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+<!--
+title: "Netdata platform support policy"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/packaging/PLATFORM_SUPPORT.md
+-->
+
+# Netdata platform support policy
+
+Netdata defines three tiers of official support:
+
+- [Core](#core)
+- [Intermediate](#intermediate)
+- [Community](#community)
+
+Each tier defines different guarantees for platforms in that tier, described below in the section about that tier.
+
+Additionally, we define two categories for special cases that we do not support:
+
+- [Third-party supported platforms](#third-party-supported-platforms)
+- [Previously supported platforms](#previously-supported-platforms)
+
+These two categories are explained further below.
+
+Any platforms not listed in any of these categories may or may not work.
+
+The following table shows a general outline of the various support tiers and categories.
+
+|   | Bug Support | Guaranteed Configurations | CI Coverage | Native Packages | Static Build Support |
+| - | ----------- | ------------------------- | ----------- | --------------- | -------------------- |
+| Core | High priority | Everything but rare edge cases | Full | Yes, if we can provide them | Full |
+| Intermediate | Normal priority | Common cases | Partial (CI mostly equivalent to **Core**, but possibly with some gaps, and not required to pass) | Possibly | Full |
+| Community | Best Effort | Default only | None | No | Best Effort |
+| Third-party Supported | Users directed to platform maintainers | None | None | No | Best Effort |
+| Previously Supported | Users asked to upgrade | None | None | Yes, but only already published versions | Best Effort |
+
+- ‘Bug Support’: How we handle of platform-specific bugs.
+- ‘Guaranteed Configurations’: Which runtime configurations for the agent we try to guarantee will work with minimal effort from users.
+- ‘CI Coverage’: What level of coverage we provide for the platform in CI.
+- ‘Native Packages’: Whether we provide native packages for the system package manager for the platform.
+- ‘Static Build Support’: How well our static builds are expected to work on the platform.
+
+## Currently supported platforms
+
+### Core
+
+Platforms in the core support tier are our top priority. They are covered rigorously in our CI, usually
+include official binary packages, and any platform-specific bugs receive a high priority. From the perspective
+of our developers, platforms in the core support tier _must_ work, with almost no exceptions. Our [static
+builds](#static-builds) are expected to work on these platforms if available. Source-based installs are expected
+to work on these platforms with minimal user effort.
+
+| Platform | Version | Official Native Packages | Notes |
+| -------- | ------- | ------------------------ | ----- |
+| Alpine Linux | 3.15 | No | The latest release of Alpine Linux is guaranteed to remain at **Core** tier due to usage for our Docker images |
+| CentOS | 7.x | x86\_64 | |
+| CentOS | 8.x | x86\_64, AArch64 | Includes Rocky Linux 8.x support, which will be our primary platform long-term for RHEL compatiblitiy |
+| Docker | 19.03 or newer | x86\_64, i386, ARMv7, AArch64, POWER8+ | See our [Docker documentation](/packaging/docker/README.md) for more info on using Netdata on Docker |
+| Debian | 11.x | x86\_64, i386, ARMv7, AArch64 | |
+| Debian | 10.x | x86\_64, i386, ARMv7, AArch64 | |
+| Debian | 9.x | x86\_64, i386, ARMv7, AArch64 | |
+| Fedora | 35 | x86\_64, ARMv7, AArch64 | |
+| Fedora | 34 | x86\_64, ARMv7, AArch64 | |
+| openSUSE | Leap 15.3 | x86\_64, AArch64 | |
+| Oracle Linux | 8.x | x86\_64, AArch64 | |
+| Red Hat Enterprise Linux | 7.x | x86\_64 | |
+| Red Hat Enterprise Linux | 8.x | x86\_64, AArch64 | |
+| Ubuntu | 21.10 | x86\_64, i386, ARMv7, AArch64 | |
+| Ubuntu | 20.04 | x86\_64, i386, ARMv7, AArch64 | |
+| Ubuntu | 18.04 | x86\_64, i386, ARMv7, AArch64 | |
+
+### Intermediate
+
+Platforms in the intermediate support tier are those which Netdata wants to support, but cannot justify core level
+support for. They are also covered in CI, but not as rigorously as the core tier. They may or may not include
+official binary packages, and any platform-specific bugs receive a normal priority. Generally, we will add new
+platforms that we officially support ourselves to the intermediate tier. Our [static builds](#static-builds) are
+expected to work on these platforms if available. Source-based installs are expected to work on these platforms
+with minimal user effort.
