CentOS End of Life —
All Versions EOL, Migration Options
CentOS was the go-to free alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux for enterprise servers for nearly two decades. It is now, definitively, dead — and the servers that ran it are either already a security liability or on borrowed time. CentOS Linux 8 reached end of life on December 31, 2021. CentOS Linux 7 reached end of life on June 30, 2024. There are no supported CentOS Linux versions remaining.
This guide covers what happened to CentOS, what the EOL dates mean practically, where CentOS Stream fits in, and what your migration options are.
Key Dates at a Glance
- CentOS 8: maintenance updates end 2021-12-31
- CentOS 7: full updates end 2020-08-06; maintenance updates end 2024-06-30
- CentOS 6: full updates end 2017-05-10; maintenance updates end 2020-11-30
CentOS End-of-Life Dates — Full History
| Version | Release | End of Life | Status | EOL Risk Score™ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Linux 6 | Jul 2011 | Nov 30, 2020 | EOL | 80 |
| CentOS Linux 7 | Jul 2014 | Jun 30, 2024 | EOL | 80 |
| CentOS Linux 8 | Sep 2019 | Dec 31, 2021 | EOL | 80 |
| CentOS Stream 8 | Sep 2019 | May 31, 2024 | EOL | 50 |
| CentOS Stream 9 | Dec 2021 | May 31, 2027 | Supported | 10 |
| CentOS Stream 10 | Dec 2024 | May 31, 2030 | Supported | 10 |
CentOS 7 — End of Life June 30, 2024
CentOS 7 reached end of life on June 30, 2024 — the same date as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. For nearly a decade, CentOS 7 was the most common Linux distribution in enterprise data centers. It is based on RHEL 7, uses the yum package manager, ships with Python 2.7 by default, and runs on kernels in the 3.10.x range.
Every one of those characteristics is now a compounding EOL risk. CentOS 7's kernel (3.10) has been EOL for years. Python 2.7 has been EOL since January 2020. The system OpenSSL (1.0.2) has been EOL since December 2019. Servers running CentOS 7 are EOL at the OS level, kernel level, runtime level, and cryptography library level simultaneously.
CentOS 8 — End of Life December 31, 2021
CentOS 8's end-of-life story is different — and worse. Red Hat announced in December 2020 that CentOS Linux 8 would reach end of life on December 31, 2021, cutting short what was originally a 10-year lifecycle. The announcement came less than 18 months after CentOS 8's initial release.
Teams that had migrated to CentOS 8 to modernize their infrastructure found themselves holding an EOL operating system less than two years after deploying it. Many of those servers are still running today — over four years past EOL.
CentOS Stream — What It Is and What It Isn't
CentOS Stream is not a replacement for CentOS Linux. It is a rolling pre-release distribution that sits upstream of RHEL. Where CentOS Linux was a downstream rebuild of RHEL (stable, tested, binary-compatible), CentOS Stream receives updates before those updates are released in RHEL — which means it may contain bugs that are later fixed before the RHEL release.
CentOS Stream 9 — End of Life May 31, 2027
When people search for a "CentOS 9" end-of-life date, this is the answer: CentOS Stream 9 reaches end of life on May 31, 2027 — there is no "CentOS Linux 9"; the classic distribution ended with 8. Stream versions retire when the matching RHEL release leaves full support, so Stream 9's clock follows RHEL 9's. If you run Stream 9, plan a move to Stream 10 (or a RHEL-compatible rebuild) within the next year.
CentOS Stream 10 — Supported to May 31, 2030
CentOS Stream 10 was released in December 2024 and runs until May 31, 2030 — the longest runway in the CentOS family today. If you are building new infrastructure on Stream, this is the version. But understand what Stream is: a rolling pre-release that sits upstream of RHEL — a development preview, not a production-stable RHEL clone.
Shopping for post-EOL patches specifically? The dedicated guide: CentOS Extended Support in 2026 — who still patches CentOS 7 and 8, and what it buys you.
Running EOL CentOS in Production: The Real Risk
The CentOS 7 and 8 EOL dates mean one thing practically: no more patches from Red Hat or the CentOS project. CVEs affecting the kernel, glibc, OpenSSL, systemd, or any other core system component disclosed after the EOL date will never be addressed in an official package update.
CentOS currently carries an EOL Risk Score™ of 80/100 — Grade D, high risk, recalculated at every site build from EOL recency, attack surface, CISA KEV exposure, and extended-support availability. Per-version scores and dates are on the CentOS lifecycle page.
The right response comes down to one question: how many more years does this system need to run? Under a year, extended support (where it exists) is usually cheaper than an emergency migration. One to three years, migrate — support fees paid repeatedly cost more than doing the project once. Indefinitely, migrate now and plan the next one before it surprises you. Extended support is often the more expensive choice over a multi-year horizon — a bridge, not a destination. And if this deadline feels like vendor caprice, it isn’t — why end of life is inevitable for every version, with the receipts.
