Working with CentOS 6 beyond its end-of-life date?
With Extended Lifecycle Support from TuxCare, you’ll get an affordably priced extended support solution to keep your systems protected from vulnerability exploits until you’re ready to migrate to a supported distribution
CentOS 6 reached the end of its life in November 2020
Fortunately, TuxCare’s low-cost extended support prolongs the security lifecycle of CentOS 6 to 2024 – giving you plenty of time to plan a migration to a new distro securely
Stay patched, protected, and compliant by connecting to TuxCare’s extended support repository using a single script — with no reboot required
Fast, consistent patch delivery for all CentOS 6 flaws and vulnerabilities
Quick installation with no migration or reboot needed – just connect to the ELS repository
Guaranteed service-level agreement (SLAs) for the most critical CVEs
Enterprise-grade support via a 24/7 customer portal and dedicated technical account management
Connect to the TuxCare CentOS 6 ELS repository with a simple script – and no reboot
You’re fully protected with security patches until November 2024!
Servers that run CentOS 6 versions are still working, but Red Hat is no longer providing updates covering CentOS release 6 for security vulnerabilities, as CentOS 6 reached end of life. When you see a new CVE that affects CentOS 6 you can assume that your system is now vulnerable and that there’s no fix on the horizon.
There is a way forward to safely run CentOS 6 beyond its EOL date. Just sign up for TuxCare’s ELS service for CentOS 6. We’ll cover you for critical security updates right through November 2024, with just the same patches you received from Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Yes, but you need to find a way to ensure that you apply critical security patches if you run CentOS 6. You can develop these patches in-house if your organization has the required Linux server kernel development expertise.
Your alternative is to partner with a vendor that can provide these patches for you. Thanks to TuxCare extended lifecycle support, which includes full technical account management, you can now continue to use CentOS 6 right through to November 2024.
CentOS as most users knew it and used it has been discontinued. Yes, CentOS Stream is a viable replacement for some workloads, but for most others, there is no alternative to CentOS, other than either a paid RHEL subscription or switching to another Linux distribution.
CentOS 6 was replaced by CentOS 7, and later by CentOS 8. One problem with both replacements is the end-of-life dates – with CentOS 8 already end of life. The bigger problem is that there won’t be a CentOS 9, which means there’s no upgrade path: CentOS 8 is end of life, and there’s nothing to follow.
Red Hat says that CentOS Stream is the next logical step, but the reality is that CentOS Stream breaks 1:1 binary compatibility with RHEL. There just isn’t a matching CentOS Stream release for the fixed-release RHEL, and there won’t be a CentOS 9 to match RHEL 9. So, there’s no CentOS 6 replacement – but you could consider an alternative such as AlmaLinux or Oracle Linux.
