LabKey Releases and Upgrade Support Policy

Documentation

LabKey provides clients with three types of regular releases that are suitable for production use:

  • Extended Support Release (ESR). Major LabKey Server versions are released every four months. Most production servers deploy ESRs. These releases are tested thoroughly and receive maintenance updates for approximately six months after initial release. ESRs are versioned using year and month, and end with .3.0, .7.0, or .11.0; for example: 24.3.0 (March 2024 release), 24.7.0 (July 2024 release), 24.11.0 (November 2024 release).
  • Maintenance Release. LabKey issues security and reliability fixes, plus minor enhancements, via periodic maintenance releases. ESRs are scheduled with maintenance releases every two weeks, for approximately six months after initial release. Maintenance releases include a non-zero minor version, for example, 24.3.1, 24.7.4. Maintenance releases are cumulative; each includes all the fixes and enhancements included in all previous maintenance releases.
  • Monthly Release. LabKey also provides monthly releases. These are tested thoroughly (as with ESRs), but they do not receive regular maintenance updates. Those deploying monthly releases must upgrade every month to ensure they stay current with all security and reliability fixes. Monthly releases are versioned with year and month, and end in .0, for example: 24.1.0, 24.4.0, 24.10.0.

LabKey also creates nightly snapshot builds primarily for developer use:

  • Snapshot Build. These builds are produced nightly with whatever changed each day. They are not tested thoroughly and should not be deployed to production servers. They are intended for internal LabKey testing, or for external developers who are running LabKey Server on their workstations.

We strongly recommend that every production deployment stays updated with the most recent maintenance or monthly release. Upgrading regularly ensures that you are operating with all the latest security, reliability, and performance fixes, and provides access to the latest set of LabKey capabilities. LabKey Server contains a reliable, automated system that ensures a straightforward upgrade process.

Recognizing that some organizations can't upgrade immediately after every LabKey ESR or monthly, upgrades can be skipped for a full year (or longer in some cases):

  • Every release can directly upgrade every release from that year and the previous year. For example, 23.2 through 24.1 can upgrade servers running any 22.x or previous 23.x release. That provides an upgrade window of 13 - 24 months. Any earlier release (21.x or before) will not be able to upgrade directly to 23.2 or later.
  • While we discourage running snapshot (nightly) builds in production environments, we support upgrading snapshot releases under the same rules.

This upgrade policy provides flexibility for LabKey clients and the product team. Having a window of support for upgrade scenarios allows us to retire old migration code, streamline SQL scripts, and focus testing on the most common upgrade scenarios.

The table below shows the upgrade scenarios supported by past and upcoming releases:

ReleasesCan Upgrade From These Releases
24.2.0 - 25.1.0 23.1.0 and later
23.2.0 - 24.1.0 22.1.0 and later
22.2.0 - 23.1.0 21.1.0 and later
21.11.0 - 22.1.0 19.2.0 and later
21.7.x 19.1.0 and later
21.3.x 19.1.0 and later
20.11.x 19.1.0 and later

The table below shows the upgrade scenarios supported by past releases that followed our previous upgrade policy:

Production ReleaseCan Upgrade From These Production ReleasesCan Upgrade From These Monthly Releases and Snapshot Builds
20.7.x 18.1 and later 19.1.0 and later
20.3.x 17.3 and later 19.1.0 and later
19.3.x 17.2 and later 19.1.0 and later
19.2.x 17.1 and later 18.3.0 and later
19.1.x 16.3 and later 18.2 and later
18.3.x 16.2 and later 18.1 and later
18.2 16.1 and later 17.3 and later
18.1 15.3 and later 17.2 and later
17.3 15.2 and later 17.1 and later
17.2 15.1 and later 16.3 and later
17.1 14.3 and later 16.2 and later
16.3 14.2 and later 16.1 and later
16.2 14.1 and later 15.3 and later
16.1 13.3 and later 15.2 and later
15.3 13.2 and later 15.1 and later
15.2 13.1 and later 14.3 and later
15.1 12.3 and later 14.2 and later
14.3 12.2 and later 14.1 and later
14.2 12.1 and later 13.3 and later
14.1 11.3 and later 13.2 and later
13.3 11.2 and later 13.1 and later
13.2 11.1 and later 12.3 and later
13.1 10.3 and later 12.2 and later
12.3 10.2 and later 12.1 and later
12.2 10.1 and later 11.3 and later
12.1 9.3 and later 11.2 and later
11.3 9.2 and later 11.1 and later
11.2 9.1 and later 10.3 and later
11.1 8.3 and later 10.2 and later
10.3 8.2 and later 10.1 and later

 

If you have questions or find that this policy causes a problem for you, please contact LabKey for assistance.

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