Deprecating CentOS as our Linux distro of choice
Posted January 5, 2022 by Thomas Kooi ‐ 2 min read
Starting today we will be deprecating CentOS as our Linux distribution of choice for all our services and will be replacing it with Ubuntu.
Over the past decade CentOS has served us well. However over the past years we found that it wasn’t the best fit for us and our customers anymore. This is due to various reasons, the biggest being the Kernel bundled with the distro. Within the Kubernetes and Cloud Native eco-system, we increasingly require modern Kernel functionality to support features such as eBPF.
Next releases
Starting with our next AME Kubernetes release we will be offering both CentOS and Ubuntu versions, with CentOS support being phased out by the end of the first quarter of 2022 (deadline: March 31st 2022). If you are currently running a cluster based on CentOS, you can safely upgrade to a next release with Ubuntu support enabled.
Introducing Ubuntu as our distro of choice for Avisi Managed Environments allows us to start fully supporting eBPF functionality for CNI plugins (such as Calico) and Falco, as well as increase our supported features when making use of the Ceph Container Storage Interface (CSI) due to the newer Kernel.
Please note that any cluster running a CentOS enabled version will be (automatically) upgraded to the next Ubuntu based release after the deadline has passed. Our engineers will be working with you to ensure your clusters have been upgraded before the end of March.
Container base images
Please note that if you currently make use of our CentOS container base images, you are advised to start a migration project to switch to a different base image (such as Ubuntu). CentOS base images will remain available, but will not receive any further upgrades.
If you are a paying customer of Avisi Managed Environment or Avisi Cloud and have further questions regarding our deprecation of CentOS support, please reach out to use through our Service Desk or your dedicated Slack support channel.Kind Regards,Thomas KooiLead Avisi Managed EnvironmentsAvisi Cloud