MICROSOFT SUPPORT LIFECYCLE BLOG : Extended Support phase

Windows Server 2008 ships with SP1? Whatever happened to Windows Server 2008 RTM?! All this and more explained!

David Carrington — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:52:00 GMT

The Microsoft Support Lifecycle team receives a lot of feedback from customers, particularly regarding “intriguing” topics. We’ll call this one the case of the missing Windows Server service pack release.

So what happened? Windows Server 2008 shipped on May 6, 2008 to great fanfare and well-deserved acclaim as one of the best Windows Server releases ever. However, people soon noticed in the Help, About box of Windows Explorer that Service Pack 1 (SP1) was already installed – which was odd as nobody remembered deliberately installing SP1. With the release of SP2 for Windows Server 2008, many customers had questions about the missing service pack level (ie, the RTM release) and how long it would be supported!

Was this a mistake of some kind? A marketer gone wild? The answer is a gripping tale of ship dates slipped, codebases shared and a good bit of making things fit.

Windows server and client releases have shared a common codebase since late 2001. This change simplified servicing and allowed code development methodologies that resulted in more secure and better tested Windows releases. So far, so good.

But what does a developer do when Windows Vista SP1 is being built out and Windows Server 2008 is built on the same codebase? The answer is simple: for clarity, one carries on using the Vista SP1 codebase and names the Windows Server 2008 initial RTM release SP1. This way, the naming internally remains the same and confusion is avoided. When maintaining the Windows code trees, fixes for Windows Vista SP1 are also developed for Windows Server 2008 SP1. The same story is true of the recently released SP2 for both server and client platforms.

And so our thrilling tale ends -- but not without us first telling you when support for Windows Server 2008 (RTM with SP1 installed) retires: July 12, 2011. Please update your Windows Server 2008 installation to a supported service pack before that date to ensure continued support from Microsoft. Remember, both Mainstream and Extended Support are available only at a supported service pack level.

Thanks for your continued questions and comments. More information on Microsoft’s support policies can also be found on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website.

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

Support Transitions for Office 2000 and Office 2003 SP2

Jared Proudfoot — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:54:00 GMT

It's time for another friendly product transition reminder... This time, we are going to focus on Office 2000 and Office 2003 SP2.

All editions of Office 2000 will reach the end of the Extended Support phase on July 14, 2009. After this date, Office 2000 will no longer be publicly supported. This means that Microsoft will no longer provide any assisted support and will no longer provide security updates for this product. Self-Help Online Support (including the knowledge base and other articles on http://support.microsoft.com/) will continue to be available for a minimum of 12 months after this date. This means that there is very little time remaining to complete your migration to a newer version of Office! If you haven't already done so, I would recommend discussing your options with your local Microsoft representative.

In addition, I also want to take this opportunity to remind everyone that support for Office 2003 SP2 ended on October 14, 2008. To continue to receive support for Office 2003 (including future security updates), you will need to upgrade to a supported service pack. Office 2003 SP3 is currently available from the Download Center and Microsoft Update websites. Unfortunately, we still occasionally recieve questions about the Service Pack Support Policy. Please be sure to keep updated on Microsoft service packs, to remain supported!

Each of these product transitions have previously been announced on the Support Lifecycle website and within our quarterly newsletter. Be sure to check the site for updates or subscribe to the newsletter, today!

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

Everything you always wanted to know about Extended Hotfix Support for Daylight Saving Time enrollment but were afraid to ask!

gloriav — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:29:00 GMT

The Microsoft Support Lifecycle team gets lots of questions about Extended Hotfix Support for Daylight Saving Time (EHS for DST). Although this offering was initiated in 2007, there still seems to be some confusion around its purpose and how to obtain it.

In an earlier post we talked about Extended Hotfix Support and its purpose: a program that provides customers with the ability to request non-security hotfixes for products in the Extended Support phase of the lifecycle. EHS for DST is slightly different, but related.

What is the history behind Extended Hotfix Support for Daylight Saving Time? Daylight Saving time (DST), and "Summer Time" in much of Europe, is the practice of moving local time forward one hour in the spring and backwards in the autumn. These spring and fall shifts to DST are different between northern and southern hemispheres. The start of DST in the northern hemisphere is in March or April (depending on the country/continent), and ending in October or November. In the southern hemisphere, the changes are the opposite, with DST beginning in October and ending in March or April. Generally, DST is not observed in Asia and Africa, and parts of Central and South America. Unless certain updates are applied to your computer, the time zone settings for your computer's system clock may be incorrect during this four-week period. In particular, you must make sure that both your Windows operating system and your calendar programs are updated.

Daylight Saving Time hotfixes can be applied to your computer to correct the time zone settings that get “out of synch” because of the DST time changes; and are available for products in the Mainstream phase of the lifecycle free of charge. To obtain DST hotfixes for products in the Extended Support phase, customers must purchase Extended Hotfix Support for Daylight Saving Time. EHS for DST entitles them to receive daylight saving time hotfixes for all affected products in the Extended Support phase. The cost is $4,000 USD and the program is open to all Microsoft customers. A list of affected products is available here.

COMMON QUESTIONS:

When will my Extended Hotfix Support for DST contract expire?

