TSB Support Policy
TSB Releases explained
TSB follows a semantic versioning model based on https://semver.org. This means
we use a MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH version numbering style (e.g. v1.3.0).
This model describes that:
MAJORversion is incremented when incompatible API changes are made.MINORversion is incremented when new features are added.PATCHversion is incremented when bug and security fixes are handled.
TSB Release Cadence and Support
TSB has a quarterly release schedule in which at least a new MINOR (v1.x.0)
is released.
Each release of a new MINOR falls under the Long Term Support (LTS) policy, in
which Tetrate provides support starting from the official General Availability
(GA) release date of the MINOR release, up to the End of General Support
(EoGS) set to 12 months after GA. Any release after EOGS will not be supported
unless you have purchased extended support. Please contact your Tetrate sales
representative if you are insterested in purchasing extended support.
During the release's support window, bug and security fixes will be provided for
each eligible MINOR version, through the use of PATCH releases
(e.g. v1.x.1). A new PATCH release does not reset the support lifetime
duration, as it is tied to the initial MINOR release. Patch releases include
fixes for TSB specific components, as well as patch fixes for its open source
components like Envoy, Istio, SkyWalking, and Zipkin.
TSB Release Candidate versions
Next to the LTS versions, Tetrate can make interim "release candidate" versions available. These interim versions provide early access to new features to try out and test.
Release Candidates
Release candidate versions are not meant for production usage and even in non production we strongly encourage you to understand that there might be bugs that are either described in the preliminary release notes, or are not yet known. Also note that, new features might not be fully completed and documented yet.
If interested in testing a release candidate, do not hesitate to contact your Tetrate representative for the context around the specific release candidate. Customers testing release candidate versions are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the next LTS version as soon as available.
In LTS support lifetime, Tetrate will supply patches, security fixes for its components, and the underlying OSS dependencies as described in our component matrix.
Features are not back ported, please see the release notes and the feature status documents for released features.
TSB Release Support dates
| TSB Version | General Availability | EoGS* |
|---|---|---|
| TSB v1.3.x | 1 June, 2021 | 31 May, 2022 |
| TSB v1.2.x | 1 May, 2021 | 30 April, 2022 |
| TSB v1.1.x | 1 April, 2021 | 31 March, 2022 |
| TSB v1.0.x | 1 March, 2021 | 28 February, 2022 |
*End of General Support
TSB Component Version Matrix
Tetrate Service Bridge comes with the following open source components
| TSB | Istio | Envoy | SkyWalking | Zipkin | OpenTelemetry Collector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.3.0 | 1.8.5 | 1.16.3 | 8.4 | 2.21.4 | 0.22.0 |
| 1.2.0 | 1.7.3 | 1.16.3 | 8.3 | 2.21.4 | 0.22.0 |
| 1.1.0 | 1.7.3 | 1.16.3 | 8.3 | 2.21.4 | 0.14.1 |
| 1.0.0 | 1.7.3 | 1.16.3 | 8.3 | 2.21.4 | 0.14.1 |
| 0.9.x | 1.7.3 | 1.16.3 | 2.21.4 | 0.14.1 |
Kubernetes versions
Tetrate follows Istio's policy of maintaining N-2 (current major release version plus 2 versions before it) compatibility model at minimum and N-more when possible.
For further details on Istio’s compatibility policy refer to this RFC (you need to join the Istio Team Drive Google group to get access).
Fortunately, upstream Kubernetes hasn’t forced either Istio nor Tetrate to limit the compatibility to just N-2. Thus, the following TSB/Kubernetes compatibility matrix as of Q1 2021 holds true:
| TSB 0.9 | TSB 1.0 | TSB 1.1 | TSB 1.2 | TSB 1.3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kubernetes 1.14 | x | x | x | x | x |
| Kubernetes 1.15 | ✓* | ✓* | ✓* | ✓* | ✓** |
| Kubernetes 1.16 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kubernetes 1.17 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kubernetes 1.18 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kubernetes 1.19 | ✓* | ✓* | ✓* | ✓* | ✓ |
- *Upstream Istio 1.7 is not tested officially with Kubernetes 1.15 and 1.19. However, in this case Tetrate finds it possible to provide temporary workarounds to support TSB with 1.15 and 1.19 versions.
- **Upstream Istio 1.8 is not tested officially with Kubernetes 1.15. Tetrate has a test suite to make sure that TSB 1.3 supports Kubernetes 1.15.