Apigee release process

This page applies to Apigee and Apigee hybrid.

View Apigee Edge documentation.

This topic describes the release process for Apigee and Apigee hybrid.

Getting release notifications

The best way to stay up to date on Apigee releases is to subscribe to the release notes RSS feed. To subscribe:

  1. Navigate to the Apigee release notes page.
  2. Select All to view all Apigee release notes, or select the Apigee product you wish to view.
  3. Add the URL of the page to your feed reader to subscribe to All release notes, or to a specific release note category, such as Apigee hybrid.

Apigee release process

Apigee follows a continuous release model to ensure our users can access the product innovation and enhancements quickly and at the highest quality possible.

Release cadence

Apigee releases occur approximately once every two weeks, though this timeframe may vary. Rollouts of Apigee releases are announced on the Apigee release notes page when started, but may take four or more business days to complete across all Google Cloud zones. Individual instances may not have the features and fixes available until the rollout is complete.

Release versioning

Releases for Apigee use the following numbering scheme:

major_version.minor_version.patch_version

For example, 3.2.1, where the major number is 3, the minor number is 2, and the patch number is 1.

When viewing the instance version using the API or in the UI, you will see the version numbers converted to a hyphenated string, such as 3-2-1-apigee-1. The hyphenated version string is also used to announce releases and payloads in the Apigee release notes.

Apigee hybrid release process

Release versioning and cadence

Releases for Apigee hybrid use the following numbering scheme:

major_version.minor_version.patch_version

For example, 3.2.1, where the major number is 3, the minor number is 2, and the patch number is 1.

Release degree Support Level Release cadence Description
Major Support is provided until 12 months after the next major release. As needed Major releases are not expected to be backward compatible with previous major releases. They may contain new features and enhancements, cumulative bug fixes, security vulnerability mitigation, configuration changes, and infrastructure/architecture changes.
Minor

Support is provided for 12 months from the initial release date.

This is a change from the previous nine months of support.

Three per year, approximately every four months.

This is a change from the previous four per year.

Minor releases are expected to be backward compatible within the same major release. They may contain existing feature enhancements, cumulative bug fixes, and security vulnerability mitigation.

Apigee supports sequential upgrades only. To upgrade to major_version.(minor_version+1).patch_version_any, a customer must be on major_version.(minor_version).patch_version_any. For example, to upgrade from version 1.2 to version 1.4, a customer must upgrade to version 1.3, and then to version 1.4.

Patch Same as corresponding Minor release. As necessary, at most once per month

Patch releases may contain bug fixes and bug fixes and security vulnerability patches.

Patches are numbered major.minor.patch where patch is a number 1 through 12.

Patch - Security Vulnerabilities Same as Patch release, but will not contain additional code. As needed Patches to major security vulnerabilities will be issued as needed in response to security circumstances.

Supported versions and release history

For information about Apigee hybrid supported versions and release history, see Apigee hybrid supported platforms and versions.

Runtime plane version support policy

Apigee publishes a new minor (for example, y in version x.y) hybrid runtime release three times per year, approximately every four months, with a monthly patch release (for example, z in version x.y.z). Apigee supports minor versions for at most 12 months from their original release date. This is a recent update from the previous four times per year and nine months of support.

The objective of the runtime plane version support policy is to allow customers the flexibility to schedule upgrades when it meets their business needs, while balancing the rapid evolution of Apigee (and its dependency on underlying components like Anthos and Anthos Service Mesh).

Runtime plane and Anthos version compatibility

An Apigee hybrid runtime minor version will be supported on a minimum of two Anthos and Anthos attached cluster versions.

Management plane compatibility and support timelines

The Apigee hybrid management plane will remain compatible with and be supported to work with a new hybrid runtime major/minor release for 12 months after the runtime minor version is published (or the greater of the last three runtime releases and 12 months).

A management plane upgrade may break a runtime minor version that was published 12 months or longer.

After the support window expires, Apigee requires customers to upgrade to a current release. No support tickets will be accepted for any releases that are outside the support window.