Product Lifecycle Support Policies

LTSS (Long Term Service Pack Support): LTSS extends the lifecycle of each SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) service pack, allowing customers to remain on a given service pack for an additional 3 years beyond its normal support period, without requiring an upgrade.

ESPOS (Extended Service Pack Overlap Support) is a specialized flavor of LTSS available exclusively for SAP customers. It is bundled into SLES for SAP and provides extended support coverage for all service packs. The only exception is the last service pack in each SLES family, where the general support period is already sufficient. It offers 4.5 years of support without the need for additional ESPOS.

LTSS Extended Security (LTSS ES) is a variant of LTSS that provides deeper security coverage compared to the standard LTSS. It is available only for the last service pack of each SLES family and is intended for customers with advanced security needs during the LTSS support phase.

LTSS Core extends the product lifecycle by an additional three years after the standard LTSS period ends. It is available only for the last service pack in each SLES family and is suited for customers who require long-term stability on the final release.

LTSS Reactive also extends support for an additional three years following the end of LTSS. Unlike LTSS Core, it is available for all service packs except the final one in each SLES family. This option allows customers to remain on older, non-final service packs while continuing to receive critical updates and fixes. LTSS Reactive is on demand, any fix has to be requested via Support Request and is delivered via PTF.

All flavours of LTSS have the following conditions:

• Support shall be provided only for existing systems or replacements on the identical hardware (in case of system recovery)
• Changes to the virtualization platform are considered hardware changes and are not supported
• Issues must occur during the active time of the subscription and not before the order is booked at SUSE

The table with LTSS flavours characteristics

1 SUSE makes all economically reasonable effort to resolve a bug or a CVE Request. If SUSE does not believe it is necessary to resolve a CVE Request or if SUSE does not believe it is feasible to fix a bug, SUSE shall not be required to resolve the error and shall provide the customer with a reasonably detailed response setting out SUSE's position.

2 Severity levels are defined in the SUSE Support Handbook pages. In certain cases and at SUSE’s discretion, SUSE may choose to do a version upgrade instead of a backport of a patch resp. do backports from more recent releases.

3 SUSE CVSS is available here https://www.suse.com/security/cve/ and may differ from the NVD score.

4 Exact list of supported packages please check in the release notes.

5 Available only for the last service pack in each family (release)

6 Bring Your own Operating System and Pay As You Go

In the context of this policy, validated refers to a status where software has undergone formal testing and verification by SUSE to ensure compatibility, reliability, and supportability within the specified ecosystem and to provide a level of assurance that the software or support offering will function as expected within the defined scope of SUSE’s support commitments.

It is at SUSE’s discretion to validate certain configurations and components with the software. Any components not listed in the support matrix are supported only up to the point where a problem lies with the project's interfaces interacting with that component.

Operating Systems

Validation for SUSE’s Operating Systems and Services

SUSE validates the following SUSE operating systems: SUSE Linux Micro and SUSE Linux Enterprise.

As standard, SUSE Linux Micro is included as part of the SUSE Rancher Prime, SUSE Rancher Suite and SUSE Virtualization products. SUSE Customers with active subscriptions for these products are entitled to continuous updates for SUSE Linux Micro alongside the regular cloud native product updates.

Binary compatible Linux alternatives and derivatives for SLE , such as openSUSE Leap, are considered validated as part of our SUSE Linux Enterprise testing. Please see the relevant release guides per-OS for more information.

SUSE Multi-Linux Support (previously SUSE Liberty Linux) is a no-migration alternative for CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) enterprise support. This support offering is validated as part of the RHEL testing. See Support for Other Operating Systems and Services for more information on supported RHEL releases.

SUSE validates 2 Minor Releases of SUSE Linux Micro and SUSE Linux Enterprise on a rolling basis.

Validation for Other Operating Systems and Services

SUSE validates the following third-party operating systems: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Ubuntu.

Binary compatible Linux alternatives and derivatives for RHEL and CentOS, such as Amazon Linux, Oracle Linux, and Rocky Linux, are considered validated as part of our RHEL testing. Please see the relevant release guides per-operating system for more information.

None of the above operating systems are supplied by SUSE as part of the software. Customers need to seek operating system support from the relevant distributor.

All other distributions are not validated and at present we are not looking to add other operating systems to the list. We welcome customer and partner requests and they'll be evaluated at the discretion of the product management team. There is no timeline guaranteed with this evaluation.

SUSE validates 2 Minor Releases of RHEL on a rolling basis and 2 Long-term support (LTS) Ubuntu Major Releases on a rolling basis.

