What is Extended Support?

Extended Support is an interim time period between General Support and Self-Support for any SUSE Linux Platform Solution, and gives customers the flexibility to remain on an older version of SUSE products for a predefined time. Long Term Service Pack Support is available for purchase during the Extended Support product support lifecycle phase, enabling customers to extend the lifecycle of each major version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. An active SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription is required and configuration limitations apply.

What is Self-Support?

Self-Support includes free and some fee-based resources and is available for thirteen years from the start of General Support. Look here to see what Self-Support options are available.

What software patches and fixes are available during Extended Support of SUSE Linux Enterprise?

SUSE generally releases service packs every 12 to 18 months. Once a new service pack is released, we provide the industry standard six-month window in which we continue to deliver the critical support you need for the previous service pack, while you plan for, test and implement the new service pack release. Service packs are available to current SUSE subscription customers only.

If you need additional time to design, validate and test execution plans, Long Term Service Pack Support can extend support an additional 12 to 36 months in 12-month increments, giving you a total of three to five years of support on any given service pack.

What software patches and fixes are available during General Support of SUSE Linux Enterprise?

With the purchase of Long Term Service Pack Support, customers are able to maintain their current operating system version significantly longer, preserving the stability and security of their data centers.

Long Term Service Pack Support includes:

  • Access to SUSE's award winning support organization for unlimited technical support
    • Priority subscriptions provide 24x7 coverage
    • Standard subscriptions provide 12x5 coverage
  • Fixes for critical security issues
  • Fixes for Severity Level 1 and 2 defects reported by customers participating in the program

Long Term Service Pack Support does not include any software enhancement requests or hardware enablement. For more information, see Long Term Service Pack Support.

If I already pay a SUSE Subscription, do I need to purchase Long Term Service Pack Support for my older products?

Yes, if the older version product has moved from the General to the Extended Support phase, you must purchase Long Term Service Pack Support in order to receive technical support and maintenance updates/security fixes.

To see if a particular product is in the Extended Support lifecycle phase, see the SUSE Product Support Lifecycle web site. For more information, see Long Term Service Pack Support.

If I have multiple SUSE Linux Enterprise products, do they all share the same Product Support Lifecycle schedule?

The SUSE Product Support Lifecycle is designed to be consistent by product categorization and by product family. However, there may be some exceptions to the guidelines. For this reason, it is important to verify product support lifecycle schedules posted on the SUSE Product Support Lifecycle web site.

What does "Current Version" in the Product Support Lifecycle schedule mean?

"Current Version" is the latest released product version for the product listed in the “Product Release” column. SUSE recommends that customers make reasonable efforts to be on the current version of their SUSE products.

What does "Replacement Product" in the Product Support Lifecycle schedule mean?

"Replacement Product" is the current product which replaces the product listed in the “Product Release” column of the lifecycle status page.