End of Long Term Service Pack Support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2

Earlier in the fall, in my older blog post I reminded everyone to check our lifecycle page often and I also cautioned that SLESforSAP11 SP3 is nearing end of general support. I also mentioned that SLES11 SP2 will soon be out of support.

The time has come and our colleagues in engineering will pull the rug from the SLES11 SP2 LTSS update channel as early as January 31, 2017! Note that this is even if you have Long Term Service Pack Support! Depending on when this blog gets posted, this would be either today or it may have been yesterday!

So what are supported options for existing SUSE customers or for people and businesses looking to get on our platform in the future? Best answer is always to keep an eye on our lifecycle page:

https://www.suse.com/lifecycle/  – it recently got a noticeable facelift and we also added information on modules under the entry for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.

After end of January 2017, supported versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server will be:

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 2
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 1
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 4
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 GA (with LTSS)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3 (with LTSS)

Just like in my older post, let me remind you that if you are running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 1, it may be a great idea to check our lifecycle page. It would likely advise you that general support for SLES12 SP1 ends on May 31, 2017 which is somewhat soon!  We always recommend to run the latest code for security, performance and business continuity reasons. While you will have the option to go with Long Term Service Pack support for SLES12 SP1 in June, if you haven’t done so, start playing with SLES 12 SP2.

Here is a great presentation summary from SUSECON on what’s new in SLES12 SP2. In addition to the new features, Stefan Behlert talks about security certification, upgrade path and, you guess it, lifecycle! While refraining from promises, he even alludes to what may be coming to SLES 12 with service pack 3!