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Lifecycle Policy

VMware will support the three latest Major or Minor Releases (N, N-1, and N-2) of software as per the Support and Subscription Services Terms and Conditions. Each Major or Minor release will have a minimum support duration of 12 months (*). Refer to the VMware Product Lifecycle Matrix to find the End of Support date for a product release.

* Products co-developed with Pivotal or including Pivotal solutions may have a shorter support duration. For more information refer to the FAQs.

N-2 FAQ

No. This policy applies equally to Major and Minor releases as defined in the VMware Support and Subscription Services Terms and Conditions . Latest releases can be any combination of a Major and Minor release. Examples of sequential releases include: a Major release followed by two Minor releases (e.g. 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2), a Major release followed by a Minor release followed by a Major release (e.g. 1.0, 1.1, 2.0) and three sequential Minor releases (e.g. 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3).

​When there is a new Major or Minor product release (N), the prior two releases (N-1 and N-2) remain in support. The release N-3 and prior releases are no longer supported.

​No. The N-2 lifecycle policy does not apply to a Maintenance release. VMware may ask a customer to upgrade to a specific fix or patch release to resolve product defects or security risks to remain supportable.

There may be times when an exception is made when a new Major or Minor release is introduced where the support duration may be shorter or longer than 12 months.  In addition, after a product has been introduced and is already on the lifecycle product matrix, VMware may extend the End of General Support (EOGS) date. Refer to the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix  to find the End of Support date for a product release. The Notes column on the VMware Lifecycle Matrix will indicate that an exception has been made to the EOGS date.

​Products co-developed with Pivotal or including Pivotal components may have shorter support duration.

​Products covered by this policy have their rules and conditions about interoperability and upgrades between releases. Please refer to the specific release notes for a new release to learn about the supported upgrade paths as well as the interoperability conditions that apply to the release.

There is no Technical Guidance phase after General Support.