Extended Support Release and upgrade path
Hi, I would like to understand the ESR cycle. As I just come across in the blog https://coder.com/blog/esr.
v2.24.0 was release on 3 Jul 25 v2.29.0 will be release sometime in Dec 25 The coder premium support last for 12 months window. v2.24.0 12 month window start from Jul 25, end at Jul 26 v2.29.0 12 month window start from Dec 25, end at Dec 26 Taking it I stay on v2.24.0 and upgrade along the way v2.24.4. if I were to stay until the 12month on this minor version. 1. Recommended "planned upgrade" would be to v2.29.0? or it would be best to wait for v2.29.1/2 for stability. 2. I would still have around 6 months worth of support for 2.29.1 ? 3. What if I'm on v2.25.3 which was release on 6 Aug 25. Does the support given 1 year as well or it is only targeted for specific version for 2.24.X, 2.29.X, 2.36.X, 2.41.X?
v2.24.0 was release on 3 Jul 25 v2.29.0 will be release sometime in Dec 25 The coder premium support last for 12 months window. v2.24.0 12 month window start from Jul 25, end at Jul 26 v2.29.0 12 month window start from Dec 25, end at Dec 26 Taking it I stay on v2.24.0 and upgrade along the way v2.24.4. if I were to stay until the 12month on this minor version. 1. Recommended "planned upgrade" would be to v2.29.0? or it would be best to wait for v2.29.1/2 for stability. 2. I would still have around 6 months worth of support for 2.29.1 ? 3. What if I'm on v2.25.3 which was release on 6 Aug 25. Does the support given 1 year as well or it is only targeted for specific version for 2.24.X, 2.29.X, 2.36.X, 2.41.X?
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@HeavenRave - I can't speak for the Coder team, but I believe the support they are talking about in that blog post is mainly about supporting the software in terms of updates, not the technical support you get with the Premium version. You'll get Premium Support with any version, it's just that some support replies might be, "you'll need to upgrade", if your version is too outdated (more than a year old since release).
And, I'd also imagine, since there is a database behind Coder, to account for schema migration, they'd have two paths for upgrades. One, if you are sticking to bleeding edge with the monthly releases, and one if you are sticking to the ESR version for bi-yearly releases. That means, if you are on ESR, and you upgrade to any next ESR version, the migrations should be taken care of for the version jumps they represent. That's a big guess on my part though. In other words, if you are on 2.24.x and it is August of 2026 and you need to contact the Coder support team, you'll probably be asked nicely to upgrade your software (because the Coder dev team are no longer updating the software), but I bet you'll still get technical help from the team. This image from that post supports this hypothesis along with my 13 years experience of supporting software. 🙂
And, I'd also imagine, since there is a database behind Coder, to account for schema migration, they'd have two paths for upgrades. One, if you are sticking to bleeding edge with the monthly releases, and one if you are sticking to the ESR version for bi-yearly releases. That means, if you are on ESR, and you upgrade to any next ESR version, the migrations should be taken care of for the version jumps they represent. That's a big guess on my part though. In other words, if you are on 2.24.x and it is August of 2026 and you need to contact the Coder support team, you'll probably be asked nicely to upgrade your software (because the Coder dev team are no longer updating the software), but I bet you'll still get technical help from the team. This image from that post supports this hypothesis along with my 13 years experience of supporting software. 🙂
@Scott Thanks for the detailed explanation. yeah definitely just wanted delve deeper of understanding in regards with their esr and should their premium customer make a huge jump. because they needed an upgrade path, could the jump from 2.24.X straight to 2.29.X instead of painfully going through 2.24.X to 2.25.X etc. And yes definitely backups and restoration has to be in place before the upgrade happens and extensive testing in staging env.
Hey @HeavenRave!
Most of our customers aren't pinned to an ESR release and instead upgrade every few months. As Scott mentioned, we provide support for all Premium customers but only guarantee bug/security fixes for ESR releases OR n-1 stable release: https://coder.com/docs/install/releases#release-channels. So as Scott mentioned, sometimes responses from support will be "upgrade to the latest version."
My recommendation in 90% of cases will be for the customer to always follow the monthly track instead of staying on the ESR. We make our monthly upgrades as seamless as possible and never break between versions.
Taking it I stay on v2.24.0 and upgrade along the way v2.24.4. if I were to stay until the 12month on this minor version. Recommended "planned upgrade" would be to v2.29.0? or it would be best to wait for v2.29.1/2 for stability.However, if someone was to stay on ESR, and then wait until the next ESR, the migration path (from a database POV) would be usable if you were to go direct from v2.24 -> 2.29 for example. Our migration system supports that. However, you should read the release notes between each version to understand changes in behavior if you, for example will need to update templates or server config for the deployment to remain functional in all cases.