Rocky Linux Versions and Lifecycle
The first question in capacity planning is “how long can I run this release?”. This page gives the lifecycle facts and decision guidance for each Rocky Linux major version.
Rocky release timeline
Section titled “Rocky release timeline”| Major | Status | GA | EOL | Kernel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Current | 2025-06 | 2035-05 | 6.12 |
| 9 | Current | 2022-07 | 2032-05 | 5.14 |
| 8 | Maintenance | 2021-06 | 2029-05 | 4.18 |
Lifecycle dates are the planned end of support (YYYY-MM); status badges are evaluated at build time. The upstream project is authoritative: Official Rocky Linux website.
Official full lifecycle dates
Section titled “Official full lifecycle dates”The official release table gives the full lifecycle dates for all three lines: Rocky 8 (Green Obsidian, released 2021-05-01, Active Support ended 2024-05-31, EOL 2029-05-31), Rocky 9 (Blue Onyx, 2022-07-14, Active 2027-05-31, EOL 2032-05-31) and Rocky 10 (Red Quartz, 2025-06-11, Active 2030-05-31, EOL 2035-05-31).
Dates are planned support end months (YYYY-MM). Status badges are evaluated at build time against the current date: past-EOL rows automatically show “End of life”. Upstream announcements remain authoritative: Rocky Linux.
Release selection guidance
Section titled “Release selection guidance”Support windows for the three lines: 10 until 2035-05, 9 until 2032-05 and 8 until 2029-05 (8 is in its maintenance window).
- New deployments: go straight to Rocky Linux 10 (current major);
- Existing 9 fleets: no rush — check the hardware baseline before planning 9→10;
- Existing 8 fleets: schedule an 8→9 or 8→10 migration, see upgrade path (main-site reference ↗).
Hardware baseline
Section titled “Hardware baseline”Check the current machine:
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 --help | grep "x86-64-v"Minor release cadence: every 6 months
Section titled “Minor release cadence: every 6 months”Rocky ships a minor release every 6 months, landing in May and November.
Rocky Linux tracks RHEL minors (roughly May and November each year), typically days to two weeks behind. For production: subscribe to security announcements, batch minor upgrades in quarterly windows, snapshot/backup first (see backup strategy (main-site reference ↗)).
Related
Section titled “Related”- Download Rocky Linux — ISOs and checksums per release
- EL timeline — cross-distro timeline (hub site)