Is RHEL 8.10 / 9.4 / 9.6 / 9.7 Still Supported? The Minor-Version Trap in Red Hat's 10-Year Lifecycle
Two statements, both true: RHEL 8 is supported until May 31, 2029. And a machine running RHEL 8.6 has received zero patches since November 9, 2022 — unless someone bought it an Extended Update Support entitlement, which itself expired on May 31, 2024. The gap between those two sentences is where a remarkable amount of enterprise Linux risk quietly lives, and it is the single most common confusion in the "is RHEL X.Y still supported?" questions we see. This article is the complete answer, minor release by minor release.
Two clocks, one word: "supported"
Red Hat Enterprise Linux runs on two different clocks, and almost every lifecycle conversation silently mixes them up.
The major-version clock is the famous one: roughly five years of Full Support plus five of Maintenance Support per major release, with paid Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) beyond that. That clock says RHEL 8 runs to May 31, 2029, RHEL 9 to May 31, 2032, RHEL 10 to May 31, 2035. It is the clock vendors, auditors, and our own RHEL end-of-life guide talk about — and for choosing a migration target, it is the right clock. (For the major-version story, ELS pricing logic, and the migrate-vs-extend decision, that guide is the companion to this page.)
The minor-version clock is the one your actual servers live on, and it is brutally short. A RHEL minor release — 9.4, 9.6, 8.8 — is a snapshot. Red Hat ships errata for the latest minor of each major only: the moment 9.5 shipped, the standard 9.4 package stream stopped moving, roughly six months after it started. A machine that tracks dnf update rides the stream to the newest minor and stays patched. A machine that is pinned — a version lock via subscription-manager release --set, a frozen golden image, an appliance vendor's certification requirement, an air-gapped mirror nobody re-synced — silently drops off the patch stream the day the next minor ships, while every dashboard still says "RHEL 9: supported until 2032."
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 8.6 (Ootpa). RHEL 8 is "supported until 2029," so the row looks green. But 8.6's standard stream ended when 8.7 shipped on November 9, 2022; its two-year EUS window closed on May 31, 2024; even its SAP-focused E4S stream ended May 31, 2026. That machine has been accumulating unpatched CVEs for nearly four years — kernel, glibc, OpenSSL, all of it — under a major version that is genuinely still supported. "RHEL 8 is supported" and "this RHEL 8 box is patched" are different claims. The table below is how you check the second one.
How the streams actually work
Three patch streams matter, plus one being phased in:
- Standard stream — included in every RHEL subscription. Covers only the newest minor of each major (today: 8.10, 9.8, 10.2). Errata are cumulative: an old minor can always
dnf updateforward into the current one, which is the free fix for everything on this page. What you cannot do on the standard stream is stay where you are and receive patches. - EUS (Extended Update Support) — a separately entitled stream that keeps patching a specific minor for about two years from its release. It exists for even-numbered minors only (9.0, 9.2, 9.4, 9.6, 9.8 — plus 8.1 and 8.2 early in RHEL 8's run, before the even-only rhythm settled). Odd minors — 8.5, 9.3, 9.7 — get nothing after their successor ships, full stop.
- E4S / Enhanced EUS / AUS — longer variants for narrower audiences: Update Services for SAP Solutions (E4S) and Enhanced EUS run about four years from a minor's release; AUS (Advanced Update Support) serves similarly frozen mission-critical workloads. These are why a SAP HANA host on 9.4 can be legitimately patched while the web server on 9.4 next to it is not. We list their live end dates below but do not cover their entitlement mechanics in depth.
- ELC (Extended Life Cycle) — Red Hat's new consolidated model, replacing EUS, Enhanced EUS and E4S with a single extended stream for even-numbered minors from 9.2 onward (RHEL 8's only entry is 8.10, at the Premium tier). Per Red Hat's lifecycle page as of our verification date, ELC offers up to six years from a minor's GA, with the committed legacy EUS/E4S end dates below still honored. If you are planning around 9.8+ or RHEL 10 minors, price ELC, not classic EUS.
The complete table: every RHEL 8.x and 9.x minor release
This is the artifact this article exists for. Every 8.x and 9.x minor, with its release date, when its standard stream ended, its EUS window if it had one, and — the column that matters — what a machine pinned to that minor actually receives today, August 2026.
