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Kong Enterprise Version Support

Kong primarily follows semantic versioning (SemVer) with its products, with an added segment for Kong Enterprise patch releases. Products follow a pattern of {MAJOR}.{MINOR}.{PATCH}.{ENTERPRISE_PATCH}. The ENTERPRISE_PATCH segment identifies a sub-patch based on the Kong Community Gateway.

Semantic Versioning

For the purposes of this support document:

• Major Version means a version identified by the number to the left of the leftmost decimal point (X.y.z.a). For example, 2.1.3.0 indicates Major Version 2 and 1.3.0.4 indicates Major Version 1.

• Minor Version means a version identified by a change in the number in between the two leftmost decimal points (x.Y.z.a). For example, 2.1.3.0 indicates Minor Version 1 and 1.3.0.4 indicates Minor Version 3.

• Patch Version means a version identified by a change in the number to the left of the rightmost decimal point (x.y.Z.a). For example, 2.1.3.0 indicates Patch Version 3 and 1.3.0.4 indicates Patch Version 0.

• Enterprise Patch Version means a version identified by a change in the number to the right of the rightmost decimal point (x.y.z.A). For example, 2.1.3.0 indicates Enterprise Patch Version 0 and 1.3.0.4 indicates Enterprise Patch Version 4.

Kong introduces major functionality and breaking changes by releasing a new major version. Major version releases happen rarely and are usually in response to changes in major industry trends, significant architectural changes or significant internal product innovation. There is no regular release cadence of major versions.

Kong aims to release a new minor version every 10 weeks. Minor versions contain features and bug fixes. Minor versions are backwards compatible within that major version sequence. Every minor version is supported for a period of 1 year from date of release. This is done by releasing patch version updates (also known as patch releases) that apply to each supported minor version.

Kong may designate a specific minor version as a Long-Term Support (LTS) version. Kong provides technical support for the LTS version on a given distribution for the duration of the distribution’s lifecycle, or for 3 years from LTS version release, whichever comes sooner. An LTS version is backwards compatible within its major version sequence. An LTS version receives all security fixes. Additionally, an LTS version may receive certain non-security patches at Kong’s discretion. At any time, there will be at least 1 active LTS Kong Enterprise version.

Sunset support

After the product hits the end of the support period, Kong will provide limited support to help the customer upgrade to a fully supported version of Kong Enterprise for up to an additional 12 month sunset period. Kong will not provide patches for software covered by this sunset period. If there is an issue that requires a patch during this period, the customer will need to upgrade to a newer Kong Enterprise version covered by active support.

Bug fix guidelines

Unfortunately, all software is susceptible to bugs. Kong seeks to remedy bugs through a structured protocol as follows:

• Serious security vulnerabilities are treated with the utmost priority. See here for our security vulnerability reporting and remedy process, including how to report a vulnerability.

• Bugs which result in production outages of Kong Enterprise or effective non-operation (such as catastrophic performance degradation) will be remedied through high priority bug fixes and provided in patch releases to the Latest Major/Minor Version Release of all currently supported Major Versions of the software and optionally ported to other versions at Kong’s discretion based on the severity and impact of the bug.

• Bugs which prevent the upgrade of a supported version of Kong Enterprise to a more recent supported version will be remedied through high priority bug fixes and provided in the Latest Major/Minor Version Release of all currently supported Major Versions of the software and optionally ported to other versions at Kong’s discretion based on the severity and impact of the bug.

• Other bugs as well as feature requests will be assessed for severity and fixes or enhancements applied to versions of Kong Enterprise at Kong’s discretion depending on the impact of the bug. Typically, these types of fixes and enhancements will only be applied to the most recent Minor Version in the most recent Major Version.

Customers with platinum or higher subscriptions may request fixes outside of the above and Kong will assess them at its sole discretion.

Supported versions

Kong supports the following versions of Kong Enterprise:

3.2

3.1

3.0

2.8 LTS

Kong Gateway 3.2 supports the following deployment targets until February 2024, unless otherwise noted by an earlier OS vendor end of life (EOL) date.

Kong Gateway 3.1 supports the following deployment targets until December 2023, unless otherwise noted by an earlier OS vendor end of life (EOL) date.

Kong Gateway 3.0 supports the following deployment targets until September 2023, unless otherwise noted by an earlier OS vendor end of life (EOL) date.

Kong Gateway 2.8 LTS supports the following deployment targets until March 2025, unless otherwise noted by an earlier OS vendor end of life (EOL) date.

Older versions

These versions have reached the end of full support.

See also

• Version support policy for Kong Mesh
• Version support policy for Kubernetes Ingress Controller