+
+| Platform | Version | Official Native Packages | Notes |
+| -------- | ------- | ------------------------ | ----- |
+| Alpine Linux | 3.14 | No | |
+| Alpine Linux | 3.13 | No | |
+| Alpine Linux | 3.12 | No | |
+| Arch Linux | Latest | No | We officially recommend the community packages available for Arch Linux |
+| Manjaro Linux | Latest | No | We officially recommend the community packages available for Arch Linux |
+
+### Community
+
+Platforms in the community support tier are those which are primarily supported by community contributors. They may
+receive some support from Netdata, but are only a best-effort affair. When a community member makes a contribution
+to add support for a new platform, that platform generally will start in this tier. Our [static builds](#static-builds)
+are expected to work on these platforms if available. Source-based installs are usually expected to work on these
+platforms, but may require some extra effort from users.
+
+| Platform | Version | Official Native Packages | Notes |
+| -------- | ------- | ------------------------ | ----- |
+| Alpine Linux | Edge | No | |
+| Clear Linux | Latest | No | |
+| Debian | Sid | No | |
+| Fedora | Rawhide | No | |
+| FreeBSD | 13-STABLE | No | Netdata is included in the FreeBSD Ports Tree, and this is the recommended installation method on FreeBSD |
+| FreeBSD | 12-STABLE | No | Netdata is included in the FreeBSD Ports Tree, and this is the recommended installation method on FreeBSD |
+| Gentoo | Latest | No | |
+| macOS | 12 | No | Planned for **Core** tier support. Currently only works for Intel-based hardware. Requires Homebrew for dependencies |
+| macOS | 11 | No | Planned for **Core** tier support. Currently only works for Intel-based hardware. Requires Homebrew for dependencies.  |
+| macOS | 10.15 | No | Planned for **Core** tier support. Requires Homebrew for dependencies.  |
+| openSUSE | Tumbleweed | No | |
+
+## Third-party supported platforms
+
+Some platform maintainers actively support Netdata on their platforms even though we do not provide official
+support. Third-party supported platforms may work, but the experience of using Netdata on such platforms is not
+something we can guarantee. When you use an externally supported platform and report a bug, we will either ask
+you to reproduce the issue on a supported platform or submit a support request directly to the platform maintainers.
+
+Currently, we know of the following platforms having some degree of third-party support for Netdata:
+
+- NixOS: Netdata’s official installation methods do not support NixOS, but the NixOS maintainers provide their
+  own Netdata packages for their platform.
+- Rockstor: Rockstor provides support for a Netdata add-on for their NAS platform. The Rockstor community and
+  developers are the primary source for support on their platform.
+
+## Previously supported platforms
+
+As platforms become end of life upstream, Netdata will stop officially supporting them. We will not actively break
+things on these platforms, but we will also not make any effort to ensure that things keep working on them either.
+If you report a bug on a previously supported platforms, we will ask you to reproduce the issue on a currently
+supported platform. If the issue is not reproducible, it will be closed.
+
+We consider a platform to be end of life when the upstream maintainers of that platform stop providing official
+support for it themselves, or when that platform transitions into an ‘extended security maintenance’ period.
+Platforms that meet these criteria will be immediately transitioned to the **Previously Supported** category,
+with no prior warning from Netdata and no deprecation notice, unlike those being dropped for technical reasons,
+as our end of support should already coincide with the end of the normal support lifecycle for that platform.
+
+On occasion, we may also drop support for a platform due to technical limitations.  In such cases, this will be
+announced in the release notes of the next stable release with a deprecation notice. The platform will be supported
+for _that release_, and will be removed from nightlies some time before the next release after that one.
+
+This is a list of platforms that we have supported in the recent past but no longer officially support:
+
+| Platform | Version | Notes |
+| -------- | ------- | ----- |
+| Alpine Linux | 3.11 | EOL as of 2021-11-01 |
+| Alpine Linux | 3.10 | EOL as of 2021-05-01 |
+| Fedora | 33 | EOL as of 2021-11-30 |
+| Fedora | 32 | EOL as of 2021-05-25 |
+| FreeBSD | 11-STABLE | EOL as of 2021-10-30 |
+| openSUSE | Leap 15.2 | EOL as of 2021-12-01 |
+| openSUSE | Leap 15.1 | EOL as of 2021-01-31 |
+| Ubuntu | 21.04 | EOL as of 2022-01-01 |
+| Ubuntu | 20.10 | EOL as of 2021-07-22 |
+| Ubuntu | 16.04 | EOL as of 2021-04-02 |
+
+## Static builds
+
+The Netdata team provides static builds of Netdata for Linux systems with a selection of common CPU
+architectures. These static builds are largely self-contained, only requiring a a POSIX-compliant shell on the target
+system to provide their basic functionality. Static builds are built in an Alpine Linux environment using musl. This
+means that they generally do not support non-local username mappings or exotic name resolution configurations.
+
+We currently provide static builds for the following CPU architectures:
+
+- 32-bit x86
+- 64-bit x86
+- ARMv7
+- AArch64
+- POWER8+
+
+## Platform-specific support considerations
+
+### IPMI
+
+Our IPMI collector is based on FreeIPMI. Due to upstream limitations in FreeIPMI, we are unable to support our
+IPMI collector on POWER-based hardware.