Splunk Support and End-of-Life

[kristian_kolb]

Since I'm not fluent in legalese, I'd appreciate if somebody could help with clarification on section 2.5.9 in the general Support and Maintenance document.

It states that;

 ... Splunk provides full Support, including, when available, bug fixes, only on the
current major release and (a) the immediately prior major release or (b) twenty-four months
from the then current major release (“Supported Prior Versions”).

I'm interpreting this as 4.x will be supported for 2 years after the release of 5.0. Is this correct?

Or should I interpret this as 4.x still being supported for some time if 5.0 and 6.0 are released within a 2 year span.

Thanks,

/kristian

[nitinsheenu]

There should be one simple page on Splunk website to list all Currently Supported & EOL versions!!

[tpflicke]

Well, I just noticed on http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/4.3.7/ReleaseNotes/MeetSplunk the following:

NOTE - Splunk version 4.x reached its End of Life on October 1, 2013. Please see the migration information.

That's the same day Splunk Enterprise 6.0 was release, it's about 4 years after Splunk 4 and less than 2 years after Splunk 4.3:

• Splunk 4 was release Q3 2009
• Splunk 4.3 was released on January 10, 2012.
• Splunk 5.0 was released on October 30, 2012
• Splunk Enterprise 6.0 was released on Oct. 1, 2013.

This suggests that major release refers to Splunk 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 with 4.3 being a minor release and 4.3.7 a patch/maintainance release.

[cervelli · Accepted solution]

Hi Kristian,

The intended reading of that statement is that 4.x will be supported until 6.0 comes out, but for no less than 24 months. That means that 4.3, which went GA Jan 2012, will be supported at least until Jan 2014.

[dwaddle]

Given the amount of time between releases, I wonder if 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 all count as "major" ?

[reedmohn]

I'd say: yes and yes.

When 5.x is the current release, 4.x is also supported. But if 6.x is released within 24-months of 5.x, 4.x will still be supported until 5.x is 24 months old.

But IANAL...

[kristian_kolb]

Thanks for your answer, but I'd still like somebody from Splunk to come forward clarify.

[AaronMoorcroft]

did you ever get an answer to this ? im being asked by my manager and cant find a definitive answer.