So, what does this mean practically? Well, here’s a chart with some very common products and their support lifecycles:
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Yay!Įven further still, there is a new type of support called the Modern Lifecycle Policy which essentially means if you pay for Software Assurance (SA), the product will be supported indefinitely … until Microsoft gives you 12 months of notice they are terminating support on it.
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Even though it was a “new” OS since it was just a second release of a previous, it did not start a full new five years, but rather inherited 2012’s end cycles.
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Windows Server 2012 R2 entered mainstream support on November 25, 2013, though, but its end of mainstream is January 9, 2018, and end of extended is January 10, 2023. Which, with five years added on, gave it an end of mainstream in January 9, 2018, and an end of extended support on January 10, 2023. Windows Server 2012 entered mainstream support on October 30, 2012. Confused yet? It gets even better though - for modern Microsoft products, an R2 version doesn’t get a refresh on support lifecycle. It’s unclear why they often get an extra couple of months. Yes, those dates don’t quite line up exactly with five years. Meanwhile Service Pack 1 inherits the normal expiration of the OS – and is supported mainstream through 2014, with extended through the end of 2019. However, Service Pack 1 for it came out February 2, 2011, meaning that the end of support for the NON-patched Windows Server 2008 R2 is actually Ap(two years after Service Pack 1), rather than the normal date. By default that would mean that 2008 R2 would have mainstream support through 2014, and extended through 2019. For example, Windows 2008 R2 came out on October 22, 2009. If a Service Pack is released, then support for the previous Service Pack (or OS version) ends two years later. Service Packs, Modern Lifecycle Policies and Microsoft End of Support Timelines Okay, so that’s a pretty easy to follow cycle, right? Well … no, because Microsoft treats Service Packs specially.
For this reason, unless you’re a big company with a few hundred thousand dollars sitting around to pay for extended support, you need to be off of an OS BEFORE it gets to extended support. That means that you can pay to have additional support (phone and full patches). Without investing in the additional support, nothing but the most critical of security vulnerabilities will be released (maybe), and you won’t be entitled to phone support and the normal updates you are used to will not continue. After those five years, it goes to Extended support. Microsoft’s high-level support metric is that a product is supported (mainstream) for five years after it goes GA. Unfortunately, this isn’t as easily said as done. With that in mind, it’s vital to keep up to date on your software so that you maintain support. There’s nothing worse than finding a bug or security vulnerability and then finding out that you are not entitled to getting that bug/vulnerability patched, so you’re just stuck with it.
However, when you need it, there’s nothing worse than calling and having them tell you, “Sorry, this is unsupported,” and then you’re left on your own again (often after having wasted two hours finally getting a technician).įar more importantly though are security patches. Microsoft support for many people is the last resort, the punt after all other attempts have failed. If you’re lucky, you’ve never had to call it and never will have to call it. Additionally, we’ve updated it to include the changes to the Semi-Annual Channel pack with Windows Server 2016. UPDATE: We have changed the color codings to reflect what’s overdue and what’s upcoming in terms of support expirations.
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