Plesk Lifecycle Policy

Plesk continues to evolve from a basic and feature-based control panel to a powerful management platform proven on Server, Sites, Apps, Hosting & Cloud Businesses. Rapidly changing technologies require an update to the Plesk Lifecycle and End-of-Life (EOL) policy. This new approach supports Plesk users in staying ahead of the game, mitigating security risks, by making it easier for Plesk partners and customers to always be on the latest software version.

Benefits:

1. No need to upgrade or migrate to a new major version each year
2. Immediate access to new features or improved existing ones
3. Constantly patching potential security vulnerabilities
4. Boosted speed and performance
5. Protection of user’s data

With the launch of Obsidian, Plesk is ending the era of upgrades and introduces a monthly release cycle. Switching to monthly updates is imperative to always deliver a secure and stable version of Plesk with new features and improvements that Partners and Customers expect to get from an intelligent software solution.
In the past, Plesk used to launch one major version per year and users were required to upgrade the Plesk server (e.g. 12.x > 17.x). With Plesk Obsidian, users are strongly recommended to allow automatic updates through Plesk Server settings so they will automatically be on the latest version including hotfixes, security patches, micro updates, and more. The dedicated blog article offers additional details about monthly updates and the changed approach.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

1. An up-to-date and supported Plesk installation with all the latest available updates installed is a prerequisite for technical support from Plesk.
2. Security patches, security updates and/or hotfixes are NOT shipped when automatic updates are disabled.

Disclaimer: In case automatic updates are disabled on a particular Plesk server, the owner of the server acknowledges and agrees to take full responsibility for any resulting potential security risks and/or hacker attacks to his server. Plesk specifically disclaims any liability or responsibility in these cases of disabled security settings.

Plesk highly recommends to enable automatic updates if the user wants the Plesk server(s) to be stable and secure and have access to support.

Plesk Lifecycle Policy

• A major version is defined as a change of the first digit(s) of any Plesk version number. For example, Plesk Onyx (17.x) and Plesk Obsidian (18.x) are different major versions. Starting with Plesk Obsidian, version 18 will remain a major version that will be supported.
• For Plesk Obsidian (18.x), software patches are provided and support requests are accepted for the latest available update of this major version as well as the preceding update (see example). For all other versions, the Plesk version life cycle table below applies.

Example: Plesk 18.0.15 is installed by the user as fresh instance. After one month, if the user decides to install a fresh instance of Plesk, its version will be 18.0.16, meaning that the user will not even find the older version 18.0.15. At the same time, version 18.0.15 will continue to be supported until version 18.0.17 is released. In this example, version 18.0.17 is the latest update, while version 18.0.16 is the preceding update.

Plesk Version Lifecycle

The table below describes when specific versions of Plesk will enter the Extended Support phase and when patches / support will no longer be available. If the Plesk version in use is EOL (End Of Life), Plesk strongly recommends to upgrade to a supported Plesk version:

*In terms of Plesk Onyx, Extended Support is a 4-year period, after which the product will no longer be available for new purchases and will only receive patches for critical issues. The Extended Support Period is six (6) months.

**End-of-Life: Once the Extended Support period is over, the product will stop receiving further development (including critical patches), and technical support requests will no longer be accepted.

*** Starting from this date, Plesk begins accepting technical support requests for Plesk Obsidian Release Candidates (RC). Actual release date for Plesk Obsidian will be announced separately.

**** The upgrade path for Small Business Panel customers involves a migration to Plesk 10, where these products were merged.

Currently Supported OSes

The table below lists all operating systems which are receiving updates and support from the OS vendor and are therefore supported by a current and supported version of Plesk. Visit the Software Requirements section of the Plesk release notes for more information about OS compatibility of a particular Plesk release.

* Plesk recommends using the latest supported version of an operating system when deploying a new server because a server with a current OS has the longest potential lifetime before its OS Vendor Termination Date.

Unsupported OSes

Plesk does not accept support requests and will not issue software patches for servers with OSes that are not listed in the table above, or if their Vendor Termination Date is past due.

Support Specifics

Plesk does not accept technical support requests for preview versions of Plesk. Bug reports and technical questions for preview versions should be submitted through the Plesk Community Forum. Feature requests should be submitted through the Plesk User Voice.

For older unsupported versions of Plesk servers, Plesk strives to assist and accepts technical support requests, but only the ones related to upgrading to a supported version or environment. Exceptions are updates from and to preview versions, since the stability of such upgrades is not guaranteed.

Migration Assistance

If a user’s Plesk version is approaching its End of Life phase or the OS is approaching its Vendor Termination Date, Plesk recommends migrating to the latest Plesk version and a supported operating system. If a user needs migration instructions, advice, or if the user would prefer to let Plesk professionals handle the migration, the user should contact the Plesk Professional Services team.