CentOS - Mar 2024 - CentOS 7/8s EOL : infrastructure impacts (please read)

Hi all,

As you're all aware (we sent multiple mails in the last year about 
this), CentOS 7 and Stream 8 will go EOL soon : 
https://blog.centos.org/2023/04/end-dates-are-coming-for-centos-stream-8-and-centos-linux-7/

Let's lists some things that will happen on the CentOS Infrastructure as 
we'll be approching (or passed) these dates :

# CentOS 7/8s content itself
Usual process : content will be archived to https://vault.centos.org and 
removed from mirror.centos.org completely, with just a simple readme 
file dropped here (for example http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8/readme 
for already EOL'ed version). Worth knowing that some SIGs are still 
building for RHEL8, still supported for SIGs through 
https://cbs.centos.org so such kind of content will continue to be 
available there as long as SIGs can build against/for it

# CBS/koji (https://cbs.centos.org)
No impact on CBS env itself ( not running centos 7 nor 8s for a long 
time now) but the various build tag reflecting centos 7 and 8s will be 
locked so that nobody would be able to build content anymore : that 
would even be impossible as content itself will have been removed from 
mirror.centos.org (internally used for cbs build tags)

# CentOS Forums (https://forums.centos.org) :
still running on centos 7 and even if that's easy to migrate to 
newer/supported EL version, it was decided to just shutdown the service 
(based on discussion with the actual moderation team). An option (to be 
announced on forums.centos.org ?) is to eventually start moving 
thread/discussions on Fedora discourse (There is already a CentOS 
category there : https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/c/neighbors/centos/71)
So the plan is just to shutdown forums.centos.org and remove A/AAAA 
records from DNS

# mirrorlist.centos.org service :
Starting from Stream 9 (and above), deployed CentOS instance ares using 
Fedora infra mirrormanager instance for metalink= instead of mirrorlist= 
in .repo files. We'll just decommission our mirror crawler (also running 
with a mix of perl/python2 code), so not validating any mirror for 
legacy/EOL releases. mirrorlist.centos.org A/AAAA records will be 
removed in the following weeks after c7 will be EOL'ed.
That means that people still running CentOS 7 or 8-stream will not have 
functional yum/dnf stack, except if they point to either vault or have 
internal mirror but at least people would be aware that distro itself is 
EOL and that they shouldn't expect to receive any update anymore

# CentOS mailing-lists
Currently running on mailman2 stack, on top of CentOS 7 linux : there is 
WIP to port everything to up2date mailman3 stack, actually packaged for 
EPEL9.
We have successfully imported archives into mailman3 and same for lists 
config but let's start a different/separate thread to discuss changes 
(like renaming lists, see next coming thread)

Kind Regards,

-- 
Fabian Arrotin
The CentOS Project | https://www.centos.org
gpg key: 17F3B7A1 | @arrfab[@fosstodon.org]
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 840 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL:
<http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20240318/efab6b5f/attachment.sig>

Hi,

do we know what happens with the images at major hyperscalers and when? I?m
interested specifically about GCP. Who is in charge of centos-cloud project in
GCP? You or Google?

$ gcloud compute images describe centos-stream-8-v20240312 --project
centos-cloud
architecture: X86_64
archiveSizeBytes: '7072654848'
creationTimestamp: '2024-03-12T11:46:50.983-07:00'
description: CentOS, CentOS, Stream 8, x86_64 built on 20240312
diskSizeGb: '20'
family: centos-stream-8
guestOsFeatures:
- type: UEFI_COMPATIBLE
- type: VIRTIO_SCSI_MULTIQUEUE
- type: SEV_CAPABLE
- type: GVNIC
id: '1486194601799523829'
kind: compute#image
labelFingerprint: 42WmSpB8rSMlicenseCodes:
- '3197331720697687881'
licenses:
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-stream
name: centos-stream-8-v20240312
rawDisk:
  containerType: TAR
  source: ''
selfLink:
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/images/centos-stream-8-v20240312
sourceType: RAW
status: READY
storageLocations:
- eu
- asia
- us

