endoflife.ai
Ceph Squid (19) Tentacle (20) Storage and databases

Ceph Squid (19) End of Life: October 31, 2026, Ceph's Estimate

By Scott Bissett  ·  Published: September 30, 2026  ·  Reference guide  ·  Dates read from the Ceph project's release index daily.

Ceph Squid, the 19.2 release series, reaches end of life on October 31, 2026. That is the date on the Ceph project's own release index, where it is marked as an estimate, as every active release's date is. Squid was first released on September 26, 2024, so the date sits at the roughly 24 months Ceph gives each stable series. After it, Squid moves to the archived table and stops receiving backports and bug fixes.

"Estimated" means the day can move, not that it will. Ceph prints the end-of-life date of every active release with the word estimated and drops the word when the release is archived. Reef (18) is the recent example: it carried an estimated date while active and now sits in the archived table with March 20, 2026 as its final end of life. Plan Squid around October 31; if the project archives it a little earlier or later, the change shows on this page the same day, because we read the index daily.
Quick answer: Ceph 20 is supported until June 1, 2027, its end-of-support date. The next Ceph version to reach end of life is 19, on October 31, 2026. 10 of 12 tracked Ceph versions are past end of life; the most recent to reach it, 18, did so on March 20, 2026. Every Ceph version's release and end-of-support date is on the Ceph lifecycle page.

Ceph releases and their dates

ReleaseSeriesFirst releasedEnd of lifeStatus
Tentacle20.2November 18, 2025June 1, 2027 (estimated)Active
Squid19.2September 26, 2024October 31, 2026 (estimated)Active until end of life
Reef18.2August 7, 2023March 20, 2026Archived
Quincy17.2April 19, 2022January 13, 2025Archived
Pacific16.2March 31, 2021March 4, 2024Archived

Ceph names each release after a cephalopod and numbers it by the first letter (S is the 19th letter, so Squid is 19). The stable series for a release is x.2.z: Squid clusters run 19.2.something, and point releases arrive every four to six weeks while the series is active.

What end of life means for a Ceph cluster

Ceph's wording is direct: active releases "are actively maintained and receive periodic backports and security fixes", and archived releases "are no longer maintained (do not receive bug fixes or backports)". There is no critical-fixes-only tail as there is with some commercial products. After Squid is archived, the last 19.2 point release is the last one, and a data-loss bug or a security issue found afterwards is fixed only in Tentacle and later.

Two things soften that for operators. Ceph's cadence is slow and predictable, one stable release a year targeting March, and its lifetime rule is written down: approximately 24 months after the month of the first release, with backports for two full release cycles. And a running cluster does not stop at end of life; it just stops improving. The risk is in what accumulates after the date, on a system whose whole job is to keep data intact.

Running a subscription build? IBM Storage Ceph, the product formerly sold as Red Hat Ceph Storage, is built from these upstream releases but carries its own support dates set by IBM. The dates on this page are the upstream project's; do not apply them to a subscribed cluster without checking the vendor's own lifecycle table.

What to do

  1. On Reef (18) or older: already archived (Reef ended March 20, 2026). Upgrade now; every cluster on these series is running without fixes.
  2. On Squid (19): you have until October 31, 2026. Tentacle (20) is the only newer stable release, with an estimated end of life of June 1, 2027. Check Ceph's Tentacle upgrade notes for the releases it accepts as a starting point, and bring the cluster to the latest Squid point release before the jump.
  3. Plan the order. A Ceph upgrade walks the daemons in sequence: monitors, managers, OSDs, then metadata servers and gateways. The cluster stays online, but the run takes hours on a large one, and it should happen while Squid is still supported so a mid-upgrade problem has a fix path on both sides.
  4. Watch the next date. Tentacle's own end of life is an estimate too. If Ceph keeps its March target for the release after Tentacle, the estimate will firm up in the first half of 2027.
Running Ceph past end of life?
Extended support past the official EOL date exists for many products in this position — whether it covers Ceph is exactly what we check. Tell us where to reach you and we’ll reply with matched options and pricing guidance — or an honest “no vendor covers this.” Free, no obligation.

Free · No obligation · Independent — we track the dates, vendors don’t pay for placement · dates verified against vendor sources. See all support options →

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Ceph Squid end of life?

October 31, 2026, by the Ceph project's own estimate on its release index. Ceph marks end-of-life dates for active releases as estimated; the date becomes final when the release is moved to the archived table, as happened with Reef on March 20, 2026.

How long is a Ceph release supported?

About 24 months. Ceph's release cycle page says the lifetime of a stable release series is approximately 24 months after the month of the first release, with bug-fix backports for two full release cycles and stable point releases every 4 to 6 weeks in between.

Which Ceph release should Squid clusters move to?

Tentacle (20), released November 18, 2025, with an estimated end of life of June 1, 2027. It is the only newer stable release. Reef (18) reached end of life on March 20, 2026 and is archived.

Sources

Related

© 2026 endoflife.ai · How we verify our dates · API · About