Versa Networks Software Release Lifecycle and End-of-Life Policy
Versa Networks releases software regularly to provide new features, feature enhancements, improvements, infrastructure changes, and bug fixes. Versa Networks maintains and supports software until it reaches the end-of-life (EOL) and end-of-support (EOS) states.
This article describes the Versa Networks software release numbering, the software release lifecycle, and the EOL and EOS states. This description applies to the software for Versa Concerto Orchestrator, Versa Analytics, Versa Director, Versa Operating SystemTM (VOSTM), and Versa Titan devices. It does not apply to the software for the Versa SASE client.
Software Release Overview and Release Numbering
Versa Networks provides new features, features enhancements, and bug fixes in the form of major, minor, and service releases. The software release number indicates the type of release.
A software release number has the format of Major.Minor.Service. The following are examples of software release numbers and how they map to major, minor, and service releases:
- Release 21.1
- Major release—21.1.1
- Minor release—21.2.1
- Service releases—21.1.2, 21.2.2
Versa Networks Software Release Lifecycle
In the Versa Networks software release lifecycle, a software release can be a major release, a minor release, or a service release.
Versa Networks provide these release options to help customers choose the right release option based on your technical and business needs. The goal is to provide good quality releases that you can deploy with confidence in production environments.
A major software release provides major improvements, infrastructure changes, or new technologies, and a minor software release provides minor improvements. To start using these enhancements and new features, you can choose to upgrade to a major release or to a minor release.
The Versa Networks engineering and support teams actively support, enhance, and maintain each major release for two (2) years after Versa Networks moves the release to general availability (GA) status. (GA status is described below.) During this two-year GA release period, the major release is actively enhanced with new features, bug fixes, code optimizations, and other changes as required, including maintenance work. These changes are delivered in the form of a minor release or a service release.
The following figure shows an example lifecycle of a major release:
A minor release provides feature enhancements on top of the major release on which it is based. A minor release is provided in GA form and is actively maintained for three (3) years, at which point it reaches its EOL. The longer maintenance period for minor releases provides you the option to deploy the minor release in your network for a longer period of time.
The following figure shows an example lifecycle of a minor release:
In addition to the major and minor releases, Versa Networks provides service releases. A service release includes only bug fixes. Service releases are provided for both major and minor releases. You can select any service release for a major release or a minor release to obtain the bug fixes or stability-related changes that you may need.
End of Life (EOL)
Versa Networks actively maintains major and minor releases until they reach their EOL state. A major software release reaches EOL state in two (2) years, while a minor release reaches EOL state in three (3) years.The EOL period lasts for one (1) year. If multiple minor releases exist for a major release, the timeline of the first minor release will be referenced for EOL purposes.
When a major or minor software release reaches its EOL state, Versa Networks no longer provides new features, enhancements, bug fixes, service releases, or other code changes for that software release.
During the EOL period, the Versa Networks support team helps customers with activities that do not require changing the underlying software, such as configuration, troubleshooting, workarounds, and upgrading to new, actively maintained releases.
Versa Networks announces the EOL date of a release at least one (1) year in advance so that you can plan accordingly. Note that Versa Networks can, at its discretion, extend the product lifetime of a release.
End of Support (EOS)
At the end of the EOL period of one (1) year, a major or minor software release reaches its EOS state. In the EOS state, Versa Networks no longer accepts any support cases related to the software release.
Note that there can be exceptions to this policy. At its discretion, Versa Networks can provide software changes during the EOL period.
Progression of a Major Release to GA Status
Versa Networks is committed to providing the best feature set with highest levels of quality to our customers. As part of this commitment, Versa Networks implements extra levels of quality, visibility, and field guidance that may not be seen in other vendors.
When a new major release is first made available, Versa Networks may choose to mark it as a First Revenue Shipment (FRS) release. The FRS designation indicates that even though the new major release satisfies the Versa Networks strict quality control criteria, it does not yet have sufficient field usage. Versa Networks believes that field usage is important, because it allows customers to use a newly released major software package in a variety of different scenarios in their test labs and in the field. This field runtime is critical to achieve utmost software quality.
During the FRS release period, Versa Networks continuously monitors software quality metrics and reports from our customers and field representatives and actively collects feedback and reports about customer experiences, including issues and change requests. Versa Networks analyzes this feedback and integrates changes or fixes as it deems necessary. Versa Networks provides service releases that include maintenance fixes and changes.
When Versa Networks determines that sufficient field runtime has been obtained and all general availability (GA) metrics are fulfilled, Versa Networks moves the release to GA status and provides a new maintenance release. The release marker of this maintenance release is changed to GA, and the release is announced to the field and to our customers. Customers can then download the GA release and deploy it in production networks with confidence.