Alibaba Cloud Linux lifecycle and EOL response plan-Elastic Compute Service(ECS)-阿里云帮助中心

This topic describes the lifecycle of Alibaba Cloud Linux and provides recommended solutions to address the risks as Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 enters its ELS phase.

Alibaba Cloud Linux lifecycle

Alibaba Cloud Linux is a stable, secure, and high-performance server operating system developed by Alibaba Cloud. As one of the most widely deployed operating systems on Alibaba Cloud, it provides system software maintenance, security hardening, performance optimization, multi-architecture support, and Kernel Live Patching for various workloads, including web services, cloud-native applications, big data, databases, and AI.

Alibaba Cloud Linux 2, the first version of Alibaba Cloud Linux, was released in March 2019 and entered its Mainstream Support (MS) phase. The MS phase ended on March 31, 2024, when the operating system entered the ELS phase. The ELS phase will end on March 31, 2026, when Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 reaches its end of life (EOL).

Version	Development support phase	Maintenance support phase	Extended support phase	End of support date
Alibaba Cloud Linux 4	July 2025–June 2030	July 2030–June 2035	July 2035–June 2038	2038-06-30
Alibaba Cloud Linux 3	April 2021–March 2026	April 2026–March 2031	April 2031–March 2034	2034-03-31
Alibaba Cloud Linux 2	April 2016–March 2021	April 2021–March 2024	April 2024–March 2026	2026-03-31

For the maintenance cycle of Alibaba Cloud Linux Pro, see What is Alibaba Cloud Linux Pro?.

Impact of Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 end of life

According to the Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 maintenance plan, after March 31, 2026, users of Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 will no longer receive any software maintenance or support, including bug fixes and feature updates.

Alibaba Cloud public images and ECS services are also affected:

ECS instances created with Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 will continue to run without interruption.
Support for the Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 operating system will be discontinued on March 31, 2026.

Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 EOL solutions

You must address the end of life (EOL) of the Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 operating system based on your current business needs. For example, if the corresponding service is scheduled for decommissioning, you can disregard this event. For workloads accessible only within a private network, the risks are more manageable, allowing you to address them selectively. For Internet-facing services and workloads that require high stability and security, you must carefully assess the risks and develop a response plan.

For new workloads

We recommend that you do not use Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 images that are in the ELS phase to create new ECS instances. Instead, you can use an operating system in its Mainstream Support (MS) phase, such as Alibaba Cloud Linux 3, which is fully compatible with Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.

For existing workloads

For the short term, you can subscribe to the free one-year Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 ELS service. This subscription provides support that includes fixes for critical CVEs and bug fixes.
To ensure long-term business stability, we recommend that you begin planning and evaluating an operating system upgrade.

Upgrade the operating system

Step 1: Learn about the target operating system

Before you upgrade the operating system, learn about the target operating system. Upgrade Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 directly to Alibaba Cloud Linux 3. Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 has the following features.

High compatibility: Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 is fully compatible with the ecosystem and operational practices of Alibaba Cloud Linux 2. This means your migration costs are low when you move from an older version to a new one.
Performance and stability optimization: Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 is heavily optimized for Alibaba Cloud. It provides better performance and higher system stability.
Official long-term support: Alibaba Cloud provides official long-term support (LTS) and maintenance. This ensures system security and stability.
Free: No extra fees are required.
The most direct upgrade path: Upgrade from Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 to Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.

Step 2: Choose an upgrade plan

Before you upgrade the operating system, choose one of the following plans recommended by Alibaba Cloud based on your business deployment.

If your business can tolerate a short downtime and you can redeploy the business system, replace the system disk. This plan is suitable for rapid system upgrades in development, testing, or emergency situations.
If your business is deployed on the system disk or is sensitive to downtime, migrate by redeploying the environment. This involves purchasing a new instance. This plan is suitable for production environments or environments with strict requirements for availability and stability.
If you have difficulty redeploying the environment, try the operating system migration and upgrade plan. This plan is suitable for situations that cannot tolerate long interruptions. However, be aware of potential compatibility issues and upgrade risks.

