The CentOS Project has announced the end of life (EOL) for CentOS Linux. CentOS Linux public images provided by Alibaba Cloud are derived from the repositories provided by the CentOS Project. When CentOS Linux reaches its EOL, Alibaba Cloud stops providing support for CentOS Linux. This topic describes the impacts of the CentOS Linux EOL and provides options for dealing with this change.
Background information
On December 8, 2020, CentOS announced that they would be shifting focus from CentOS Linux, the rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), to CentOS Stream. For more information, see CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream. The following section describes the EOL plans of different CentOS Linux releases:
CentOS Linux 7, as a rebuild of RHEL 7, no longer receives updates from Red Hat after August 6, 2020, and will reach its EOL on June 30, 2024.
CentOS Linux 8, as a rebuild of RHEL 8, had its lifecycle cut short and reached its EOL on December 31, 2021.
CentOS Linux 9 and later versions are not provided. CentOS Stream is provided instead.
Impacts
If you are using CentOS Linux, take note of the following items:
If you are using CentOS Linux 8, you no longer receive software maintenance or technical support such as bug fixes and feature updates as of January 1, 2022. Since the lifecycle of CentOS Linux 8 has been cut short, CentOS provides the following options for CentOS Linux 8 users:
If you are using CentOS Linux 8 in a development or test environment, you can migrate to CentOS Stream.
ImportantCentOS Stream is a rolling release distribution of CentOS rather than a rebuild of RHEL. Its stability and compatibility cannot be guaranteed. If CentOS Stream is used in a production environment, risks cannot be predicted.
If you are using CentOS Linux 8 in a production environment or to deploy critical business, you can migrate to RHEL.
ImportantRHEL images are not provided for free, and you must subscribe to the images before you can use them. We recommend that you estimate the costs before you migrate to RHEL.
If you are using CentOS Linux 7, you will no longer receive software maintenance or technical support such as bug fixes and feature updates as of July 1, 2024.
CentOS Linux EOL affects the public images and support provided by Alibaba Cloud in the following aspects:
The Alibaba Cloud support cycles of CentOS operating systems are consistent with the lifecycles of the official CentOS operating systems. CentOS will discontinue support for CentOS Linux 7 as of July 1, 2024.
CentOS discontinued support for CentOS Linux 8 as of January 1, 2022. Alibaba Cloud also stopped providing support for CentOS Linux 8. Alibaba Cloud will continue to provide CentOS Linux 8 images. Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances that were created from CentOS Linux 8 images are not affected. However, Alibaba Cloud will no longer update these images. If you want to continue using specific installation packages of CentOS Linux 8 during the transition period, change the repository addresses of CentOS Linux 8. For more information, see Change CentOS Linux 8 repository addresses .
CentOS will discontinue support for CentOS Linux 7 as of July 1, 2024. Alibaba Cloud will also stop providing support for CentOS Linux 7 at the same time. To prevent the impacts of the end of support for CentOS Linux 7, we recommend that you replace your operating systems to RHEL 7 at the earliest opportunity.
For more information about the CentOS Project shifts, see FAQ - CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream.
Options
You can replace CentOS Linux with a suitable operating system or migrate away from CentOS Linux. Alibaba Cloud provides public images that contain a variety of operating systems. You can select a suitable operating system to replace CentOS Linux. See the following detailed descriptions.
Do not retain system disk data
If you do not want to retain system disk data, you can use any of the operating systems described in the following table to replace CentOS Linux. For more information, see Replace the operating system (system disk) of an instance.
Need to retain system disk data
If you want to retain system disk data, you can migrate the operating system. For more information, see Migrate and upgrade the operating system of an ECS instance. If you want to retain system disk data and minimize service downtime, use Server Migration Center (SMC) to migrate away from CentOS Linux. You can use SMC to migrate the following operating systems:
CentOS Linux 7 to Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 or Anolis OS 7
CentOS Linux 8 to Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 or Anolis OS 8
Operating system | Introduction | Intended user | References |
Alibaba Cloud Linux | Alibaba Cloud Linux is a Linux operating system provided by Alibaba Cloud. It is fully compatible with the RHEL and CentOS ecosystems and is optimized for the Alibaba Cloud platform. Alibaba Cloud provides free long-term support (LTS) for Alibaba Cloud Linux. Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 and Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 public images are available. For more information, see What is Alibaba Cloud Linux? | Individuals and enterprises who require technical support and want to use images free of charge. | |
Anolis OS | Anolis OS is released by the OpenAnolis community. It is fully compatible with the CentOS 8 ecosystem and other mainstream Linux distributions. Anolis OS is an open source, independent Linux distribution and provides enterprise-level stability, security, reliability, and high performance. For more information, visit OpenAnolis. | Individuals and enterprises who are used to using open source images and want to use images free of charge. | |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux | RHEL is an enterprise-level Linux operating system developed by Red Hat. RHEL images are not provided for free, and you must subscribe to the images before you can use them. For more information, visit Red Hat Enterprise Linux. | Individuals and enterprises who require technical support and want to migrate to an operating system that is similar to CentOS. | |
CentOS Stream | CentOS Stream is a rolling release Linux distribution provided by Red Hat. | Individuals and enterprises who want to use an operating system that has rolling updates and that is similar to CentOS. | |
Rocky Linux | Rocky Linux is a community-driven enterprise-level Linux operating system and a downstream rebuild of RHEL. Like CentOS, Rocky Linux offers stable releases for servers and is intended to be an alternative that is fully compatible with CentOS. | Individuals and enterprises who are used to using open source images and want to use images free of charge. | |
AlmaLinux | AlmaLinux is a stable, community-driven Linux distribution developed by the CloudLinux team. The AlmaLinux operating system is 1:1 binary compatible with RHEL. You can change the operating system of an instance to AlmaLinux without stopping the instance. | Individuals and enterprises who are used to using open source images and want to use images free of charge. | |
Other Linux distributions, such as Debian and Ubuntu | These operating systems vary in application compatibility and usage habits. Alibaba Cloud provides images that contain a variety of operating systems. For more information, see Select an image. | Individuals and enterprises who are capable of handling operating system changes. |
References
Alibaba Cloud may stop providing technical support for specific services for a variety of reasons, such as end of service lifecycle, end of third-party support, or evolution of open-source projects. When you use ECS instances, pay attention to the lifecycle plan of each operating system published on the official site. For more information, see Maintenance support for operating systems and FAQ about image EOL.
Operating system features, performance optimizations, basic software package updates, and security updates may vary based on the operating system version. For more information, see Release notes of images and Release notes of Alibaba Cloud Linux.
For more FAQ about images, see FAQ.