This topic describes VMware Carbon Black support lifecycle stages.
Standard Support
Standard Support provides maintenance releases, patches, hot fixes, and workarounds as are appropriate to enable the product to operate in conformity with its then-current operating documentation for a period of 18 months from time of General Availability. Standard Support entails the following:
- Product fixes for defects.
- Active technical support providing industry-standard effort to address questions and issues until a defect or known limitation is identified.
- Customers will have access to existing technical articles and support documentation available in our Knowledge Base on our customer support sites.
- Major and Minor releases remain in standard support for 18 months from time of General Availability.
- Maintenance releases follow the same lifecycle schedule as its major.minor release family.
- 8.0.1 will move through the lifecycle stages based on the original 8.0 release.
- Only the latest maintenance release for any Major.Minor receives standard support.
- For example, 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.1.3 will not all be in Standard Support at any one time - 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 would be in Extended Support.
Extended Support
Following Standard Support, product releases will enter Extended Support. VMware Carbon Black will continue to provide active technical support for product releases entering Extended Support for a period of 24-months. Extended Support entails the following:
- Active technical Support providing industry-standard effort to address questions and issues until a defect or known limitation is identified.
- Customers will have access to existing technical articles and support documentation available in our Knowledge Base available on our customer support sites.
- New hotfixes and other product changes will not be available for product releases in Extended Support.
- Defects identified with a release in Extended Support will be verified in the latest shipping version and, if found to be present, considered for fixing in that or a future release.
- Customers will be advised to upgrade to a version in Standard support.
End of Life
Following Extended Support, product releases will enter End of Life. VMware Carbon Black will provide no active technical support for product releases after entering End of Life. End of Life entails the following:
- Support cases will not be opened.
- Customers will have access to existing technical articles and support documentation available in our Knowledge Base available on our customer support sites.
- New hotfixes and other product changes will not be available for product releases in End of Life.
- Customers will be advised to upgrade to a version in Standard support.
| Supportability Matrix | Standard | Extended | End of Life |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technical Support | Yes | Yes | No |
| Knowledge-base Access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| User Forum Access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Product Documentation | Yes | Yes | As available |
| Defect resolution/Hotfixes | Yes | No | No |
