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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.
  • Support periods 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.
These policies apply only to the APC platform. For release and lifecycle policies related to Astro Runtime, see Runtime release and lifecycle Policy.

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Support periods

Every APC 1.0 and later release has two consecutive support periods:
  • Standard support: Starts on the release date and runs for two years.
  • Long-term support (LTS): Extends support for the same version to three years from the release date.
Standard support and long-term support are two periods in the lifecycle of one release, not two versions of APC that you choose between. Astronomer publishes one build for each APC version. For the dates that apply to each version, see Astro Private Cloud lifecycle schedule. Long-term support includes bug fixes, security patches, and maintenance for the features in that version. Astronomer doesn’t backport new features to an earlier version, so a version stays feature-complete after its release. To get the newest APC and Airflow features, upgrade to each new version as soon as it becomes available.
Support periods apply to APC image versions. Long-term support doesn’t apply to the Astro CLI, Airflow, or Astro Runtime versions.
Astronomer Software 0.x used two release channels, Stable and LTS. That model applies only to the versions in Astronomer Software 0.3x lifecycle schedule.

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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. Astronomer provides upgrade guidance with each release.

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Version release cadence

Astro Private Cloud major, minor, and patch versions are released approximately on the following cadence: For each major.minor pair, only the latest patch is supported at any given time.

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Backport policy for bug and security fixes

When a new minor version is released within a major release series (for example, 1.1 within the 1.x series), the previous minor version (for example, 1.0) no longer receives new feature or bug fix patches. Astronomer recommends upgrading to the latest minor version to receive continued bug fixes and new features. Astronomer backports a fix for a major stability bug to the latest minor version of each supported major version. If you run an earlier minor version, upgrade to get the fix. Major issues in this category can cause significant delays in task scheduling and potential data loss. If a major security issue is identified, Astronomer will release fixes as new patch versions for all supported major.minor versions within their support window, whether the version is in its standard or long-term support period, in accordance with Astronomer’s CVE policy. Major issues in this category are classified by a combination of impact and exploitability.

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Astro Private Cloud lifecycle schedule

The following tables contain the exact lifecycle for each published version of APC. These timelines follow the standard and long-term support periods.

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Astronomer Software 0.3x lifecycle schedule

The following tables contain the lifecycle for each published version of Astronomer Software 0.3x. For the full Astronomer Software 0.3x release and lifecycle policy, see the Software 0.37 documentation.

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