Keep Your Platform Updated — Always
Our award-winning certified maintenance and support can radically reduce the hassles, lower the costs, and protect you from the risks of managing your embedded software across its entire lifecycle, from initial designs to retirement. Our support and maintenance programs ensure the highest return on your investment in our software, helping developers and device makers greatly simplify their product management tasks by leaving the details to us.
We provide standard support for up to 10 years or even longer through our Professional Services on demand. Our support includes a range of live assistance, product manuals, our Knowledge Forum, and other resources within the online Wind River Support Network.
SUPPORT PROGRAM
Our support services provide extensive technical information and resources, as well as trusted, expert advice when you need it to overcome any challenge.
MAINTENANCE PROGRAM
Our maintenance services provide bug fixes, minor enhancements, and security patches on a regular schedule. See the table below for more details.
ADDITIONAL OPTIONS
Additional support and maintenance offerings are available, including Premium Project Support (technical support in the customer environment), and custom maintenance services as part of the Wind River Studio Linux Services offering.
Support and Maintenance Details
| Lifecycle Stage | Current | Long-term* | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Years 1 to 5 | Years 5 to 10 | >Year 10 |
| Support | |||
| Knowledge Library | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Web-Based Expert Assistance | Yes | Yes | Custom |
| Direct Expert Assistance | Yes, with Standard SLA | Yes, with Long Term Support and Maintenance Agreement | Yes, with Professional Services Agreement |
| Maintenance | |||
| Defect Resolution | Only critical defects, starting year 4 | Only critical defects, on demand | Custom |
| Patches and Updates | Periodic updates, through Rolling Cumulative Patch Layers (RCPLs) | On demand | Custom |
| Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) mitigation | Yes, security vulnerability hot fixes made available monthly if no RCPL release in 45 days | Yes, on demand | Custom |
| Support and Maintenance Details |
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Maintenance Updates
Annual Wind River Linux releases align with Yocto Project community releases.
The Wind River Linux release model follows a one-year release cadence, i.e., one release version every year. In effect, this means that roughly every 12 months Wind River introduces a new release with a new kernel for the Wind River Linux base platform and other architectural changes deriving from this, in alignment with Yocto Project community releases.
Rolling Cumulative Patch Layers
Software patches and minor updates to current releases, with active maintenance, are delivered via rolling cumulative patch layers (RCPLs). These RCPLs are provided on an ongoing basis according to a predictable schedule and do not trigger any major kernel, tool chain, or user space packages revisions (unless a critical issue requires specific action).
RCPLs are accessible using the Wind River electronic software delivery mechanism, and information about each RCPL, including technical content, is available on the Wind River Support Network. Certain product enhancements and new board support packages (BSPs) may also be included in these monthly patches, and RCPLs are mandatory installations. All RCPLs go through the Wind River standard product validation tests.
Example of RCPL Content and Trend
Wind River provides cumulative updates to CVEs through a support and maintenance agreement.
The value of maintenance includes delivery of fixes for defects (broken functionality) and Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs). For example, for the first five years of the Wind River Linux LTS18 lifecycle, the value of each RCPL delivery increased incrementally.
- In the first couple of years, with the new technology adoption and deployment, the trend was toward higher defect fixes.
- As the code stabilized from a functionality perspective and the number of defects decreased, trending toward zero, the overall number of CVEs was slowly increasing before stabilizing and having a linear decrease trend.
The cumulative updates are available to customers with a valid, active standard support and maintenance agreement and can be downloaded throughout the product lifecycle. RCPLs are available on the Wind River Support Network.
The latest RCPL can be downloaded from the “Downloads” section of its respective Linux product on the Wind River Support Network. Whenever a new RCPL is released, the previous one goes into the Legacy section.
Resources
Product Overview
Get an overview of the subscription and services offerings for Wind River Linux.
Web Seminar
Learn about the new Wind River Linux binary distribution, a purpose-built Linux for the intelligent edge.
Services Information
Wind River is your embedded Linux lifecycle partner, with the history and expertise to know what it takes when it matters most.
Online Calculator
Calculate the costs of building your own embedded Linux product and see how much you can save with Wind River Linux.
Legal Disclaimer
The information on this page is intended for information purposes only and does not create any contractual obligation for Wind River. The lifecycles included here are not a commitment to deliver any material, code, functionality, or specific support and maintenance services. Wind River controls entirely the development, release, and timing of its products and support and maintenance offerings, and the information included here is only a description of the Wind River development philosophy.
* Eligibility for Wind River product support and maintenance requires customer payment of applicable fees and is subject to the Wind River standard support and maintenance terms and conditions. Information provided in this document is for informational purposes only. Wind River reserves the right to change its product lifecycle dates and its support and maintenance offerings at the sole discretion of Wind River.