Support Policy
TSB Releases explained
We develop and release Tetrate Service Bridge on an incremental basis, using an Agile-like approach to deliver feature updates and fixes to customers promptly.
Our versioning uses a MAJOR
.MINOR
.POINT
version numbering style (e.g. 1.12.3
):
- We make point releases on a regular schedule, typically every 6-8 weeks.
- We make minor releases typically every 4 months (3 per year)
- The major version number is unchanged from our first generally-available release
Point Releases
Point releases (e.g. 1.12.x) may contain:
- CVE fixes for dependent components and other critical security fixes
- Incremental additions to existing features
- New or extended APIs (breaking changes are avoided as far as possible)
- Early new features, disabled-by-default where necessary
We test upgrade paths from a variety of earlier releases extensively, but please contact Tetrate support if you want advice and confirmation before commencing a significantly-large upgrade.
Minor Releases
Minor releases (e.g. 1.13.0) may contain:
- Product changes as described for point releases
In addition, a minor release may contain:
- Significant changes (minor versions) to dependencies such as Istio
- Significant breaking changes (these are to be avoided as far as possible)
When we make a minor release, we will also:
- Update the documentation, creating a new
latest
version and leaving the previous version available for reference - Assess our feature maturity, announcing features that are promoted to 'Generally-Available' status, or features that will be retired in later releases
Support Policy
Each new MINOR
release falls under the long term support policy, in which Tetrate provides support starting from the official General Availability (GA) release date of the MINOR
release, to the End of General Support (EoGS).
End of General Support (EoGS) for a MINOR
release (e.g. 1.12.x
) is the later of:
- 12 months after the release of the first
Minor
release e.g. 1.12.0 - The date of the N+3
MINOR
release, e.g. 1.15.0
... meaning that generally, TSB MINOR versions N, N-1 and N-2 are fully supported (our N-2 support policy), and each minor version is supported for a minimum of 1 year after initial release.
Any release after EOGS will not be supported unless extended support has been arranged with Tetrate prior to the EoGS date.
During the release's support window, bug and security fixes will be provided for
each eligible MINOR
version, through the use of POINT
releases
(e.g. v1.x.1
). A new POINT
release does not reset the support lifetime
duration, as it is tied to the initial MINOR
release. Point releases include
fixes for TSB specific components, as well as fixes for its open source
components like Envoy, Istio, SkyWalking, and Zipkin.
Supported Upgrade Policy
TSB follows a structured upgrade policy to maintain compatibility and stability across platform versions. This policy, defined as N-2
, ensures that any given version of the TSB Management Plane (MP) is fully compatible with Control Plane (CP) versions released up to two versions prior (N-2).
Understanding the N-2 Upgrade Policy
- For any TSB Management Plane version, denoted as
1.x
, compatibility is assured with the1.(x-2)
version of the TSB Control Plane. - For instance, if you are using TSB Management Plane (MP) version
1.13.x
, it is guaranteed to be compatible with TSB Control Plane (CP) version1.11.x
. - However, this policy does not guarantee compatibility with Control Plane versions that are three or more releases behind the current Management Plane version. Continuing the previous example, TSB MP
1.13.x
would not be guaranteed to work with CP1.10.x
.
Implications for Upgrading
- When planning upgrades, it is important to consider this policy to ensure compatibility between the Management Plane and Control Plane versions.
- This policy aids in maintaining a stable and predictable environment, reducing the risks associated with version incompatibility.
Recommendations
- Users are advised to regularly update their Control Plane versions to stay within the N-2 compatibility range of their Management Plane version.
- Staying up-to-date with the latest releases not only ensures compatibility but also provides access to the latest features and security updates.
Updates and Fixes
Tetrate will issue updates and fixes to the most recent MINOR
release.
For earlier supported MINOR
releases, Tetrate will supply critical patches, security fixes for its components, and the underlying OSS dependencies as described in our component
matrix.
Features are not back ported to earlier supported MINOR
releases.
Please see the release notes and the feature status documents for released features.
TSB EoGS dates
EoGS dates may be extended according to the N+3 policy explained above.
