13 September 2026
OpenNebula provides this Release Cycle Policy to help customers and partners effectively plan, deploy, and support their infrastructure. We publish this policy to provide as much transparency and predictability as possible; however, circumstances may occasionally require exceptions to the planned release schedule or lifecycle.
OpenNebula follows a rapid release cycle to deliver new features and innovations based on user and customer requirements and feedback. This allows capabilities and improvements to be delivered more quickly and in smaller increments, while continuously improving the overall technical quality of the product. For customers that prefer a slower and more predictable pace of change, OpenNebula provides Long-Term Support (LTS) releases.
OpenNebula Releases
OpenNebula publishes major, minor and maintenance releases:
- Each major release of OpenNebula is denoted by a single major number (i.e. OpenNebula 7). A new major release typically comes with significant additions that may involve changes in the interfaces, core or database, and so may require a complex upgrade process for production environments.
- Each minor release of OpenNebula is denoted by a major and a minor number (i.e. OpenNebula 7.2). A new minor release typically involves enhancements, optimizations and bug fixes that may bring along small changes to the core and database, and so allow a seamless update process for production environments following a pre-defined migration path.
- Maintenance releases of OpenNebula are denoted by a major, a minor and an incremental number (i.e. OpenNebula 7.0.1). A maintenance release typically includes bug fixes, security updates, and compatible incremental improvements according to the support phase of the release, and its upgrade is designed to be straightforward.
Major and minor releases are defined as “main releases”. Exceptionally, the project may deliver patch releases (i.e. OpenNebula 7.0.0.1) with critical bug fixes.
Four weeks before an official major or minor release date, there is a beta release series. This beta series marks the feature-freeze for the release. Development efforts are then mainly devoted to bug fixing and polishing. A release candidate version is usually published one week before an official major or minor release date.
We aim to produce:
- A new major release approximately every 3 to 5 years.
- Between 6 and 10 minor releases for each major version, issued approximately every 6 months.
- At least one maintenance release every 3 months for supported Enterprise Edition release families, providing applicable bug fixes, security updates, and incremental improvements according to their lifecycle phase.
OpenNebula Editions
While there is a single OpenNebula software distribution, some releases—primarily major and minor versions—are made available as Community Editions, while others—mainly maintenance releases—are distributed exclusively to organizations with an active Enterprise Subscription (referred to as Enterprise Editions). For example, while version 6.10 was released publicly as a Community Edition, all subsequent maintenance releases in the 6.10.x series (from 6.10.1 to 6.10.4) were made available exclusively to customers with an active Enterprise Subscription.
Therefore, OpenNebula releases can belong to either of the following two software editions:
- Community Edition (CE): A publicly available version of OpenNebula that provides the complete core functionality of the platform and access to each new main release, making it suitable for development, testing, community-driven environments, and users that want early access to new capabilities.
- Enterprise Edition (EE): The enterprise-maintained edition of OpenNebula, designed for production environments and available to organizations with an active Enterprise Subscription. It incorporates the fixes, updates, optimizations, Enterprise Tools, Drivers, and integrations delivered throughout the Enterprise maintenance lifecycle. It includes:
- Additional bug fixes and software patches beyond the Community Edition.
- Minor new features and optimizations developed by OpenNebula Systems.
The Enterprise Edition provides the continuous maintenance, lifecycle management, enterprise integrations, and technical support required for production and mission-critical environments.
OpenNebula Community Edition
The Community Editions of OpenNebula and their associated binary packages are distributed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. These correspond to the major and minor releases of OpenNebula, which are updated and published every six months and maintained through the OpenNebula Community Forum. As a general rule, the OpenNebula Project does not publish public maintenance releases; only patch releases addressing critical bug fixes are issued—for example, OpenNebula 5.12.0.1.
OpenNebula Enterprise Edition
One of the key benefits of the OpenNebula Enterprise Subscription is access to Expanded Maintenance, which provides several enterprise-grade advantages—including access to maintenance versions of OpenNebula and the implementation of an STS/LTS release model designed to deliver long-term software maintenance and stability for production environments.
The OpenNebula versions released under the Enterprise Edition, representing the production-ready builds of OpenNebula, are distributed under a commercial license governed by the OpenNebula Subscription Agreement. The maintenance versions of OpenNebula are updated and released every three months and are maintained through the Customer Portal for Corporate Users with an active OpenNebula Subscription. Customers also gain access to exclusive Enterprise Tools that simplify upgrades, lifecycle management, and the maintenance of OpenNebula clouds in production environments, as well as Enterprise Drivers that provide enhanced integration with commercial infrastructure technologies.
