• Solaris and OpenSolaris System Release Model
• Solaris Operating System Life Cycle
• OpenSolaris Operating System Life Cycle

Solaris OS milestone releases come out approximately every 3 to 5 years, and are supported for a minimum of 10 years, as described. The most current milestone version is updated several times a year, providing access to fixes, new hardware support, and/or additional new features from the upcoming milestone version.

OpenSolaris OS releases come out approximately every 6 months, and are supported for 18 months, as described. OpenSolaris releases are based on the latest work in the codebase being developed by the OpenSolaris community. Future releases of the Solaris OS will be based on OpenSolaris OS releases.

Sun's Life Cycle Model for the Solaris Operating System

The Solaris Operating System life cycle, from when a milestone product version (e.g. Solaris 10) becomes widely available to when Sun stops broad support of that version, is at least ten years. Updates that incorporate a set of tested, integrated patches along with new Solaris features and support for new hardware are made available several times during the course of a release.

Figure 1: Solaris Operating System Life Cycle

As shown above in Figure 1, the Solaris life cycle is defined by seven major events:

E1.	General Availability (GA): This represents when a new version, e.g. Solaris 10, becomes available in the market.
E2.	End of Life (EOL) Pre-Notification: When Sun can provide the first notification to customers that it will be announcing the EOL of a milestone version. At this time, the date of the final EOL announcement is set to be one year later1.
E3.	End of Life (EOL) Announcement: When Sun announces that it will stop active development of a milestone version. The period from GA to the EOL announcement is at least four years and six months, and could be longer. EOL announcement triggers the start of a 90 day Last Order period.
E4.	Last Order Date (LOD): Marks the end of a 90 day period after the EOL announcement during which customers can place their final orders for the product. Note: customers can continue to purchase and renew regular support contracts until End of Service Life (E7).
E5.	Last Ship Date (LSD): Marks the 90 day period after LOD for Sun to ship the EOL product to customers. LSD marks the formal start of the five year Retirement Phase of that product.
E6.	End of Retirement Support Phase 1: Marks the end of a 2 year period after LSD during which customers get substantially the same level of support for post-EOL products as they get with pre-EOL products. There are no product updates or feature enhancements in Retirement Phase 1 or later.
E7.	End of Retirement Support Phase 2 / End of Service Life (EOSL): Marks the end of a 3 year period after Retirement Phase 1, in which customers can continue to get phone support for the EOL product. After EOSL, customers may be able to purchase extended support via Sun's custom support program.

Key life cycle event dates for Solaris versions are available here.

The Solaris Retirement Support model allows customers to purchase and/or extend contractual support for the Solaris Operating System (SPARC and x64/x86) for five years from the Last Ship Date as follows:

• During Retirement Phase 1 - the first two years after the Last Ship Date - Sun will provide contract customers full remedial support excepting requests for enhancements and cosmetic bugs. Patches will be created as needed and distributed through the SunSolve program. There is no material reduction in the level of support during this phase. However, patches will not be rolled up into quarterly updates.
  
  
• In Retirement Phase 2 - years three through five from the Last Ship Date - contract customers will continue to receive telephone support and will continue to have access to pre-existing^* patches on the SunSolve site. No patches will be issued for new bugs.
  
  
• Sun offers custom support extensions that enable customers to extend the above two phases of retirement support. Two years from the Last Ship Date and beyond, customers may contact Sun Enterprise Services for a custom quote to extend Retirement Phase 1 support. Five years from the Last Ship Date and beyond, customers may contact Sun for a custom quote to extend Retirement Phase 2 support.

Customers should contact their local Services sales representative or an authorized Sun reseller to receive further information about Solaris Vintage Support.

Sun supports each version of OpenSolaris for a period of 18 months. Customers receive the same level of support throughout that entire duration, and at the level they have purchased.

At any given time, in addition to the latest OpenSolaris version, the two prior versions are also supported (that is if prior versions exist).

Additional Information

• Solaris 8 Transition Information
• Solaris 9 Transition Pre-notification
• Read more details on Solaris Retirement Support