Step 3: Pre-upgrade testing and preparation

Test preparation	Description
Assess the impact on your business	During the operation, do not stop, restart, or release the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance manually or by using scripts. Otherwise, the operation might fail. A migration drill or canceling the migration might trigger an automatic rollback to the pre-migration snapshot. Data generated during the migration will be lost. During the migration, the system kernel and packages on the original instance are installed or updated, and the instance restarts multiple times automatically. Your business cannot run normally during this period. Assess the impact and pause your business before you proceed.
Data backup	The migration process performs several operations on the ECS instance. These operations include creating snapshots of regular cloud disks, converting the operating system kernel version, reinstalling and upgrading packages, and stopping and starting the instance. Back up important data in advance. Schedule a migration window to avoid business impact from these operations.
Ensure no snapshots are being created	If a snapshot is being created, the migration will fail. Wait for the snapshot creation to complete before you start the replacement operation.
Comprehensive testing and verification	Before migration, thoroughly test and verify all your business applications in the target operating system environment. This ensures compatibility and performance between the applications and the target operating system. It also helps avoid issues such as poor business performance or functional failures after migration. Before and during the migration, the system checks the migration conditions and performs a pre-migration assessment on the original instance. If the source system does not meet the migration conditions or if the pre-migration assessment fails, the migration stops with an error. A successful migration is not guaranteed. Familiarize yourself with the migration restrictions and troubleshooting documents, and run tests in advance. For more information about migration issues, see Operating system migration issues (Linux).

Step 4: Upgrade the operating system

Steps and notes for redeploying the environment

The steps for the two plans, creating an instance by using custom settings to replace the original instance or changing the operating system (replacing the system disk) for an existing instance, are as follows.

Data backup: Before the operation, back up the data of the original instance by creating a custom image or a snapshot.
Workload migration: After you purchase a new instance or change the operating system, redeploy the runtime environment for your business. This includes tasks such as installing software and libraries (apt, yum), configuring environment variables, and deploying applications. Follow this process:
- Collect application software information from the original instance, and export key application configuration and data files.
- If you purchase a new instance, reinstall the specified applications based on the information from the original instance. Then, import the exported application configuration and data files.
- If your business application is written in a compiled language such as C/C++, recompile your business application on the new system.
- Test the application to ensure it runs normally.
Business switchover:
- If you purchase a new instance and complete the workload migration and business verification, pause the business on the original instance. Then, switch the application to run on the target instance.
- If you change the operating system, replace the system disk on the original instance. Then, perform the workload migration and business verification. Make sure to back up data and collect information from the original instance.

Steps for an in-place upgrade

The in-place upgrade plan only supports upgrading Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 to Alibaba Cloud Linux 3. For more information, see Operating system migration (Linux).

Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 ELS service

The Mainstream Support (MS) phase for Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 ends on March 31, 2024. Alibaba Cloud provides the Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 ELS Support Plan. You can use this ELS service if you cannot migrate in the short term. After the ELS period ends, technical support for Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 will stop.

After you subscribe, the system does not automatically fix vulnerabilities or update packages. Perform these actions manually using the yum tool. For more information, see Security updates using yum.

Scope of ELS for Alibaba Cloud Linux 2

The Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS) service for Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 provides support for major Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) fixes and bug fixes. The scope of the ELS service is as follows:

Supported architecture: x86 (64 bit)
Security support: Fixes for Critical and Important CVEs, including support for key security vulnerabilities. For more information, see Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 CVE Update History.
Bug fix support
- Urgent issues in the following key packages receive necessary bug fixes. Support for packages not on this list is evaluated as needed: bind, bash, chrony, glibc, gnutls, httpd, kernel, libgcrypt, libvirt, nss, openssh, openssl, Python 2.7, qemu-kvm, rpm, sudo, systemd, wget, and yum.
- For bugs that cannot be fixed right away, Alibaba Cloud provides suggested workarounds.

Subscribe to the Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 ELS service

Subscribe to the Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 ELS service in the Operating System Console to get access to the private yum repository. For more information, see Subscription Management or OS Copilot User Guide.