Product Lifecycle Support Policies

LTSS (Long Term Service Pack Support): LTSS extends the lifecycle of each SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) service pack, allowing customers to remain on a given service pack for an additional 3 years beyond its normal support period, without requiring an upgrade.

ESPOS (Extended Service Pack Overlap Support) is a specialized flavor of LTSS available exclusively for SAP customers. It is bundled into SLES for SAP and provides extended support coverage for all service packs. The only exception is the last service pack in each SLES family, where the general support period is already sufficient. It offers 4.5 years of support without the need for additional ESPOS.

LTSS Extended Security (LTSS ES) is a variant of LTSS that provides deeper security coverage compared to the standard LTSS. It is available only for the last service pack of each SLES family and is intended for customers with advanced security needs during the LTSS support phase.

LTSS Core extends the product lifecycle by an additional three years after the standard LTSS period ends. It is available only for the last service pack in each SLES family and is suited for customers who require long-term stability on the final release.

LTSS Reactive also extends support for an additional three years following the end of LTSS. Unlike LTSS Core, it is available for all service packs except the final one in each SLES family. This option allows customers to remain on older, non-final service packs while continuing to receive critical updates and fixes. LTSS Reactive is on demand, any fix has to be requested via Support Request and is delivered via PTF.

All flavours of LTSS have the following conditions:

• Support shall be provided only for existing systems or replacements on the identical hardware (in case of system recovery)
• Changes to the virtualization platform are considered hardware changes and are not supported
• Issues must occur during the active time of the subscription and not before the order is booked at SUSE

The table with LTSS flavours characteristics