CentOS 7 is a free and open-source Linux distribution based on the sources of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It is widely used by enterprises, web hosting companies, and individual developers for its stability and compatibility with RHEL’s robust set of tools and features.

Yes, you can still use CentOS 7, but after June 30, 2024 the vendor-supplied patches stopped arriving. If you don’t migrate your systems to a supported distribution, then your deployed systems won’t stop running, which puts you at risk of a vulnerability exploit. You can even likely deploy new systems using CentOS 7 after the end-of-life date, but any new vulnerabilities that pop up won’t be patched by the vendor. However, if you sign up for Endless Lifecycle Support (ELS) from TuxCare, you can continue to receive patches and use your CentOS 7 systems securely.

The official security support for CentOS 7 from the CentOS Project ended on June 30, 2024. However, with our Endless Lifecycle Support (ELS) service, you can continue to receive security updates and patches beyond that date – enabling your organization to use CentOS 7 until you’re ready to plan and execute a large-scale migration, which shouldn’t be rushed.

With CentOS 7 and CentOS 8 already in their end-of-life phases and no release of CentOS 9, it’s recommended to migrate to another distribution in the long run to benefit from modern features, improvements, and longer security support. However, migrating to a supported distribution can take up to a year for many organizations. Fortunately, our Endless Lifecycle Support (ELS) ensures that you can securely keep using CentOS 7 while you plan a smooth and safe transition.

Choosing a successor to CentOS 7 depends on your specific needs. There are multiple options available, but many organizations seek a free RHEL-compatible distribution, like AlmaLinux, for instance, because it – and others – are very similar to CentOS 7. Also, with the AlmaLinux ELevate tool, you can migrate your CentOS 7 systems to AlmaLinux 9 seamlessly.