This topic describes the lifecycle management of Hologres, including the product lifecycle policy, the version discontinuation policy, Hologres versions, and the dates of the general availability (GA) and end of service (EOS) milestones for each version.
Background information
Product updates and phase-outs are common laws. So is Hologres. As Alibaba Cloud constantly optimizes Hologres, the features and architectures provided by Hologres become more diversified, powerful, and user-friendly. However, an earlier Hologres version may fail to meet specific business requirements. The service performance, such as stability, usability, and compatibility, may also be affected as time passes. Therefore, later Hologres versions are a must to provide you with high-quality services. Lifecycle management of Hologres, such as regular upgrades, helps you master up-to-date technologies that empower your business. For more information about features of Hologres versions, see Release notes. Before a new Hologres version is released, factors such as business migration, upgrade costs, service stability, and long-term IT planning are all taken into consideration. To provide you with enterprise-level service capabilities and help you gain insight into service evolution, Hologres adopts a lifecycle management system that specifies the product lifecycle policy and version discontinuation policy. The following sections provide detailed information about Hologres lifecycle management. You can read these sections to get prepared for regular upgrades of Hologres.
Product lifecycle policy
Product lifecycle policy regulates the specifications for lifecycle management of a Hologres version from the time when the version is released to the time when the version is discontinued. The following figure shows the lifecycle of a Hologres version.
Milestone | Full name | Description | Time point | Remarks |
GA | General Availability | A Hologres version is officially released. | Month T | After the GA date of a Hologres version, you can use Hologres of this version in the production environment. |
EOS | End of Service | The service is terminated. | Two years after Month T | After the EOS date of a Hologres version, new versions including patch versions are not released. Note After the EOS date of a Hologres version, technical support for this version, such as Q&A, problem resolving, and Service Level Agreement (SLA)-based compensation management, is no longer provided. |
You will be notified of the GA or EOS date at least three months before a Hologres version is released or discontinued. The Hologres version will not be released or discontinued at a time point before the notified date.
If a serious defect is found in a Hologres version, the Hologres team performs the version control operation to fix the defect and release a new compatible version that is in the same major version at the earliest opportunity. This helps prevent risks such as security issues or data inaccuracy caused by the defect.
For an EOS instance, if Hologres O&M engineers determine that the running of the instance may cause potential stability risks to users or the entire cluster, the Hologres O&M engineers can upgrade the instance within the O&M window. The upgraded version is a stable version within the GA period.
You can view the source and destination versions of a Hologres instance on the Instance Details page in the Hologres console. For more information about instance upgrades, see Manual upgrade (beta) in the "Instance upgrades" topic.
Description of version numbers
Each Hologres version is identified by a version number that consists of two parts in the Major.Minor format. The following list and table describe the Major and Minor parts in the version number format.
Major: the number of a major version is increased when features have major changes or new features are added. The one or more numbers in this part are increased based on the impact of the feature change.
Minor: the number of a minor version is increased when features are optimized or specific known defects are fixed. The digit in this part is increased if multiple improvements are made.
Version type | Description | Change in the version number | Example |
Major version | Features in Hologres have major changes or new features are added. | The one or more numbers in the Major part are increased. | Version |
Minor version | The compatibility of features is improved or specific known defects are fixed. | The number in the Minor part is increased. | Version |
Milestones of existing Hologres versions
The following table describes the GA and EOS dates of each existing Hologres version.
Hologres major version | GA | EOS |
0.7 | 2020-04 | 2022-04 |
0.8 | 2020-10 | 2022-10 |
0.9 | 2021-01 | 2023-01 |
0.10 | 2021-05 | 2023-05 |
1.1 | 2021-10 | 2023-10 |
1.3 | 2022-07 | 2024-07 |
2.0 | 2023-04 | To be determined |
2.1 | 2023-10 | To be determined |
Service commitments and suggestions
Compatibility
Alibaba Cloud does not provide a guarantee on the compatibility between major versions of Hologres. However, Alibaba Cloud makes efforts to maintain the compatibility of the program logic, SQL syntax, and interfaces between different major versions of Hologres. Alibaba Cloud also provides documentation or after-sales service notifications for possible incompatibility.
Alibaba Cloud commits to the compatibility of the SQL syntax, interfaces, and engine framework between minor versions of the same major version of Hologres. The compatibility in some aspects such as the business logic and data processing of a program is not guaranteed. We recommend that you upgrade the Hologres service to the latest minor version of the major version that you use. This helps you maintain service compatibility.
Defects
We recommend that you upgrade your Hologres instance to the latest version to fix defects. For example, if the version of your Hologres instance in use is V1.1.33 and the latest version is V1.3.40, we recommend that you upgrade your Hologres instance to V1.3.40 or later to fix defects.
You can also read topics such as Release notes to learn about feature updates and bug fixes.
Related services and notifications
Alibaba Cloud provides the following services and notifications to involve you in the lifecycle management of Hologres:
Plans the lifecycle of each Hologres version and notifies you of the planning during service consultation and using.
Sends notifications to your Alibaba Cloud account to notify you of the GA and EOS dates. The notifications are sent in the form of website announcements, documentation announcements, internal messages, emails, or text messages at least three months before a version is released or discontinued. Note that you can receive notifications only if your Alibaba Cloud account subscribes to the product update notification service from Message Center.
Helps you analyze the potential risks to your business that is deployed on a version of Hologres and provides solutions until the version is discontinued.
If an EOS instance causes issues related to stability, Hologres O&M engineers proactively upgrade the instance to a stable version within the GA period.