions were used, Red Hat is not responsible for any of your or your authorized users’ actions, including those that affect infrastructure services, service availability, or data loss. If Red Hat detects any such actions, the cluster might transition to a Limited Support status. Red Hat notifies you of the status change and you should either revert the action or create a support case to explore remediation steps that might require you to delete and recreate the cluster.
If you have questions about a specific action that might cause a cluster to transition to a Limited Support status or need further assistance, open a support ticket.
Supported versions exception policy
Red Hat reserves the right to add or remove new or existing versions, or delay upcoming minor release versions, that have been identified to have one or more critical production impacting bugs or security issues without advance notice.
Installation policy
While Red Hat recommends installation of the latest support release, Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS supports installation of any supported release as covered by the preceding policy.
Mandatory upgrades
If a critical or important CVE, or other bug identified by Red Hat, significantly impacts the security or stability of the cluster, the customer must upgrade to the next supported patch release within two business days.
In extreme circumstances and based on Red Hat’s assessment of the CVE criticality to the environment, Red Hat will notify customers that they have two business days to schedule or manually update their cluster to the latest, secure patch release. In the case that an update is not performed after two business days, Red Hat will automatically update the cluster’s control plane to the latest, secure patch release to mitigate potential security breach(es) or instability. Red Hat might, at its own discretion, temporarily delay an automated update if requested by a customer through a support case.