| Minor release | Released (GA) | Standard patch stream | EUS window | A machine pinned here today receives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 8.0 | May 7, 2019 | Superseded by 8.1 on Nov 5, 2019 | — | Nothing since November 2019 |
| RHEL 8.1 | Nov 5, 2019 | Superseded by 8.2 on Apr 28, 2020 | Closed Nov 30, 2021 | Nothing since November 2021 |
| RHEL 8.2 | Apr 28, 2020 | Superseded by 8.3 on Nov 3, 2020 | Closed Apr 30, 2022 | Nothing since April 2022 |
| RHEL 8.3 | Nov 3, 2020 | Superseded by 8.4 on May 18, 2021 | — | Nothing since May 2021 |
| RHEL 8.4 | May 18, 2021 | Superseded by 8.5 on Nov 9, 2021 | Closed May 31, 2023 | Nothing since May 2023 |
| RHEL 8.5 | Nov 9, 2021 | Superseded by 8.6 on May 10, 2022 | — | Nothing since May 2022 |
| RHEL 8.6 | May 10, 2022 | Superseded by 8.7 on Nov 9, 2022 | Closed May 31, 2024 | Nothing — EUS closed May 2024; SAP E4S closed May 31, 2026 |
| RHEL 8.7 | Nov 9, 2022 | Superseded by 8.8 on May 16, 2023 | — | Nothing since May 2023 |
| RHEL 8.8 | May 16, 2023 | Superseded by 8.9 on Nov 14, 2023 | Closed May 31, 2025 | Nothing on standard or EUS terms; SAP E4S only, to May 31, 2027 (the last 8.x E4S stream) |
| RHEL 8.9 | Nov 14, 2023 | Superseded by 8.10 on May 22, 2024 | — | Nothing since May 2024 |
| RHEL 8.10 (final 8.x) | May 22, 2024 | Current — the RHEL 8 stream, to May 31, 2029 | n/a — final minor rides the major to 2029; ELS add-on to May 31, 2033 | All RHEL 8 security errata |
| RHEL 9.0 | May 17, 2022 | Superseded by 9.1 on Nov 15, 2022 | Closed May 31, 2024 | Nothing — EUS closed May 2024; Enhanced EUS/E4S closed May 31, 2026 |
| RHEL 9.1 | Nov 15, 2022 | Superseded by 9.2 on May 10, 2023 | — | Nothing since May 2023 |
| RHEL 9.2 | May 10, 2023 | Superseded by 9.3 on Nov 7, 2023 | Closed May 31, 2025 | Nothing on standard or EUS terms; Enhanced EUS/E4S only, to May 31, 2027 |
| RHEL 9.3 | Nov 7, 2023 | Superseded by 9.4 on Apr 30, 2024 | — | Nothing since April 2024 |
| RHEL 9.4 | Apr 30, 2024 | Superseded by 9.5 on Nov 12, 2024 | Closed Apr 30, 2026 | Nothing on standard or EUS terms; Enhanced EUS/E4S only, to Apr 30, 2028 |
| RHEL 9.5 | Nov 12, 2024 | Superseded by 9.6 on May 20, 2025 | — | Nothing since May 2025 |
| RHEL 9.6 | May 20, 2025 | Superseded by 9.7 on Nov 11, 2025 | Open to May 31, 2027 | Patches only with the EUS entitlement; without it, nothing since November 2025. Enhanced EUS/E4S to May 31, 2029 |
| RHEL 9.7 | Nov 11, 2025 | Superseded by 9.8 on May 19, 2026 | — (odd minor, no EUS) | Nothing since May 19, 2026 |
| RHEL 9.8 | May 19, 2026 | Current — the RHEL 9 standard stream | Planned (even minor; dates not yet committed) | All RHEL 9 security errata |
Hand-verified on August 11, 2026 against Red Hat's product life-cycle API, the RHEL life-cycle policy and its legacy extended-offerings table, and Red Hat's published release-date records. Unlike most tables on this site, this one is deliberately not auto-synced to our data layer: our upstream dataset (like most lifecycle datasets) tracks RHEL majors, not per-minor EUS windows — which is exactly why the minor-version question is so hard to answer anywhere else. "Superseded" dates are the next minor's GA date, after which Red Hat ships no further standard-stream errata for the older minor. RHEL 10 follows the same rhythm: 10.0 (May 20, 2025) and 10.1 (Nov 11, 2025) are superseded; 10.2 (May 19, 2026) is current.
What to do with a pinned machine
If the table just told you a machine is on a dead minor, there are exactly three honest moves, and the first one is free:
1. Un-pin and update within the major. For most machines this is the whole fix: clear the release lock (subscription-manager release --unset), run dnf update, land on 8.10 or 9.8, and you are back on the standard stream at zero license cost — no major-version upgrade, no application re-platforming. Check first why it was pinned: if the answer is "nobody remembers," update it. If the answer is a vendor certification matrix, that is what the next two options are for.
2. Buy the stream that matches the pin. If the workload genuinely cannot move minors — ISV certification, SAP landscape change windows, regulated validation — pay for the entitlement that keeps that exact minor patched: EUS on a live even minor (9.6 until May 31, 2027), E4S/Enhanced EUS on SAP-class systems (9.4 to April 30, 2028; 9.6 to May 31, 2029), ELC going forward. The trap is paying for none of these while assuming the major-version date covers you. The other trap is buying EUS on a minor whose window is nearly over and treating it as a destination — every EUS clock above is about two years, total.
