Portworx Enterprise Life Cycle Support Policy
The Portworx Enterprise Life Cycle Support policy provides customers and partners information to effectively plan, deploy, and maintain their Portworx Enterprise software environments. Our goal is to provide transparency into release numbering, release types, field qualification levels, and support policies. This is intended to provide customers sufficient planning opportunities to effectively maintain operations on the latest supported versions of our software products.
Release Numbering and Types
Portworx leverages a three digit numerical release numbering convention in the X.Y.Z format to identify each version as it progresses through the Product Life Cycle.
The release types and corresponding numbering conventions are listed below:
Major Releases: Major Releases are designated when incrementing the X value (X.0.0) and represent changes to platform, deployment methods, and/or market shifting capabilities. (For example, PX-DR was introduced in PX 2.0.0.).
Feature Releases: Feature Releases (FR) are the first release after incrementing the Y value (X.Y.0) and include new features, capabilities, and enhancements. (For example, new distro support or new Kubernetes version support may be included as part of such releases.)
Maintenance Releases: Maintenance releases are the subsequent releases following a Feature Release and are designated by incrementing the Z value (X.Y.Z). These releases include bug fixes and security patches. New OS/kernel support may be added as part of these releases.
Release Lifespan
Maintenance releases are the mechanism by which Portworx continues development for Major and Feature Releases during their lifespan. Each FR and its subsequent maintenance releases are considered a release line. Development on release lines progresses according to the following schedule:
Active Development: For a period of ninety (90) days after the initial release of the FR, maintenance releases for bug fixes and security patches will be released via periodic updates.
Maintenance Phase: For an additional ninety (90) days following the Active Development phase, maintenance releases will be released only for high-priority bug fixes and critical security advisories. Only critical or high vulnerability fixes will be backported to previous minor or major versions.
Extended Maintenance Release: Every year, one release line will be designated as an Extended Maintenance Release (EMR), and maintenance on that release line will extend to eighteen (18) months from the date of the initial Feature Release.
Field Qualification
All releases go through extensive internal quality and regression testing before being designated ready for General Availability (GA) and supported for customer use.
When maintenance on a release line is concluded, that line will be declared End-of-Life (EOL) and no further maintenance work will be performed.
Upgrade Recommendations and Support Policy
Generally, Portworx recommends upgrading on a semi-annual basis to the latest Feature Release line. Once on that release line, to ensure that you have the latest bug fixes and security patches, you should upgrade to the latest Maintenance Release for that line as they are released.
Portworx generally supports the latest release line, two (2) previous feature release lines, and up to two (2) Extended Maintenance Release lines. For a duration of six (6) months every other year, two (2) EMRs will be supported to enable customers to upgrade from the previous EMR to the latest EMR.
While Portworx will declare release lines EOL for development purposes, we will never declare a software release line as end-of-support. Portworx will always attempt to assist any customer operating under a valid support agreement. For customers running on an EOL release, the approaches, tools, and remedies available may be limited. If a customer experiences a problem caused by a software bug or security vulnerability on an EOL release, the only path to remediation may require a software update before the issue can be fully resolved.
The table below summarizes the current supported versions, associated release lifespan phases, and estimated target end dates. Target end dates are subject to change as actual dates are announced during the new release communication. The release line EOL date is the Extended Maintenance End Date. If there is no Extended Maintenance End Date, the release line EOL date is the Maintenance End Date.
| Version | GA date | Active Development end date | Maintenance end date | Extended Maintenance end date | Documentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1.n | January 31, 2024 | April 30, 2024 | July 31, 2024 | July 31, 2025 | Release Notes Installation Prerequisites |
| 3.0.n | July 11, 2023 | October 11, 2023 | April 30, 2024 | N/A | Release Notes Installation Prerequisites |
| 2.13.n1 | February 23, 2023 | May 23, 2023 | August 23, 2023 | August 23, 2024 | Release Notes Installation Prerequisites |
Pure reserves the right to update this Policy from time to time, as noted by the Last updated date below.
- On May 1st, 2024, Pure will declare all release lines older than 2.13.n end of life (EOL).↩