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Lifecycle for guest operating systems

Lifecycle for guest operating systems

In the lifecycle of an operating system, end of support (EOS) is the last date that IBM Cloud® delivers standard support for a version or release of a product. The end of support date is aligned to the vendor and community support dates. A notification is sent out 90 days before support for an operating system is withdrawn.

Table 1. Image lifecycle status
Image status Description
available The most current version of the stock operating system image is available. When a new version of an operating system is made available, the older version image of that guest operating system changes to deprecated. No stock operating system that reaches EOS has an available image.
deprecated Older versions of stock operating systems are deprecated. Also, any stock operating system that reached EOS is also deprecated. The UI doesn't display any deprecated images when creating an instance. These images are still visible in the CLI and API.

If you choose to continue to use a deprecated stock operating system image after EOS, review the End of support operating system considerations.

CentOS

The following table describes the end of support date and license model for CentOS operating systems. This guest OS is a free operating system. For more information, see CentOS Linux.

Table 1. Lifecycle for CentOS operating systems
Operating sytem End of support License model
CentOS 8 minimal 31 December 2021 Free
CentOS 7.9 minimal 30 June 2024 Free
CentOS Stream 8 31 May 2024 Free

Debian

The following table describes the end of support date and license model for Debian operating systems. This guest OS is a free operating system. For more information, see Debian community.

Table 2. Lifecycle for Debian operating systems
Operating sytem End of support License model
Debian 11 minimal 01 June 2026 Free
Debian 10 minimal 01 June 2024 Free
Debian 9 minimal 30 June 2022 Free

Fedora CoreOS

The version of Fedora® CoreOS is updated regularly, with the previous release deprecating when a new version is released. This guest OS is a free operating system. For more information, see Fedora.

Table 3. Lifecycle for Fedora CoreOS operating systems
Operating sytem End of support License model
Fedora CoreOS latest N/A Free

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

The following table describes the end of support date and license model for Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® operating systems. This guest OS is a paid operating system. For more information, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Table 4. Lifecycle for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating systems
Operating sytem End of support License model
RHEL 9.2 minimal 31 May 2025 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
RHEL 9.0 minimal 31 May 2024 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
RHEL 9.0 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 31 May 2026 Pay-as-you-Go
RHEL 8.8 minimal 31 May 2025 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
RHEL 8.8 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 31 May 2027 Pay-as-you-Go
RHEL 8.6 minimal 31 May 2024 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
RHEL 8.6 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 31 May 2026 Pay-as-you-Go
RHEL 8.4 minimal 31 May 2023 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
RHEL 8.4 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 31 May 2025 Pay-as-you-Go
RHEL 8.3 minimal 30 April 2021 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
RHEL 8.2 minimal 30 April 2022 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
RHEL 8.2 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 28 February 2023 Pay-as-you-Go
RHEL 8.1 minimal 30 November 2021 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
RHEL 8.1 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 28 February 2023 Pay-as-you-Go
RHEL 7.9 minimal 30 June 2024 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
RHEL 7.9 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 30 June 2024 Pay-as-you-Go
RHEL 7.6 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 28 February 2023 Pay-as-you-Go

BYOL: For Red Hat Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) operating systems, you can bring your own license (BYOL) to IBM Cloud VPC when you import a custom image. These images are registered and licensed by you. You maintain control over your license and incur no additional costs by using your license. Acquisition and activation of the license is between you and the OS vendor. BYOL is not supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP.

Rocky Linux

The version of Rocky Linux is updated regularly, with the previous release deprecating when a new version is released. This guest OS is a free operating system. For more information, see Rocky Linux.

Table 5. Lifecycle for Rocky Linux operating systems
Operating sytem End of support License model
Rocky Linux 8.x 31 May 2029 Free
Rocky Linux 9.x 31 May 2032 Free

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)

The following table describes the end of support date and license model for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) operating systems. This guest OS is a paid operating system. For more information, see SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Table 6. Lifecycle for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) operating systems
Operating sytem End of support License model
SLES 15 SP4 31 December 2023 Pay-as-you-Go
SLES 15 SP3 31 December 2022 Pay-as-you-Go
SLES 15 SP3 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 31 December 2025 Pay-as-you-Go
SLES 15 SP2 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 31 December 2024 Pay-as-you-Go
SLES 15 SP1 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 31 January 2024 Pay-as-you-Go
SLES 12 SP5 31 October 2024 Pay-as-you-Go
SLES 12 SP5 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 31 October 2024 Pay-as-you-Go
SLES 12 SP4 (SAP HANA and SAP applications) 30 June 2023 Pay-as-you-Go

Ubuntu LTS

The following table describes the end of support date and license model for Ubuntu operating systems. This guest OS is a free operating system. For more information, see Ubuntu.

Table 7. Lifecycle for Ubuntu operating systems
Operating sytem End of support License model
Ubuntu 22.04 minimal 30 April 2027 Free
Ubuntu 20.04 minimal 30 April 2025 Free
Ubuntu 18.04 minimal [1] 31 May 2023 Free
Ubuntu 16.04 minimal 01 April 2021 Free

Windows Server

The following table describes the end of support date and license model for Windows Server operating systems. This guest OS is a paid operating system. For more information, see Microsoft Windows Server.

Table 8. Lifecycle for Windows Server operating systems
Operating sytem End of support License model
Windows Server 2022 full standard 14 October 2031 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
Windows Server 2019 core 09 January 2029 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
Windows Server 2019 full standard 09 January 2029 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
Windows Server 2016 core 11 January 2027 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
Windows Server 2016 full standard 11 January 2027 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
Windows Server 2012 full standard 10 October 2023 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
Windows Server 2012 r2 full standard 10 October 2023 Pay-as-you-Go / BYOL
Windows Server 2019 Standard Edition with SQL Server 2019 Web Edition 08 January 2030 Pay-as-you-Go

BYOL: For Windows operating systems, you can bring your own license (BYOL) to IBM Cloud VPC when you import a custom image. These images are registered and licensed by you. You maintain control over your license and incur no additional costs by using your license. Acquisition and activation of the license is between you and the OS vendor.

SQL Server: For more information about Windows operating systems with SQL Server, see the About Microsoft SQL on VPC documentation for information on creating the SQL server.


  1. Out of standard support. Upgrade to Ubuntu Pro. ↩︎