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I would like to get a definitive and authorized answer on the end-of-life of RHEL 7.4.

I tried to find information via

https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata#Maintenance_Support_1_Phase

and

https://access.redhat.com/product-life-cycles?product=Red%20Hat%20Enterprise%20Linux

However, most websites including the last link refers to RHEL 7.9. Where can I find official EoL information about RHEL 7.4?

So far, I was quite convinced that RHEL 7.4 is entirely EoL and is not covered by any extended support. We did a quick check on the kernel version of 7.4 vs. 7.9 systems and there is a difference:

  • 7.4: kernel-3.10.0-327.36.3
  • 7.9: kernel-3.10.0.1160.88.1

Moreover, even if 7.4 is under Maintenance Support or Maintenance Support 2 until 2024, I wonder if that applies to all customers automatically or if a certain support license is required (i.e. extended life support license)?

user1192748
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2 Answers2

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From RHEL extended maintenance policy, emphasis mine:

Under a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription, all available RHSAs and RHBAs are provided for the current active minor release until the availability of the next minor release. By contrast, EUS —for a specific minor release—an independent, extended stream of those Red Hat defined Critical and Importantix impact RHSAs and selected (at Red Hat discretion) Urgent Priority RHBAs that are available after that specific minor release and in parallel to subsequent minor releases. See the list of packages included for RHEL 7 here. Please reference the RHEL 8 and 9 EUS Support Maintenance Policy below.

Each Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS stream is available for 24 months from the availability of the minor release.

Pull up the KB article on release dates, noting that 7 is currently past the full support phase; 7.9 is the last minor version. 7.5 would be mid 2018. Meaning right now you are 5 years late in updating this system.

No, extended update support is not automatic. Even if you bought EUS, that's only 24 months, you still would several years out of date.

Get some help in improving your updating and servicing. RHEL is a general purpose operating system, it needs the minor feature updates to continue getting updates and support. On average the minor releases occur more than once a year, letting updates lapse for many years is negligence.

Do not think about this as updating RHEL 7.4 hosts. This is servicing RHEL 7. Anyone, third party, vendor, or otherwise, that implies you can stay on a minor RHEL version for years, does not understand how this distro is maintained.

John Mahowald
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RedHat support on old operating system the last version i.e. for 7 this is 7.9. So the Maintenance Support 2 end at 30 June 2024. If you want you can pay for Extended life cycle support. The best you can do is update your systems to 7.9 and plan migration to 9. IMHO I do not see much sense to update to 8.

Romeo Ninov
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