Kubernetes

Validation for Kubernetes Distributions

SUSE actively validates the following Kubernetes distributions: RKE2 and K3s. SUSE validates 2 Minor Releases of RKE2 and K3s on a rolling basis. See Kubernetes Updates for more information.

All other Kubernetes distributions are not validated and at present we are not looking to add other Kubernetes distributions to the list. We welcome customer and partner requests and they'll be evaluated at the discretion of the product management team. There is no timeline guaranteed with this evaluation.

Kubernetes Updates

SUSE provides its own Kubernetes Support Lifecycle that closely mirrors the lifecycle followed by the Kubernetes community. You can learn more about the officially supported CNCF Kubernetes release cycle in the Kubernetes Releases page.

At a minimum, SUSE validates three Minor Releases at any given time with a maximum of six Minor Releases for long-term support.

CNI Updates

SUSE provides CNI updates for the following options: Flannel, Canal, Calico, Cilium and Multus.. Kubernetes requires installation of one or more CNI Plugins to provide Pod networking.

SUSE’s level of control and influence over the CNI varies. SUSE updates a given CNI when an update to the CNI is discovered. This is likely to be provided within 4 months of the update to the CNI or at the discretion of the engineering team.

At present we are not looking to add other CNIs to the list. We welcome customer and partner requests and they'll be evaluated at the discretion of the product management team. There is no timeline guaranteed with this evaluation.

Built-in Helm Charts Updates

SUSE provides Rancher applications and cluster tools updates. SUSE will validate a Minor Release of Rancher applications and cluster tools until two newer Minor Releases are available.

UI Extensions

SUSE Rancher UI extensions allow users, developers, partners, and customers to extend and enhance the Rancher UI for the purpose of independent development, release, and integration of new features and functionalities.

SUSE builds its own UI extensions. These UI extensions are built to be compatible with all supported Minor Release of a product.

Third-party UI Extensions

Third-party UI Extensions are versioned by the creator and have their own independent release cycle. SUSE is not responsible for the maintenance and update of such third-party UI Extensions. Please refer to the certification criteria for third-party responsibilities.

Application Collection

SUSE validates the Applications featured in Application Collection against Rancher Kubernetes Engine 2 (RKE2).

Binary compatible Kubernetes distributions, such as K3s, GKE, AKS, and EKS, are considered validated as part of our RKE2 testing.

SUSE provides a thirteen year product lifecycle for most products in SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 and SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 releases. Please check our Product Support Lifecycle table for information about your specific product lifecycle. Technical Support is provided as illustrated in the table below.

This applies to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension (Starting with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v15, GEO Clustering is included with High Availability), SUSE Linux Enterprise for High Performance Computing and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop

1. Access to previously released patches with an active subscription with LTSS.

2. Access to patches for earlier product versions possible with optional Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS).

3. Limited migration and configuration assistance provided with standard or priority subscription.

4. More comprehensive migration, configuration and break fix technical support available with optional LTSS.

5. Only available with LTSS and LTSS Extended Security.

6. Limited to severity level 1 and 2 defects.

7. Only available with LTSS. Limited to severity level 1 and 2 defects.

8. Only available with LTSS Extended Security.

9. Modules General Support phase and duration may differ from the base

SLES 12 SP5 LTSS support:

The following SUSE Linux Enterprise products will be covered by LTSS for 12 SP5 (when deployed with the valid product subscription):

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications
• SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability and GEO extension
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching extension (please check details about duration of LP support here: https://www.suse.com/products/live-patching/current-patches/)

For SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP5 LTSS, only the base system for each supported product is covered; all additional modules are excluded from the service.

SLES 12 SP5 LTSS Extended Security Support:

The following SUSE Linux Enterprise products will be covered by LTSS Extended Security for 12 SP5 (when deployed with the valid product subscription):

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

For SUSE Linux Enterprise LTSS Extended Security only the base system of the product is covered; all additional modules are excluded from the service.

It is possible to combine SLES 12-SP5 LTSS Extended Security offer with following SLES 12 SP5 LTSS offers

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications
• SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability and GEO extension

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 Modules

As with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 has modular packaging. The modules are distinct sets of packages grouped into their own maintenance channel and updated independently of service pack life cycles. This allows you to get timely and easy access to the latest technology in areas where innovation is occurring at a rapid pace, like cloud.

Refer to https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/x86_64/SUSE-SLES/15-SP1/#Intro.ModuleExtensionRelated for module specific lifecycle and update timeline.

SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 GA is supported throughout the life cycle of SLE 15 GA. Any release package is fully maintained and supported until the availability of the next release. As with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing includes 6 months of overlap support for each service pack.

