Astro Runtime maintenance and lifecycle policy

Astro Runtime is a production ready, data orchestration tool based on Apache Airflow that is distributed as a Docker image and is required by all Astronomer products. It is intended to provide organizations with improved functionality, reliability, efficiency, and performance. Deploying Astro Runtime is a requirement if your organization is using Astro.

Astronomer maintenance and lifecycle policies are part of the distribution. These policies define:

• The maintenance window for specific Astro Runtime versions.
• The frequency of updates.

Release channels​

To meet the unique needs of different operating environments, Astro Runtime versions are associated with the following release channels:

• Stable: Includes the latest Astronomer and Apache Airflow features, available on release
• Long-term Support (LTS): Includes additional testing, stability, and maintenance for a core set of features

All major Astro Runtime versions belong to the Astro Runtime stable release channel. The LTS release channel is a subset of the stable release channel and includes additional stability, reliability, and support. For more information on how Astro Runtime is versioned, see Runtime versioning.

For users who want to keep up with the latest Astronomer and Airflow features on an incremental basis, we recommend upgrading to new versions of Astro Runtime as soon as they are made generally available. This should be regardless of release channel. New versions of Runtime are issued regularly and include timely support for the latest major, minor, and patch versions of Airflow.

For customers looking for less frequent upgrades and functional changes, we recommend following the LTS release channel exclusively.

Astro Runtime maintenance policy​

The maintenance period for an Astro Runtime version depends on its release channel:

Release Channel	Maintenance Duration
Stable	6 months or 3 months after the next major Astro Runtime release, whichever is longer
LTS	18 months or 6 months after the next LTS Astro Runtime release, whichever is longer

For each supported major Runtime version, bug fixes are delivered only through new minor.patch versions. If you report an issue with a supported Astro Runtime image that is not on the latest minor.patch version, Astronomer Support might ask that you upgrade your Astro Runtime version to see if that resolves the issue.

For example, if you report an issue occurring on a Deployment running Astro Runtime 9.0.0, Astronomer support might ask you to first upgrade to the latest 9.minor.patch version before troubleshooting your issue any further. If the issue still persists after upgrading, any fixes to that issue will be delivered in a new minor or patch release. Astronomer strives to provide backwards compatibility for all upgrades within the version. For example, you can upgrade directly from 9.0.0 to 9.4.0 and expect no breaking changes unless otherwise stated in documentation.

Within the maintenance window of each Astro Runtime version, the following is true:

• A set of Docker images corresponding to that version is available for download on Quay.io.
• Astronomer will regularly publish bug or security fixes identified as high-priority.
• Support for paying customers running a maintained version of Astro Runtime is provided by Astronomer Support.
• A user can create a new Deployment with the Astro UI, API, or Astro CLI with any supported major.minor version pair of Runtime. For new Deployments, the Astro UI assumes the latest patch.

When the maintenance window for a given version of Runtime ends, the following is true:

• Astronomer is not obligated to answer questions regarding a Deployment that is running an unsupported version.
• New Deployments cannot be created on Astro with an unsupported version of Runtime. Versions that are no longer maintained will not render as an option in the Deployment creation process from the Astro UI, API, or Astro CLI.
• The Deployment view of the Astro UI will show a warning that encourages the user to upgrade if the Deployment is running an unsupported version.
• The latest version of the Astro CLI will show a warning if a user pushes an Astro Runtime image to Astronomer that corresponds to an unsupported version.

Astronomer will not interrupt service for Deployments running Astro Runtime versions that are no longer in maintenance. Unsupported versions of Astro Runtime are available for local development and testing with the Astro CLI.

End of maintenance date​

Maintenance is discontinued the last day of the month for a given version. For example, if the maintenance window for a version of Astro Runtime is January - June of a given year, that version will be maintained by Astronomer until the last day of June.

Restricted runtime versions​

There are some restricted versions of the Astro runtime that have known bugs and can't be used even if you enabled deprecated Astro Runtime versions.

Yanked versions​

Runtime version	Yanked reason
8.0.0	Does not apply cluster policies defined through pluggy.
9.0.0 - 9.6.0	Has significant scheduling performance issues.
11.0.0 - 11.1.0	Has db migration issues when you have running triggers.

You can find a comprehensive list of available, deprecated, and restricted versions of the Astro Runtime versions at updates.astronomer.io. Restricted versions of the Astro Runtime have the status "yanked":true and include an explanation of why the version is unavailable.

Security​

Astronomer continuously checks for available security fixes for software used in Astro Runtime. This process includes scanning language dependencies, container images, and open source threat intelligence sources. When a security fix is available, Astronomer evaluates potential risks for organizations using Astro Runtime and determines deployment priority. Low-priority fixes are deployed following the regular maintenance policy as described in Astro Runtime maintenance policy.

If a vulnerability is not yet addressed in a third-party dependency and no official fix is available, Astronomer attempts to address the vulnerability or its impact with environmental mitigations. Whenever possible, Astronomer collaborates with the upstream project to support a timely delivery of the official fix. This process also covers images publicly available on Quay.io and provides context for their vulnerability scanning results.

Astro Runtime releases may or may not include a fix to a Common Vulnerability and Exposure (CVE). When you use a particular Astro Runtime version the day of release, the CVE fixes that version contains might be undisclosed. For security purposes, a description of these fixes will be retroactively added to release notes only once the CVE resolution is published or announced by the upstream project.

If you identify a vulnerability that results in relevant risk for your organization, contact Astronomer security.

Backport policy for bug and security fixes​

• Functional bugs: When Astronomer identifies a significant functional bug in Astro Runtime, a fix is backported to all Long Term Support (LTS) versions and the latest stable version. To avoid the impact of previously identified bugs, Astronomer recommends that you consistently upgrade Astro Runtime to the latest stable version.

• Security vulnerabilities: When Astronomer identifies a significant security vulnerability in Astro Runtime, a fix is backported and made available as a patch version for all stable and LTS versions in maintenance. A significant security issue is defined as an issue with significant impact and exploitability.

Occasionally, Astronomer might deviate from the defined response policy and backport a bug or security fix to releases other than the latest stable and LTS versions.

Astro Runtime lifecycle schedule​

The following table contains the exact lifecycle for each published version of Astro Runtime. These timelines are based on the LTS and Stable release channel maintenance policies.

Runtime version	Airflow version	Release date	End of maintenance date
9 (LTS)	2.7	August 18, 2023	January 2025
11 (LTS)	2.9	April 8, 2024	October 2025
12 (LTS)	2.10	August 16, 2024	February 2026

If you have any questions or concerns, contact Astronomer support.

Astro Runtime Python version images​

Starting with Astro Runtime 9, Astronomer maintains different Astro Runtime images for each supported Python version. If a Python version goes out of support while that Runtime version is in support, Astronomer will not publish a Runtime version for that Python version.

Legacy Astro Runtime versions​

The following table contains all major Runtime releases that are no longer supported. Astronomer is not obligated to answer support questions regarding these versions.

Runtime version	Airflow version	Release date	End of maintenance date
3	2.1.1	August 12, 2021	February 2022
4 (LTS)	2.2	March 10, 2022	September 2023
5 (LTS)	2.3	April 30, 2022	April 2024
6 (LTS)	2.4	September 19, 2022	March 2024
7	2.5	December 3, 2022	July 2023
8	2.6	April 30, 2023	November 2023
10	2.8	December 18, 2023	June 2024