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Kong Gateway Enterprise Version Support

Kong adopts a structured approach to versioning its products. Products follow a pattern of {MAJOR}.{MINOR}.{PATCH}.{ENTERPRISE_PATCH}. The ENTERPRISE_PATCH segment identifies a sub-patch for Kong Gateway Enterprise based on Kong Gateway (OSS).

Note: This policy only applies to Kong Gateway and Kong Gateway Enterprise. For the Kong Konnect version support policy, review the Kong Konnect policy.

Versioning

For the purposes of this support document:

Release versioning

• 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.

Patches

• Community Edition Patch means a patch identified by a change in the number to the left of the rightmost decimal point (x.y.Z.a). For example, Community/OSS version 2.8.3 indicates Release Version 2.8 with patch number 3 and 3.3.0 indicates Release version 3.0 with Patch number 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, 2.8.3.0 indicates Enterprise Release version 2.8 with Patch Version 3.0 and 3.3.2.1 indicates Enterprise Release Version 3.3 with patch number 2.1

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 approximately every 12 weeks. Minor versions contain features and bug fixes. Minor versions are usually¹ 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 patches that apply to each supported minor version. Customers are encouraged to keep their installations up to date by applying the patches appropriate to their installed version. All patches released by Kong are roll-up patches (for example, patch 1.5 for release version 3.3 includes all the fixes in patches 1.4, 1.3, 1.2, and 1.1).

¹Note: There can be exceptions to the versioning model. Due to backports, new features and breaking changes are possible at any version level, including patch versions. To avoid issues, do not upgrade to any new version automatically, and make sure to review all relevant changelog entries before manually upgrading your deployments.

Long-term support

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 Gateway 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 Gateway 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 Gateway 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 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 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 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.

Deprecation guidelines

From time to time as part of the evolution of our products, we deprecate (in other words, remove or discontinue) product features or functionality.

We aim to provide customers with at least 6 months’ notice of the removal or phasing out of a significant feature or functionality. We may provide less or no notice if the change is necessary for security or legal reasons, though such situations should be rare. We may provide notice in our documentation, product update emails, or in-product notifications if applicable.

Once we’ve announced we will deprecate a significant feature or functionality, in general, we won’t extend or enhance the feature or functionality.

Additional terms

• The above is a summary only and is qualified by Kong’s Support and Maintenance Policy.
• The above applies to Kong standard software builds only.

Supported versions

Kong supports the following versions of Kong Gateway Enterprise:

3.6

3.5

3.4 LTS

2.8 LTS

Kong Gateway 3.6 supports the following deployment targets until Feb 2025, unless otherwise noted by an earlier OS vendor end of life (EOL) date.

Kong Gateway 3.5 supports the following deployment targets until Nov 2024, unless otherwise noted by an earlier OS vendor end of life (EOL) date.

Kong Gateway 3.4 supports the following deployment targets until August 2026, 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.

Marketplaces

Kong Gateway Enterprise is available through the following marketplaces:

• Azure Marketplace
• AWS Marketplace
• Google Cloud Marketplace

Latest versions are not guaranteed.

Supported public cloud deployment platforms

Kong Gateway Enterprise supports the following public cloud deployment platforms:

• AWS EKS
• AWS EKS Fargate
• AWS ECS
• AWS ECS Fargate
• Azure AKS
• Azure Container Instances
• Azure Container Apps
• Google Cloud GKE
• Google Cloud GKE Autopilot
• Google Cloud Run

Older versions

These versions have reached the end of full support.

Note: This policy only applies to Kong Gateway and Kong Gateway Enterprise. For the Kong Konnect version support policy, review the Kong Konnect policy.

See also

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