Product Lifecycle Support Policies

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 may acquire LTSS using either as “Bring Your Own Subscription” or “Pay as you Go” deployments
• Issues must occur during the active time of the subscription and not before the order is booked at SUSE

The following items are excluded from LTSS Core and are not supported:

• All Java related components
• All databases
• All web browsers and email clients
• All 3rd party binaries such as fonts, sounds, artwork and branding

Summary table - Long Term Service Support

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 By request only through a support case

5 Offer available only for the final service pack of a version. LTSS Extended Security is currently available for SLES 12 SP5

6 Offer available only for the final service pack of a version after the LTSS phase.

7 Modules General Support phase and duration may differ from the base

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 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.

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 By request only through a support case.