OpenLDAP 2.6 Long Term Support Announcement

The OpenLDAP Project is pleased to announce the promotion of OpenLDAP 2.6 fro=
m Feature Release to Long Term Support (LTS) Release, effective January, 2025=
. It is now the recommended OpenLDAP version for deployments that prioritize =
stability over features. The projected lifespan for OpenLDAP 2.6 as the LTS r=
elease is five years.

OpenLDAP 2.5 is now in its end of life stage and, at the discretion of the Pr=
oject, will receive critical fixes until January 15, 2027. After that it will=
 be designated as a historical release and no longer supported or maintained =
by the Project. Users are encouraged to develop a plan that will help them up=
grade quickly to the new LTS version so that they can continue on a supported=
 release.

OpenLDAP 2.7 is the new Feature Release and will see its first public availab=
ility in the fall of 2024.

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Compatibility
-------------

Replication:
Replication compatibility between OpenLDAP 2.5 and 2.6 is excellent. The Proj=
ect expects this to remain the case throughout the remaining end-of-life stag=
e of OpenLDAP 2.5.

Configuration Files:
Configuration file compatibility between OpenLDAP 2.5 and 2.6 is excellent, b=
ut may require some manual intervention at upgrade time, particularly if you =
are using the OpenLDAP Load Balancer daemon.


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Additional Information
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* The OpenLDAP Release Maintenance Policy can be found at https://lists.openl=
dap.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/thread/2QQNVWPUUG54JM7=
FGQHMMF3H4KS2PPKQ/

* Notes covering upgrading from OpenLDAP 2.5 to 2.6 can be found at https://w=
ww.openldap.org/doc/admin26/appendix-upgrading.html