Version Adoption in PubSub+ Cloud

PubSub+ Cloud follows a defined version adoption policy for making new major versions of PubSub+ software event brokers available.

The key benefits of our version adoption policy are:

Predictable, scheduled releases in PubSub+ Cloud

PubSub+ Cloud makes new releases of the underlying PubSub+ software event broker available eight times per year (four Production and four Preview releases). Existing event broker services can upgrade only to newer Production releases.This cadence makes it easy for you to plan use of releases and upgrades. For more information, see Availability of Releases in PubSub+ Cloud.

For details about the software event broker versions, see Event Broker Releases.

Defined support for each software event broker version in PubSub+ Cloud

Production releases come with one year of full support and six months of additional technical support. Preview releases offer six months of technical support. For more information, see Support Phases in PubSub+ Cloud below, and Software Event Broker Versions and Support in PubSub+ Cloud.

Defined upgrade path for PubSub+ Cloud broker releases

You must upgrade your event broker services to a new major version at least once per year (before your release falls out of support). Upgrading is easy to schedule and requires minimal effort from you. For more information, see Upgrading Event Broker Services in PubSub+ Cloud.

Availability of Releases in PubSub+ Cloud

Each release of the underlying PubSub+ software event broker version in PubSub+ Cloud is announced to you via product notification emails. You can view the planned release dates at Supported Dates for Release Versions.

Software event broker releases in PubSub+ Cloud are synchronized to be available on the same day as the release of the PubSub+ software event broker. While you cannot upgrade to Preview releases, you can schedule upgrades to new Production releases when they are available. This cadence makes it easy for you to plan your upgrades. For more information, see Release Cadence in PubSub+ Cloud.

  • Prior to 10.5.0, the underlying software event broker had its own release types and release cadence.
  • PubSub+ Cloud has adopted Production releases of the software event broker since 9.1. You can see the list of releases adopted on the Solace website.
  • Event broker services versions that have fallen out of support are no longer available in your account and may not be visible.

Types of Releases in PubSub+ Cloud

Solace offers two release types for PubSub+ Cloud: Production and Preview. Both are generally available releases available for Kubernetes-based deployments.

Support for VM-based deployments is now deprecated and version 10.0.1 was the last event broker release that supported deployments in VM-based regions. For more details, see the Deprecated Features list.

Production releases are generally available software intended for production use and offer the following:

  • High-severity and security fixes are available within 30 days of availability of an industry-accepted remedy.

  • Solace releases qualified security errata and selected urgent bug fixes as they become available. The qualified security errata includes critical and high Common Vulnerability and Exposures (CVEs), and critical and important Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSAs).

Preview releases are intended for new feature introduction and integration. Preview releases provide a subset of the features to give you a preview and an indication of what is available in the next Production release. They have the following limitations when compared to Production releases:

  • Solace offers only technical support for Preview releases (six months after the release date of the software event broker).

  • No maintenance loads are provided. Solace any addresses critical bugs or security issues identified in a Preview release in the next Production release.

  • You can only create new event broker service with Preview releases. Upgrades to the Preview release from existing event broker service are not possible or supported.

  • The upgrade path for a Preview release event broker service is to upgrade to the subsequent Production release.

Support Phases in PubSub+ Cloud

Each Production release has a full support phase and a technical support phase. The technical support phase begins after the full support ends. The technical support phase provides adequate time to upgrade existing event broker services to the most recent Production release (that supports upgrades).

Because Preview releases are intended for feature introduction and integration rather than production purposes, they offer only a technical support phase. If you want to upgrade a Preview release, you can upgrade only to a newer Production release.

The phases of support are summarized in the following table:

Phase of Support Time Frame What's Included in the Support Phase

Full Support for Production releases

One year from the date of the release of the Production PubSub+ software event broker .

  • High-severity and security fixes are available within 30 days of availability of an industry-accepted remedy.
  • Qualified security errata and selected urgent bug fixes are released as they become available. The qualified security errata includes critical and high Common Vulnerability and Exposures (CVEs) , and critical and important Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSAs).
  • The software event broker versions in this phase allow creation of new event broker services.

Technical Support for Production releases

Six months from the date that the full support phase ends.

  • Software updates and security updates are no longer provided. New event broker services cannot be created with software event broker versions in this phase.
  • Solace upgrades your event broker services during an upgrade slot that you choose
  • Solace continues to answer technical questions during this time.

Technical Support for Preview releases

Six months from the release date.

  • Software updates and security updates are not provided.
  • Upgrade to this release are not supported. Only new service creation is supported.
  • Solace answers technical questions during this time.

Release Cadence in PubSub+ Cloud

Each year, PubSub+ Cloud releases up to eight major software event broker versions that include Production and Preview releases. The release cadence dates are available at Supported Dates for Release Versions.

The release cadence described started in broker version 10.5.0.

The following diagram shows:

  • the approximate release cadence for four Production and four Preview event broker service version release over the course of a year.
  • how the full and technical support phases for Production releases overlap and end over time
  • the duration of technical support for each Preview release.
  • regular Production releases that occur quarterly, with the next Preview release occurring one month after a preceding Production release.

Note that maintenance loads are also available during the full support phase but are not depicted in the illustration below.

The version numbers in the diagram below are only for illustrative purposes and do not reflect the software event broker versions that are currently available in PubSub+ Cloud. For information about the supported software event broker versions, see Software Event Broker Versions and Support in PubSub+ Cloud. In addition, the support time frames are relative to when a software event broker version is released. For more information, see Support Phases in PubSub+ Cloud.

Illustration depicting the standard release cadence as described on this page.