Astro Private Cloud release and lifecycle policy
Astronomer supports a variety of policies that drives the naming, release cadence, and maintenance commitments associated with all published software.
This document offers guidelines on the version lifecycle of Astro Private Cloud (APC). It includes a description of:
- How APC is versioned.
- Which versions of APC are currently available.
- Release channels and the maintenance schedule for all versions.
For information on the latest APC releases, see Release notes. For information on compatibility between all versioned software, see APC Version compatibility reference.
Release channels
To meet the unique needs of different operating environments, we offer all Astronomer customers two release channels:
- Stable: Includes the latest Astro Private Cloud and Airflow features
- Long-term Support (LTS): Includes long-term testing, stability, and maintenance for a core set of features
All releases of APC are considered stable. The LTS release channel is a subset of the stable release channel that promises extended stability, reliability, and support from our team.
For customers looking to access Astro Private Cloud’s newest features on an incremental basis, Astronomer recommends following the standard release channel and upgrading to new versions as soon as they are made available.
Astro Private Cloud versioning
Astro Private Cloud follows Semantic Versioning for all published APC. This means that Astronomer use Major, Minor, and Patch releases across the product in the format of major.minor.patch.
- Major versions: Significant feature additions, including backward-incompatible changes to an API or dag specification.
- Minor versions: Functional changes, including backward-compatible changes to an API or dag specification.
- Patch versions: Bug and security fixes that resolve incorrect behavior.
It’s safe to upgrade to minor and patch versions within a major version. Upgrade guidance for major and LTS versions is provided with each release.
Version release cadence
Astro Private Cloud major, minor, and patch versions are released approximately on the following cadence:
- The standard support period for major and minor releases is two years.
- LTS extends the support period to three years.
- For each
major.minorpair, only the latest patch is supported at any given time.
Backport policy for bug and security fixes
If a major stability bug is identified by our team, they backport the fix to all LTS versions, and only the latest stable version. For users on a stable version that is not latest, our team recommends that you upgrade. Major issues in this category can result in significant delays in task scheduling as well as potential data loss.
If a major security issue is identified, a fix will be backported and made available as a new patch version for all supported stable and LTS releases. Major issues in this category are classified by a combination of impact and exploitability.
Astro Private Cloud lifecycle schedule
The following tables contain the exact lifecycle for each published version of APC. These timelines are based on the LTS and stable release channel maintenance policies.
