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. v1.4.0).

This model describes that:

1. MAJOR version is incremented when incompatible API changes are made.
2. MINOR version is incremented when new features are added.
3. PATCH version is incremented when bug and security fixes are handled.

TSB Release Cadence and Support

Tetrate releases PATCH updates (1.x.y) to supported TSB versions on a regular basis, and at least quarterly.

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, to the End of General Support (EoGS) set to 12 months after GA or N-2 (two versions prior to the latest TSB version), whichever is longer. 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 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.

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 the 1.(x-2) version of the TSB Control Plane.
• For instance, if you are using TSB Management Plane (MP) version 1.11.x, it is guaranteed to be compatible with TSB Control Plane (CP) version 1.9.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 1.11.x would not be guaranteed to work with CP 1.8.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.

Supported Versions

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 EoGS dates based on planned upcoming releases

TSB Version	General Availability	End of General Support
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 v1.11.1	1.28-1.31	4.14-4.17
TSB v1.11.0	1.28-1.30	4.13-4.16

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
1.11.1	1.22.6	1.30.7	10.2.0-20241114-1216	v1.14.7-tetrate-v3	0.115.1
1.11.0	1.22.6	1.30.7	10.2.0-20241011-1450	v1.14.7	0.112.0

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.

info

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.