Streams for Apache Kafka LTS Support Policy
This document only applies to the LTS releases of Streams for Apache Kafka, for full product life cycle dates please see the This content is not included.Streams for Apache Kafka product life cycle page. For more information regarding the difference in support lifecycles of non-LTS and LTS releases please see the Streams for Apache Kafka Lifecycle Overview document.
Streams for Apache Kafka versions offered as a Long Term Support (LTS) release:
| Version | Release Date | End of Maintenance Support | End of Limited Support* |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.6.x | December 2020 | December 2021 | June 2022 |
| 2.2.x | September 2022 | September 2023 | March 2024 |
| 2.5.x | September 2023 | February 2025** | September 2025** |
| 2.9.x | March 2025 | March 2026 | September 2026 |
The following support terms apply to Streams for Apache Kafka LTS releases:
- LTS releases fall under the maintenance life cycle phase and as such only provide bug fixes that stabilize the product and CVEs qualified as critical or important, no new enhancements will be added to this stream.
- LTS releases will be based on a specific minor release (i.e. 2.2), micro releases (i.e. 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.x, etc) will be made available during the maintenance support period of the LTS release.
- You must upgrade to the latest micro release in the LTS release stream to remain in a supported configuration.
- A patch candidate can be considered if:
- No acceptable procedural work around exists.
- There are no technical limitations to incorporating the fix into a patch release.
- The LTS version will be supported for 1 year and 6 months from the time of the minor GA release date.
- Maintenance Support: The first year of support will include micro releases to address bug fixes that stabilize the product and CVEs qualified as critical or important.
- Limited Support: The following 6 months of support will be limited to critical business impacting issues as well as CVEs qualified as critical or important.
- Streams for Apache Kafka will provide LTS to LTS upgrade support. It is advised you plan your upgrade prior to the end of the limited phase to ensure you remain in a supportable configuration. Should your upgrade occur past the end of the limited support date the previous LTS version will be limited to commercially reasonable support.
- The LTS will remain supported with an OCP version which is currently in Full or Maintenance support (i.e. OCP 4.x) until a breaking API change occurs in OCP.
- See the Streams for Apache Kafka Release Notes for details on the supported configurations for each version.
- See the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Life Cycle Policy - Life Cycle Dates page for details of supported OCP versions.
*LTS support dates are provided as general guidance and may extend further based on the availability of the next LTS release. Support for LTS may cease at the product's end of life.
** Dates have been extended in alignment with the next LTS release.