LTS (Long-Term Support) releases are typically issued every 18 months and are the enterprise-grade releases recommended for most production deployments. Each LTS release receives at least 36 months of standard maintenance and technical support, with maintenance releases normally delivered every three months throughout this lifecycle. After the standard support period, customers may further extend the lifetime of an LTS release through Extended Life Support, for an overall lifecycle of up to four and a half years.
Between LTS releases, OpenNebula provides STS (Short-Term Support) versions, which are interim production-quality releases generally issued as part of the regular main-release cycle. Typically, two STS releases are provided between consecutive LTS releases, although the exact release schedule may vary.
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An STS version is maintained and technically supported for a period of 9 months. This typically includes approximately 6 months until the next main release (LTS or STS) becomes available, plus an additional 3 months thereafter. STS releases are production-quality releases intended for customers interested in adopting new capabilities earlier and able to perform upgrades more frequently.
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An LTS version is maintained and technically supported for a period of at least 36 months. The next LTS release is typically made available approximately 18 months later, providing around 18 months of overlap between consecutive LTS generations. This gives customers sufficient time to plan and execute upgrades while both releases remain under standard support. After the standard LTS support period, customers may further extend the lifecycle through Extended Life Support.
After the first 6 months, both STS and LTS releases transition from Mainstream Support to Maintenance Support. During Maintenance Support, regular maintenance releases continue to provide compatible bug fixes, security updates, and enterprise technical support, but no additional minor features are introduced. For STS releases, this phase normally lasts 3 months. For LTS releases, it continues throughout the remainder of the standard 36-month lifecycle.
Because the next LTS release is typically made available approximately 18 months after the previous LTS, consecutive LTS generations have an overlap of approximately 18 months. This provides customers with a substantial and predictable migration window during which both LTS releases remain under standard support.
The lifecycle of each Enterprise Edition main release includes the following support phases:
- Mainstream Support (STS/LTS): Regular maintenance releases providing compatible bug fixes, security updates, minor enhancements, and enterprise technical support.
- Maintenance Support (STS/LTS): Regular maintenance releases providing compatible bug fixes, security updates, and enterprise technical support, without the introduction of additional minor features.
- Extended Life Support (LTS only): An optional extension beyond the standard LTS lifecycle, focused on critical and applicable security fixes together with enterprise technical support.
Synchronization between Community and Enterprise
Each OpenNebula major or minor version is initially released as a Community Edition. Approximately three months later, the first corresponding maintenance release is normally delivered as an Enterprise Edition to organizations with an active Enterprise Subscription. Community users typically receive the accumulated compatible fixes and improvements with the next publicly available major or minor release, while Enterprise subscribers receive them progressively through the quarterly maintenance cycle.
Community Edition provides public access to each new main release and enables broad adoption, validation, and feedback on new OpenNebula capabilities. Many organizations use these releases to access the latest functionality, particularly in development, testing, and fast-moving DevOps environments where infrastructure and application lifecycles are shorter and upgrades can be performed more frequently.
Although Community Edition is a full-featured version of OpenNebula that undergoes the standard OpenNebula QA process, Enterprise Edition provides the continuous maintenance and enterprise lifecycle required for production environments. It incorporates additional bug fixes, security updates and, during the applicable Mainstream Support phase, compatible minor enhancements, together with Enterprise Tools and Drivers that simplify upgrades, lifecycle management, and integration with enterprise infrastructure technologies.
Once the QA process is completed, we prepare packages of all releases for the most common Linux distributions. Only those created for the Community Edition are made public. Packages for the Enterprise Edition are private and only available through the Customer Portal. During the entire life cycle, we make reasonable efforts to maintain compatibility for the core and database across all minor and maintenance releases, but sometimes we have to make exceptions to this general compatibility goal due to critical impact or other significant issues.
Users of OpenNebula Community Edition can obtain support from fellow users through our Community Forum. Corporate Users with an active OpenNebula Subscription have access not only to the Enterprise Edition and its private maintenance releases, but also to exclusive Enterprise Tools and technical contents, SLA-based support and Professional Services via the Customer Portal.