SUSE supports all SLES for SAP Applications 12 and higher offerings during the General Availability (GA) of a version for 4.5 years. This includes 1.5 years of General Support plus 3 years of Extended Service Pack Overlap Support (ESPOS) for each service pack. This eliminates the need for customers to purchase LTSS (Long Term Service Pack Support) until the final service pack of a release.

SUSE supports the current release (N) and the previous release (N-1). SUSE releases a new version of SUSE Multi-Linux Manager roughly every 12 months.

An exception is in place for SUSE Multi-Linux Manager version 4.3 (formerly named SUSE Manager 4.3), which has an offer of LTS for an additional year beyond the regular life cycle.

SUSE supports the current release (N) and the previous release (N-1). SUSE releases a new version of SUSE Enterprise Storage every 12 months. When the new release (N+1) comes out, we will continue to support the N-1 version for 3 months so that you have time to upgrade to the latest version of SUSE Enterprise Storage.

This means each release is supported for a minimum of 27 months after it is first shipped (FCS). We provide general support for the entire 27 months, including patches, fixes and maintenance.

The SUSE Enterprise Storage is based on the upstream Ceph project.

Regardless of the public cloud you use, SUSE has you covered with world-class support. Support is dependent on whether you “bring your own subscription" (BYOS) or you use SUSE on demand or "pay-as-you-go" (PAYG).

All images follow a refresh cycle up until 6 months prior to the end of life (EOL) of the solution/product in the image. Six months prior to EOL the image enters the deprecated state and will no longer be refreshed. . The refresh cycle follows a 'rolling' three month time frame. What this means:

• Images in an active state are refreshed every three months. Replaced images are moved to the deprecated state.
• If a critical security vulnerability occurs, images in the active and inactive state are updated as soon as possible once the fix for the affected code is available. Once the critical fix is released in a new image the three month timer restarts. SUSE is committed to address all security vulnerabilities disclosed through the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures process (CVE) and a score of 9.0 or greater in the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). For more information about the effects and rating of CVEs, refer to the SUSE CVE database.

SUSE Multi-Linux General Support

General Support means full proactive support. Products in the General Support lifecycle phase receive updates for all packages that are available in the latest minor release, in exactly that version, except the excluded packages¹.

Supported versions are Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8 and 9, as well as CentOS 7, and SUSE Liberty Linux equivalents.

A major release normally introduces substantial changes to the software, e.g. new or different features. A minor release on the other hand may introduce more minor changes to the software's functionality or minor changes in features or performance. Whereas a major release is referenced by a version number with a higher digit to the left of the decimal point (e.g. from version 1.1 to version 2.1), a minor release is indicated by a version number with a higher digit to the right of the decimal point (e.g. from version 1.1 to version 1.2).

For each major release, only the latest minor release is fully supported.

Previous minor releases have limited support:

• SUSE support will, to a commercially reasonable extent², analyze the case and provide a solution, if needed.
• The solution might require an update to the latest minor release, or installing a package version available only in the latest minor release.
• Any potential fixes will be released only for the latest minor release.

SUSE Multi-Linux offers no migration path from a previous major version to the successor. Instead a new system installation with the new major version has to be performed and then the workload can be migrated to the new system. We are happy to help with the migration process. Please reach out to our services team at the relevant contact point for your region:

- Aritra Banerjee - APJ - aritra.banerjee@suse.com
- Hayley Theobald - EMEA - hayley.theobald@suse.com
- David Warden - NA & LATAM - david.warden@suse.com

SUSE Multi-Linux Support Long Term Service Support (LTSS)

Extends support and access to patches for Linux maintained under the SUSE Multi-Linux Support service beyond the General Support phase over the extended support phase.

Support conditions:

• Support shall be provided only for existing systems or replacements on identical hardware (in case of system recovery)
• Changes to the virtualization platform are considered hardware changes and are not supported
• Systems running on public cloud frameworks not using “Bring Your Own Subscription” are not supported
• Issues must occur during the active time of the subscription and not before the order is booked at SUSE

1 Our SUSE product documentation contains inclusion and exclusion lists for your convenience.

2 What will be commercially reasonable will depend on the specific issue and the context, at the time.

3 SUSE makes all economically reasonable efforts to resolve a bug or a CVE Request. If SUSE does not believe it is necessary to resolve a CVE Request or if SUSE does not believe it is feasible to fix a bug, SUSE shall not be required to resolve the error and shall provide the customer with a reasonably detailed response setting out SUSE's position.

4 Severity levels are defined in the SUSE Support Handbook pages . In certain cases and at SUSE’s discretion, SUSE may choose to do a version upgrade instead of a backport of a patch resp. do backports from more recent releases.

5 SUSE CVSS is available here https://www.suse.com/security/cve/ and may differ from the NVD score.

6 By request only through a support case.