All EHS DST support contracts expire on the 31st of December of the calendar year, so any contract signed during 2008 will expire on December 31, 2008.

After I enroll, how do I get the hotfixes?

Once you enroll you will receive access to the Microsoft Connect web site where you can download the appropriate updates.

My company purchased a Extended Hotfix Support for DST contract in October 2007. I thought the contract was good for 12 months. Do I have to purchase another contract to receive 2008 DST updates?

Your contract ended on December 31, 2007. EHS for DST contracts signed on or after January 1, 2008 will end on the 31st of December of the calendar year in which the contract commences; so you must purchase another contract for 2008.

Additional information can be found here:

Let us know if the explanation above helped you better understand Daylight Saving Time Extended Hotfix Support!

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

What is Extended Hotfix Support?

Jared Proudfoot — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:25:00 GMT

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, during the Extended Support phase we no longer provide non-security hotfixes without enrollment in the Extended Hotfix Support program. Simply put, the Extended Hotfix Support program provides the ability to request non-security hotfixes for products that are in the Extended Support phase.

Remember, Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) only provides the opportunity to request a non-security hotfix for a new bug discovered during the Extended Support phase. It has no impact on a customer’s ability to request support, security updates, or other non-security hotfixes created during the Mainstream Support phase.

To enroll in EHS, customers must already have Premier Support. In addition, enrollment in the program must occur within the first 90 days of the product entering the Extended Support phase. If the customer misses this deadline, there may not be an opportunity to enroll in EHS again.

The only exception to the 90 day enrollment rule is for customers with Software Assurance (SA). Customers with Software Assurance on select products are eligible for a benefit which includes the program fee for Extended Hotfix Support and allows enrollment at any time. Essentially, this means that the SA customers only need to sign the appropriate paperwork and pay the per hotfix fee. The products that are included in this benefit are: Microsoft Office Professional, Microsoft Windows Client, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), and Microsoft Windows Server.

Pricing for Extended Hotfix Support consists of an annual program fee, plus an additional fee for each non-security hotfix they receive. Non-security hotfixes produced during the Extended Support phase will not be made available to other customers in the program, without enrollment in EHS or the per hotfix fee. This is to ensure that all customers are treated equal and are being charged the same fees for each hotfix.

Whew… That’s a lot of stuff to cover. I hope it makes the program easier to understand, though. :)

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

Why do we end support on the second Tuesday at the end of a quarter?

Jared Proudfoot — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:33:00 GMT

Until January 2006, support for products used to expire on the anniversary date of their general availability. This meant that if a product was released on December 1, then it would also expire on December 1st - 5 or 10 years later. We received a lot of feedback from customers that this was not only inconsistent and hard to track, but also very hard to manage. In some cases, we might have 6 or 7 products all expiring on different days in the same month!

In January 2006, we announced a modification to the product expiration policy to address this issue. Now, all product expiration dates are rounded forward to expire on the second Tuesday after the end of the quarter. This means that if we previously had multiple products that would expire in December, with the new policy the new expiration dates would be rounded forward to the second Tuesday in January -- all expiring on the same day. Under this policy, products would only expire four times a year. This is much more predictable for customers and helps ease the management burden of tracking product expiration dates.

You may notice that this timeline also coincides with the second Tuesday security update release cycle. In the event Microsoft releases a security update on the same day that a product is scheduled to end its support lifecycle, support of the security update will continue for a minimum of 30 days.

We’ve received a lot of positive feedback on this change, since it helps makes the product expiration dates easier to understand and manage. What do you think? Does it make it make product expiration more predictable in your environment?

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

An explanation of the Extended Support phase for Business & Developer products

Jared Proudfoot — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:04:00 GMT

Extended Support is the second phase of the Support Lifecycle for Business & Developer products. The key differences between the Mainstream Support phase and Extended Support phase are that the “no-charge” support options are no longer available and that we no longer provide new non-security hotfixes. This means that customers will need to open paid support cases (such as Premier, Pro or Pay Per Incident cases) to obtain support for their product. For those customers who require new non-security hotfixes during the Extended Support phase, a special program called Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) is available. I’ll save the detailed discussion about EHS for another posting.

One of the important things to note is that Extended Support is still a publicly supported phase. Many Premier and Pro customers who already open paid cases with Microsoft will notice little difference in the support that is provided in this phase. They will continue to be able to open paid cases, receive security updates, obtain support assistance from their Technical Account Manager, etc… In reality, few customers need Extended Hotfix Support unless they have a history of requesting or requiring non-security hotfixes.

Like the Mainstream Support phase, it is important to note that support is only provided at a supported service pack level.

The Extended Support phase is provided for a minimum of 5 years or 2 years after the second successor product is released, whichever is longer. This means that the Extended Support phase may be extended to longer than 5 years, if the second follow-on product release is delayed. The basic reasoning behind this policy is that we don’t want to completely end support for a product unless there are 2 newer versions of the product for customers to migrate to.

At the end of the Extended Support phase, Business & Developer products are no longer publicly supported. This means that there is no more paid support, no support assistance and no further security updates. Customers are highly encouraged to move a supported product as soon as possible.

Please tell us what you think! Does this better explain the Extended Support phase? What can we do better to explain this on our main site?

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*