Netsweeper 7.1 and above are available on both a CentOS 6 and CentOS 8 base operating system.

With the recent decision of Redhat to no longer provide CentOS 8 support past the end of 2021 and are moving to an upstream branch of RedHat Enterprise Linux 8 called CentOS Stream, many customers and ourselves have become concerned about what this may mean for stability and security patches.

Netsweeper will consider all options, and may use CentOS 8 Stream or more likely will move to another upstream RHEL8 clone like CentOS 8 was. Regardless of this decision, we will continue to provide and support the Netsweeper Repository and provide a seamless upgrade path.

Some facts and points that are important for customers to understand:

  • Netsweeper provides a complete repository and does not rely on any external repository for the upgrade and support of the Netsweeper product. Customers do not need to rely on the CentOS 8 or even CentOS 6 upstream repositories.
  • Netsweeper can source RPMS from any upstream repository and can migrate from CentOS 8, to CentOS 8 Stream, Rocky Linux, Cloud Linux, or another upstream option at any time.
  • Customers do not need to reinstall Netsweeper 7.1 based on CentOS 8, Netsweeper will continue to provide updates and security fixes and can change to a new upstream source for our repository at any time.

Our focus is the stability of the Netsweeper Core product, and therefore our decision will be based on the best option to provide our customers with a stable and supported operating system that receives security fixes quickly.

At some point a release in the Netsweeper 7 series may rebase from CentOS 8 to a better candidate. This will not require reinstallation of the product.

This is an important note, the rebase will not require a reinstall and is part of a normal upgrade. We want to minimize the impact this may have to your operations.

More importantly, we want to ensure that the Netsweeper 7,8,9, etc. are supported on EL8 until 2029 as initially planned and we are committed to providing an upgrade path from the 7.1 GA release forward on CentOS 8.

Please reach out to your account manager should you have any questions or concerns.