JBoss Enterprise Middleware
Product Update and Support Policy

Overview

Red Hat provides support and maintenance over stated time periods for the major versions of JBoss Enterprise Middleware products (i.e. versions 4.2, 4.3, or 5.0). The published Life Cycle calendars for JBoss products allow customers and partners to effectively plan, deploy and support JBoss Enterprise Middleware products.

The Life Cycle associated with a JBoss product identifies the various levels of maintenance for each release of that product over a period from initial release - or general availability (GA )- to the end of maintenance. JBoss product life cycles are generally three, five or seven years in length, depending on the product.

Software updates to JBoss products are delivered via software patches. Patches can be released individually on an as-needed basis, aggregated as part of a Cumulative Patch (CP), or included in a minor release (e.g. version 5.1). Patches may contain security and/or bug fixes. Feature enhancements are generally introduced in minor and major releases - not as patches or in CPs. All patches, CPs, and Minor Releases are thoroughly tested and qualified against prior JBoss Enterprise Middleware releases within the same family, and are guaranteed to be backward compatible within their release family (e.g., all 5.x patches, CPs, and releases are in the same family, and will be backward compatible to the 5.0 parent release that starts the family line).

JBoss Enterprise Middleware Life Cycles are designed to reduce the level of change within each major release over time, increasing predictability and decreasing maintenance costs. All released patches/CPs/Minor Releases will remain accessible to active subscribers for the entire Life Cycle of a product family. Red Hat publishes product Life Cycle calendars in an effort to provide as much transparency as possibly, but may make exceptions from these policies if unforseeable conflicts arise (such as the end-of-life (EOL) of a dependent component or platform, that is outside of Red Hat control).

Every major version of a JBoss Enterprise Middleware product is maintained and supported independently during its Life Cycle. For each major version of a product, patch updates will be issued serially, and will be applicable incrementally to previously released patches and CPs. Minor releases will aggregate the contents of prior patches and CPs, and may add additional new functionality. Subsequent patches and CPs will assume installation of minor updates that precede them. During the entire Life Cycle, Red Hat makes commercially reasonable efforts to maintain API-level compatibility across all minor releases and asynchronous patches (e.g., EAP 5.1 will maintain API-level compatibility with EAP 5.0, the parent of the EAP 5 family). Possible exceptions to this rule could include fixes introduced to address critical security issues. Furthermore, major versions of JBoss Enterprise Middleware products endeavor to maintain significant backward-compatibility with previous versions (e.g. EAP 5.0 endeavors to maintain significant backward compatibility with EAP 4.x) to aid with the migration of applications from one major release to another.

Life Cycle Phases

The Life Cycle for a major release of JBoss Enterprise Middleware products is divided into two primary phases: The Full Support Phase, and the Maintenance Phase. In a longer life cycle, there may be a transition period between these phases.

Phase 1: Full Support.

Start Date: General Availability.

Full support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement. Likewise, developer support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement. All available and qualified patches will be applied via periodic Product Updates and CPs or as required for qualified security patches.

Phase 2: Maintenance Support.

Start Date: No less than one (1) year after General Availability.

Production support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement. Likewise, developer support is provided according to the published Scope of Coverage and Service Level Agreement. During the Maintenance Phase, qualified security patches of important or critical impact, as well as select mission-critical bug-fix patches will be released.

The following table details what type of software maintenance is performed during each phase of a typical life cycle:

Life Cycle Duration

JBoss product Life Cycles are generally three, five or seven years in length, depending on product and market considerations. Three primary Life Cycle patterns are applied to JBoss products:

• Extended Product Life Cycle: An Extended Product Life Cycle of seven years is generally applied to foundation products, such at JBoss EAP. As depicted below, the seven-year cycle includes four years of Full Support, a transition year, and two years of Maintenance Support. Extensions beyond the seventh year may be available under a separate scope of coverage and SLA.
• Standard Product Life Cycle: A Standard Product Life Cycle of five years applies to most JBoss products. The Standard Product Life Cycle is also composed of two phases, but does not include a transition year. Extensions beyond the fifth year may be available under a separate scope of coverage and SLA.
• Limited Product Life Cycle: A Limited Product Life Cycle of three years is generally applied to newer product areas, and rapidly changing technologies such as development frameworks. The Limited Product Life Cycle is composed of a single Full Support phase, with no explicit maintenance support periods. Extensions are not available.

Life Cycle Dates

Note: November, 2009, JBoss Middleware products will move to a new life cycle model that is patterned after the Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle. This new model will change the way that maintenance and minor product releases are introduced. Starting with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) 5.0, all product life-cycle calendars will start with the introduction of a major release (the parent of the family), and all maintenance and minor releases will be introduced within the calendar of that parent. For instance, EAP 5.0 will be introduced in November, 2009, and will start the 5 family of releases. It will carry a seven-year support life cycle. When EAP 5.1 is introduced, it will not start a new calendar - it with fall inside of the calendar started with the introduction of EAP 5.0. Thus, all 5.x releases will be releases in the 5 family, and will occur within the 7 year calendar that starts with the introduction of EAP 5.0. Minor releases within a family are guaranteed to be backward compatible back to the parent release, so that it will be safe for our customers to accept the latest software fixes and features. Periodic patches and CPs will continue to be issued across that calendar, but will generally be applicable to the latest release in the family (the parent, or most recent minor). Customers will be encouraged to move to the latest release within the family to stay current with issued maintenance.

Listed below are the Life Cycle dates for all currently supported JBoss Middleware products as well as product releases that have recently reached their end of support life (shown in red text):

For a complete listing of all JBoss product Life Cycles, including both active and end of support releases, please visit http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/jboss_notes/allproductreleases.