3. Treat it as the migration signal it is. A machine pinned to 8.6 in 2026 is not a patching problem, it is a lifecycle problem — and RHEL 8's own maintenance window ends May 31, 2029. Fold it into the major-version plan: our RHEL end-of-life guide covers the 8-to-9/10 decision, ELS economics, and third-party support, and the RHEL decision guide walks the upgrade-vs-ELS-vs-third-party fork. Live per-version status and risk scores are on our RHEL lifecycle page.
The major-version dates, for reference
The minor-version table above lives inside these envelopes — the dates everyone quotes, correct and auto-verified against our tracked data (which is refreshed nightly from the upstream lifecycle dataset and cross-checked against Red Hat):
| Version | GA | Full Support ended | Maintenance ends (EOL) | Extended Life (ELS) ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 10 | May 20, 2025 | May 31, 2030 | May 31, 2035 | May 31, 2039 |
| RHEL 9 | May 18, 2022 | May 31, 2027 | May 31, 2032 | May 31, 2036 |
| RHEL 8 | May 7, 2019 | May 31, 2024 | May 31, 2029 | May 31, 2033 |
| RHEL 7 | Jun 10, 2014 | Aug 6, 2019 | Jun 30, 2024 | May 31, 2029 |
Note what the two tables say together: RHEL 9 is mid-lifecycle with six years of maintenance left, yet seven of its nine minor releases already receive nothing. The major-version clock measures the platform; the minor-version clock measures your machines. Red Hat's OpenShift line runs the same even/odd EUS rhythm, so if you operate both, the pattern transfers.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux currently carries an EOL Risk Score™ of 90/100 — Grade F, critical 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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is RHEL 8.10 still supported?
Yes. RHEL 8.10 (released May 22, 2024) is the final minor release of RHEL 8 and the only 8.x release still receiving patches. It gets security errata on a standard subscription until RHEL 8 maintenance support ends on May 31, 2029, and the paid Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) add-on continues to May 31, 2033. Every other 8.x minor — 8.0 through 8.9 — receives nothing today: each one's standard stream ended when the next minor shipped, and the last RHEL 8 EUS window (8.8) closed on May 31, 2025.
Are RHEL 9.4, 9.6 and 9.7 still supported?
Mostly no. On the standard stream, only RHEL 9.8 (released May 19, 2026) receives patches today. RHEL 9.7 has received nothing since 9.8 shipped — odd-numbered minors get no EUS. RHEL 9.6 is patched only on machines with the Extended Update Support (EUS) entitlement, until May 31, 2027; without EUS it has received nothing since November 11, 2025. RHEL 9.4's EUS ended April 30, 2026, so it now gets nothing on standard or EUS terms — only the four-year Update Services for SAP Solutions (E4S) and Enhanced EUS streams continue for it, to April 30, 2028.
When does RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 support end?
RHEL 8 maintenance support ends May 31, 2029, with the ELS add-on running to May 31, 2033. RHEL 9 maintenance support ends May 31, 2032 (ELS to May 31, 2036), and RHEL 10 runs to May 31, 2035. But those dates only apply to the latest minor release of each major — 8.10, 9.8 and 10.2 as of August 2026. A machine held on an older minor such as 9.4 or 9.6 receives patches only under an EUS entitlement, and each EUS window lasts about two years from that minor's release. 日本語: RHEL 8のメンテナンスサポートは2029年5月31日に終了します(有償のELSアドオンは2033年5月31日まで)。RHEL 9は2032年5月31日まで(ELSは2036年5月31日まで)、RHEL 10は2035年5月31日までです。ただし、この日付が適用されるのは各メジャーバージョンの最新マイナーリリース(2026年8月時点では8.10、9.8、10.2)だけです。古いマイナーリリース(例:9.4や9.6)に留まっているマシンは、EUS(延長アップデートサポート)の契約がない限りパッチを受け取れません。各EUSの期間はリリースから約2年間です。
What is RHEL EUS (Extended Update Support)?
EUS is a separately entitled Red Hat stream that keeps patching a specific minor release for about two years after its release, instead of the roughly six months the standard stream gives it. It exists for even-numbered minors (9.0, 9.2, 9.4, 9.6, 9.8 — plus 8.1 and 8.2 early in RHEL 8's life), while odd-numbered minors get no EUS at all. Longer SAP-focused variants exist: Update Services for SAP Solutions (E4S) and Enhanced EUS run four years from a minor's release. Red Hat is now consolidating EUS, Enhanced EUS and E4S into a single Extended Life Cycle (ELC) model for even-numbered minors from RHEL 9.2 onward, with committed legacy EUS and E4S end dates still honored.
Related
- All RHEL versions with live status and risk scores · RHEL 8 · RHEL 9 · RHEL 10
- RHEL End of Life & Support Options — the major-version story: lifecycle phases, ELS, and what to do when Red Hat patches stop
- RHEL 10 End of Life: Every Phase Dated · CentOS End-of-Life Dates · CentOS to RHEL conversion guide
- RHEL decision guide: upgrade, Red Hat ELS, or third-party support
- The 2026 EOL Calendar — everything else with a date this year