Migration Options: AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, RHEL
AlmaLinux OS
AlmaLinux is a free, community-supported RHEL binary-compatible rebuild maintained by the AlmaLinux OS Foundation. AlmaLinux 8 is supported through May 2029; AlmaLinux 9 through May 2032. It is the most widely adopted CentOS replacement and provides in-place migration tooling via almalinux-deploy.
Rocky Linux
Rocky Linux is another free RHEL-compatible rebuild, founded by one of CentOS's original creators. Rocky Linux 8 is supported through May 2029; Rocky Linux 9 through May 2032. Rocky provides migrate2rocky for in-place conversion from CentOS 8.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
RHEL itself is available at no cost for up to 16 production servers through the Red Hat Developer Program. For larger environments, RHEL provides the longest and most commercially-backed support lifecycle — RHEL 9 is supported through May 2032, with Extended Lifecycle Support available through 2036.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CentOS 7 still supported?
No. CentOS Linux 7 reached end of life on June 30, 2024 — the same day as RHEL 7 — and no supported CentOS Linux release remains; CentOS Linux 8 ended even earlier, on December 31, 2021. Since those dates the CentOS project has published no security or bug-fix updates for either release. Anything still running CentOS Linux is unpatched at the operating-system level.
Does CentOS 7 have extended support?
Not from Red Hat or the CentOS project. What exists is third-party extended support: several commercial vendors sell post-EOL security patching for CentOS 7 (and in some cases 8 and 6), backporting CVE fixes into the existing package set so the OS does not have to be upgraded first. Scope, duration and price are contract terms that vary by vendor — our CentOS extended support guide explains what is and is not covered, and the form on this page will match you with options.
What does “CentOS ELS” mean?
ELS is short for Extended Lifecycle Support — the market’s name for a paid subscription that keeps shipping security fixes for an operating system after its vendor has stopped. For CentOS it always means a third party, because Red Hat never offered ELS for CentOS Linux itself. Treat an ELS contract as a bounded bridge with its own end date, not as a new support lifecycle.
Can I buy Red Hat Extended Life Cycle Support for CentOS 7?
Only indirectly. Red Hat’s ELS add-on covers RHEL 7, not CentOS 7 — to use it you first convert the system to RHEL 7 with Red Hat’s convert2rhel tool and buy a RHEL subscription plus the ELS add-on. Per Red Hat’s lifecycle data, RHEL 7 Extended Life Cycle Support runs to 2029-05-31. That path trades a migration for a conversion; our CentOS-to-RHEL guide walks through it.
What is the CentOS lifecycle — what are “full updates” and “maintenance updates”?
CentOS Linux releases had two phases. Full updates delivered new features, hardware enablement and all fixes; maintenance updates delivered security and critical bug fixes only. CentOS 7 full updates ended 2020-08-06 and maintenance updates ended 2024-06-30 — so for its last four years CentOS 7 received security fixes but nothing else. CentOS 8 never reached a maintenance phase: its lifecycle was cut short on 2021-12-31.
Is CentOS Stream a replacement for CentOS Linux?
No. CentOS Stream is a rolling pre-release that sits upstream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux: it receives changes before they ship in RHEL, where CentOS Linux was a stable rebuild of RHEL after release. Stream has its own support windows — CentOS Stream 9 ends 2027-05-31 and CentOS Stream 10 ends 2030-05-31 — but it is a development track, not a production-stable clone. Teams that want what CentOS Linux used to be should look at AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux.
Why did CentOS 8 end so early?
Red Hat announced in December 2020 that CentOS Linux 8 would end on 2021-12-31, shifting the project’s effort to CentOS Stream. CentOS 8 had been expected to track RHEL 8’s lifecycle, which runs to 2029-05-31 — so the announcement removed more than seven years of expected support from systems that had been deployed for less than eighteen months. The backlash is what created AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux.
What should I migrate CentOS 7 or 8 to?
The three mainstream targets are AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux and RHEL. AlmaLinux 9 and Rocky Linux 9 are both supported to 2032-05-31 (their 8 releases to 2029-05-31), and RHEL 9 to 2032-05-31 with Extended Life Cycle Support beyond that. From CentOS 8 the in-place converters (almalinux-deploy, migrate2rocky, convert2rhel) work well; from CentOS 7 the major-version jump means most teams rebuild onto a fresh 9-series host rather than convert in place.
How do I check which CentOS version I am running?
Run cat /etc/centos-release — it prints the exact release, for example “CentOS Linux release 7.9.2009 (Core)”. rpm -q centos-release gives the same information as a package version, and uname -r shows the kernel (CentOS 7 runs the 3.10 line, CentOS 8 the 4.18 line). Any CentOS Linux release you find is end of life.