VMWare ESXi Lifecycle: End Of Life And Support Status
Last updated on November 7, 2023
ESXi is a bare-metal, Type-1 hypervisor by VMWare. A hypervisor is software used to run virtual machines on top of a host machine. A bare-metal hypervisor runs directly on top of the hardware of the host machine. Therefore, such hypervisors are embedded into the firmware at the same level as the operating system.
Support status guide
End of life (EOL) is the end of a product’s useful life. When a product reaches the end of its life cycle, the manufacturer no longer supports it. The following table explains the different phases of a product’s lifecycle. Testing status is when the product is initially released and EOL is when product support is no longer offered. The time between these two points is the support timeframe.
Testing
The software is not yet publicly available. It is in testing phase i.e., alpha, beta, release preview etc.
Active
The software is actively supported by the vendor.
Phasing Out
The software will soon reach its end of life. You need to look for upgrade or migration options. The software will automatically go into phasing out status 2 months before end of life.
End Of Life
The software is no longer supported by the vendor. You need to make sure your system and environment are safe.
Version
Released
Active Support
Extended Support
(11 October 2022)
(11 October 2027)
(11 October 2029)
(2 April 2020)
(2 April 2025)
(2 April 2027)
(17 April 2018)
(15 October 2022)
(15 November 2023)
(15 November 2016)
(15 October 2022)
(15 November 2023)
(12 March 2015)
(12 March 2020)
(12 March 2022)
(19 September 2013)
(19 September 2018)
(19 September 2020)
A new version of ESXi is released every 2-3 years, but there is not policy against it. Meaning, there is no dedicated time interval or a month when a newer version of ESXi will be released.
However, a fixed duration of 5 years is adopted for general support of every ESXi version. While a version receives general support, it receives new hardware support and other bug and security fixes. During this time, the users may also receive technical guidance as per the support and subscription terms.
After 5 years of general support have passed, the ESXi version only receives technical guidance. In the table above, the “Extended support” actually means the “Technical guidance support.” During this phase, users may receive technical guidance as per their agreement, but will not receive new hardware support of rbug and security fixes.
EOLs
