everyone, a date has come and passed, and we wanted to make sure readers of this blog were aware of it. As of January 11th, 2011 ConfigMgr SP1 Support has ended. The most current Service Pack organizations should be on to remain fully supported is Service Pack 2.
What does this mean? This link to the MS Lifecycle Policy explains the detail of this for you. In April of 2010, there were some changes to these Policies. The Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy requires that the product’s supported service pack be installed to continue to receive support (including security updates). Here is a link to the new Service Pack Lifecycle Support Policy effective April 13, 2010.
Service Pack Support Policy
- When a new service pack is released, Microsoft will provide either 12 or 24 months of support for the previous service pack
- Support for the previous service packs is either 12 or 24 months, varying according to the product family (for example, Windows, Office, Servers, or Developer tools)
- Support timelines for service packs will remain consistent within the product family
- Microsoft will publish specific support timelines for a previous service pack when the new service pack is released
- When support for a service pack ends, Microsoft will no longer provide new security updates, hotfixes or other updates for that service pack. Limited break/fix troubleshooting will continue to be available, as described below.
- When support for a product ends, support of the service packs for that product will also end. The product’s support lifecycle supersedes the service pack support policy
Customers are highly encouraged to stay on a supported service pack to ensure they are on the latest and most secure version of their product. For customers on unsupported service pack versions, Microsoft offers limited troubleshooting support as follows:
- Limited break/fix support incidents will be provided through Microsoft Customer Service and Support; and through Microsoft’s managed support offerings (such as Premier Support).
- There will be no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources, and technical workarounds may be limited or not possible.
- If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack.
©2011 Jeff Wettlaufer