VMware will offer 9 years of phased support from the general availability of a new Major Release as per the Support and Subscription Terms and Conditions. Please keep current with product updates to ensure no interruptions in your support services. (Visit the Downloads page for all product updates.)

• General Support will be provided for 2 years from general availability of a Major or Minor Release, or one year after the next Major or Minor release, whichever is longer. As new hardware is released by third party platform manufacturers, VMware will update the Hardware Compatibility Guide with platforms that have been tested and certified. However, VMware cannot guarantee that all new hardware will be certified and supported.
• Extended Support will be provided for 3 years following General Support. New hardware platforms are no longer supported, new guest OS updates may or may not be applied, and bug fixes are limited to critical issues. Critical bugs are deviations from specified product functionality that cause data corruption, data loss, system crash, or significant customer application down time and there is no work-around that can be implemented.
• Technical Guidance will be provided for 2 additional years following Extended Support. Primary assistance is available through the self-help portal. Customers can also open a support request online to receive support and workarounds for low-severity issues on supported configurations only. (Telephone support is not provided.) There will be no new hardware support, guest OS updates, security patches or bug fixes. The phase is intended for usage by customers operating in stable environments with systems that are operating under reasonably stable loads.

The VMware Infrastructure 3 Support Life Cycle Policy covers the software suites: VMware Infrastructure 3 Starter, Standard and Enterprise Editions.