Understand release channels

Automation orchestrator provides two Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) release channels, each designed for a different stage of your delivery pipeline. You subscribe to a release channel to control which versions your cluster receives.

Release channels

Automation orchestrator provides the following OLM channels:

early-access

Contains features in development or experimental changes that might not reach the stable channel. The early-access channel is intended for testing and feature evaluation only. Red Hat support does not provide assistance for deployments on this channel.

  • Use for development environments where you evaluate upcoming capabilities.
  • Red Hat service level agreements (SLAs) do not apply to this channel.
  • Red Hat can change or remove features in this channel without notice.
  • Does not support in-place upgrades. To move to a newer version, perform a fresh installation.
stable

Contains releases that pass automated and manual quality gates.

  • Use for pre-production and production environments.
  • Pin to a specific version for a locked, tested release.
  • Red Hat production SLAs apply.
  • Only channel that supports in-place upgrades through OLM.

Choose a channel for each environment

Match channels to your deployment stages to create a promotion pipeline from evaluation through production.

Table 1. Recommended channels by environment
Environment Recommended channel Rationale
Development and evaluation early-access Evaluate features before they reach the stable channel.
Pre-production and production stable Run releases that pass quality gates. Pin to a specific version for stability.

Version format

Automation orchestrator uses calendar-based version numbers in the format YYYY.M.TIMESTAMP. Red Hat does not introduce breaking changes within a version series. For a full breakdown of version segments, series boundaries, and API versioning, see the release channel and version reference.