Understanding GemFire Versioning

Products

• VMware Tanzu Gemfire

Environment

Resolution

GemFire Version Numbers

There are four components to the complete GemFire version scheme, using the following format: MAJOR.MINOR.maintenance.hotfix

The first two components in boldface represent the official GemFire versions. GemFire will have new content in a Major version release, such as a v9.0, or new content in a new Minor version release, such as a v9.1 or v9.2.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Receiving a new update is considered an upgrade only when receiving a new Major or Minor version, such as going from v8.2.x to v9.1, or going from v9.0 to v9.1.

It is not considered an upgrade when receiving a new maintenance version or hotfix version as described in the next section.

Maintenance Versions 

The third digit in the GemFire version number format is called the maintenance or patch version number. These versions never contain any new content, other than product fixes to issues that are known to exist in that version.    

It is NOT considered an upgrade when going from v8.2.2 to v8.2.5 or going from v9.0.2 to v9.0.5.

Note: Such updates are only to receive a later update on the same product version.

When releasing a new GemFire maintenance version, that version will be available on the Pivotal Network for any customer to download.  You can extract the Release Notes from that download to identify all of the issues that have been resolved in that version, as well as the other patch releases from the same Major.Minor version.

The GemFire maintenance versions do go through a complete regiment of testing similar to our major and minor releases. As a result, Pivotal recommends to upgrade to the latest maintenance version available at the time you are going to upgrade.

For example, if upgrading from v8.2.3 to v9.0.x, please choose the latest version of x available on the Pivotal network. In this case, is not recommended to upgrade to v9.0.1 when v9.0.4 already exists on the Pivotal Network. Patch version 9.0.4 contains fixes for issues that exist in 9.0.1. Pivotal prefers that our customers do not hit issues that have already been discovered and fixed in later versions of the product.    

For this reason, we remove the previous maintenance versions of GemFire from the Pivotal network when a later maintenance version is available for the same Major.Minor version.

For example, if v8.2.4 exists on the site and then later v8.2.5 becomes available, v8.2.4 is removed. v8.2.4 is essentially now out of date at that time. In this case, anybody upgrading to version v8.2 should upgrade to v8.2.5 at that point in time. Anybody using v8.2.4. or hotfix v8.2.4.2 will have to move to 8.2.5 or later to get any subsequent updates. There will be no v8.2.4' (prime), or v8.2.4.x versions created once 8.2.5 exists.

Hotfix Versions 

Pivotal is moving toward eliminating hotfix versions entirely. However, there are some instances when it is critical that we provide a very fast product update to a customer for security related issues or very critical product issues that need to be resolved ASAP for the customer.  

In such cases, there may not be time to complete a full suite of testing that is mandated with a maintenance release. We will thoroughly test the specific area of the product being altered to fix a specific issue, and more importantly, we will only provide access to such a hotfix version to the customer(s) who have been impacted by this issue.  

Once there has been time to test, the fixes that have been placed into a hotfix version will be incorporated into the next Maintenance version of the product, as well as any future versions effected by the issue. Once sufficient testing has been performed, a new maintenance version will be publicly available on the Pivotal network.

End of General Support 

It is very important to stay ahead of the release cycle and not be in a position where you can not get any new product updates for issues you may encounter in production. If you do not plan ahead to incorporate future upgrades, you may get into a situation where you need to upgrade without optimal time to plan and provision the necessary resources.

Please pay attention to the Pivotal Product Lifecycle Matrix that can be referenced here: Pivotal Support Lifecycle Policy. This provides the dates for End of General Support, and End of Technical Guidance that can be provided by Pivotal Support should you encounter any issues with a given GemFire version.