TSB Version | General Availability | End of General Support |
---|---|---|
TSB v1.12.x | 27 February, 2025 | 26 February, 2026 |
TSB v1.11.x | 15 November, 2024 | 14 November, 2025 |
TSB v1.10.x | 17 July, 2024 | 16 July, 2025 |
TSB v1.9.x | 12 April, 2024 | 11 April, 2025 |
TSB v1.8.x | 21 December, 2023 | 20 December, 2024 |
TSB v1.7.x | 15 September, 2023 | 31 May, 2024 |
TSB v1.6.x | 1 January, 2023 | 1 March, 2024 |
TSB v1.5.x | 15 July, 2022 | 22 December, 2023 |
TSB v1.4.x | 1 November, 2021 | 31 October, 2022 |
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 |
TSB Platform compatibility
Tetrate maintains the commitment to test TSB compatibility with Generally Supported k8s versions (approximately most recent three minor releases). For details on Kubernetes release policy refer to this document.
Tetrate maintains the commitment to test TSB Compatibility with OpenShift releases that are either in Full Support or Maintenance Support phase of their lifecycle. Generally, this means most recent 4 minor OpenShift releases. For details on OpenShift Life Cycle Policy refer to official RedHat documentation.
Where possible, Tetrate makes its best effort to verify TSB compatibility with earlier platform releases that may have reached their EoL. For further details, please refer to Tetrate support.
Additionally, Tetrate makes its best effort to verify TSB compatibility with MKE 3.7+
TSB Release | Verified Kubernetes Versions | Verified OpenShift Versions |
---|---|---|
TSB v1.10.0 | 1.27-1.30 | 4.12-4.16 |
TSB Supported Additional Platforms
Tetrate Service Bridge supports additional platforms for workload onboarding onto the mesh:
Platforms | Notes |
---|---|
AWS EC2 - virtual machine instances | Onboarding authenticated using AWS Account credentials |
AWS ECS tasks | See notes |
On-prem or other cloud-hosted VMs | Onboarding authenticated using JWT tokens |
Onboarding is handled by a Tetrate Onboarding Agent and Istio Sidecar. Tetrate provide packages for the following environments:
Supported OS | Notes |
---|---|
RHEL family | RHEL 8+, Amazon Linux 2023; installation via RPM packages |
Debian family | Debian 9+, Ubuntu 20.04+; installation via DEB packages |
TSB Component Version Matrix
Tetrate Service Bridge comes with the following open source components
TSB | Istio | Envoy | SkyWalking | Cert Manager | OpenTelemetry Collector |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
master | 1.26.1 | 1.34.2 | 10.3.0-20250721-122017 | v1.16.1-tetrate-v7 | 0.129.1 |
TSB Feature Definitions Terminology
Features in TSB are designated in 5 different stages as described below. Any stages apart from the Production (Default) stage, are identified in the Feature Status Table, API References, and Guides.
Feature Stage | Notes |
---|---|
Alpha | Disabled by default, and can be enabled only by Tetrate Support. These features are for customers' initial testing, and for collecting feedback |
Beta | Limited availability feature that is pre-Production standard. These features are for customers' evaluation within any licensing or feature flag restrictions. The API is subject to change, although unlikely |
Production | Default - These features are Generally Available for use in Production. Any feature that has not been explicitly identified in any of the other stages can be considered as Production-ready |
Deprecated | These features are deprecated from the Product and will be removed in a future release based on the their impact and usage (see the Deprecation Policy below for details) |
End of Life | These features are End of Life and will be removed from the Product |
TSB Deprecation Policy
- Features that are deprecated are identified in the Release Notes, API references, and Guides.
- The information also includes the Release in which they are deprecated and the Release in which they will be removed (End of Life).
- When a feature is deprecated, users should stop using the feature, or migrate to any recommended alternate solutions.
- Upon deprecation, the feature is removed (End of Life) from the product 2 or 4 minor releases later as annotated per-feature in the Feature Status Table.
Please work with your Customer Engineering Representative or Tetrate Support to plan the migration from the feature(s) that are deprecated to the recommended alternate solutions.