> On 18. Mar 2024, at 08:28, Fabian Arrotin <arrfab at centos.org>
wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> As you're all aware (we sent multiple mails in the last year about
this), CentOS 7 and Stream 8 will go EOL soon :
https://blog.centos.org/2023/04/end-dates-are-coming-for-centos-stream-8-and-centos-linux-7/
> 
> Let's lists some things that will happen on the CentOS Infrastructure
as we'll be approching (or passed) these dates :
> 
> # CentOS 7/8s content itself
> Usual process : content will be archived to https://vault.centos.org and
removed from mirror.centos.org completely, with just a simple readme file
dropped here (for example http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8/readme for already
EOL'ed version). Worth knowing that some SIGs are still building for RHEL8,
still supported for SIGs through https://cbs.centos.org so such kind of content
will continue to be available there as long as SIGs can build against/for it
> 
> # CBS/koji (https://cbs.centos.org)
> No impact on CBS env itself ( not running centos 7 nor 8s for a long time
now) but the various build tag reflecting centos 7 and 8s will be locked so that
nobody would be able to build content anymore : that would even be impossible as
content itself will have been removed from mirror.centos.org (internally used
for cbs build tags)
> 
> # CentOS Forums (https://forums.centos.org) :
> still running on centos 7 and even if that's easy to migrate to
newer/supported EL version, it was decided to just shutdown the service (based
on discussion with the actual moderation team). An option (to be announced on
forums.centos.org ?) is to eventually start moving thread/discussions on Fedora
discourse (There is already a CentOS category there :
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/c/neighbors/centos/71)
> So the plan is just to shutdown forums.centos.org and remove A/AAAA records
from DNS
> 
> # mirrorlist.centos.org service :
> Starting from Stream 9 (and above), deployed CentOS instance ares using
Fedora infra mirrormanager instance for metalink= instead of mirrorlist= in
.repo files. We'll just decommission our mirror crawler (also running with a
mix of perl/python2 code), so not validating any mirror for legacy/EOL releases.
mirrorlist.centos.org A/AAAA records will be removed in the following weeks
after c7 will be EOL'ed.
> That means that people still running CentOS 7 or 8-stream will not have
functional yum/dnf stack, except if they point to either vault or have internal
mirror but at least people would be aware that distro itself is EOL and that
they shouldn't expect to receive any update anymore
> 
> # CentOS mailing-lists
> Currently running on mailman2 stack, on top of CentOS 7 linux : there is
WIP to port everything to up2date mailman3 stack, actually packaged for EPEL9.
> We have successfully imported archives into mailman3 and same for lists
config but let's start a different/separate thread to discuss changes (like
renaming lists, see next coming thread)
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> -- 
> Fabian Arrotin
> The CentOS Project | https://www.centos.org
> gpg key: 17F3B7A1 | @arrfab[@fosstodon.org]
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
-- 
Aleksandar Ivanisevic
Head of Operations and Support
2e Systems

Tel: +49 - 6196 - 950 58 14
Fax: +49 - 6196 - 950 58 94
E-mail: Aleksandar.Ivanisevic at 2e-systems.com

Address: 2e Systems GmbH,  Koenigsteiner Str. 107, 65812 Bad Soden am Taunus
Company registration: Amtsgericht Koenigstein (Germany), HRB 7303
Director: Philip Douglas

http://www.2e-systems.com - making your business fly!

Just in case anyone is interested, Google has no plans of removing old images,
whether they will switch them to vault remains to be seen, I have tried to
advise them but who knows what seeped through from the 1st level support. This
is what I got from their support:


Hello Aleksandar,


Thank you for sharing information.
  Regarding your issue ?you want to know about CentOS Stream 8  as they will
soon be EOL?.
  We completely agree with you about images that already hit the EOL and marked
as  deprecated are available and usable and working fine.
  What product specialist team wants to inform is there is no plan from GCP to
delete those images completely. They will be marked as deprecated and so they
might need to use the "--show-deprecated" flag in the UI/gcloud[1]
after EOL. However,  they will still be usable and available. We are not saying
the images will be unavailable and you can?t use them.
  You can use these images with your VMs but with your existing CentOS Stream 8
based VMs, limited technical support is available through Google Cloud after
they hit ELO.

> On 18. Mar 2024, at 08:28, Fabian Arrotin <arrfab at centos.org>
wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> As you're all aware (we sent multiple mails in the last year about
this), CentOS 7 and Stream 8 will go EOL soon :
https://blog.centos.org/2023/04/end-dates-are-coming-for-centos-stream-8-and-centos-linux-7/
> 
> Let's lists some things that will happen on the CentOS Infrastructure
as we'll be approching (or passed) these dates :
> 
> # CentOS 7/8s content itself
> Usual process : content will be archived to https://vault.centos.org and
removed from mirror.centos.org completely, with just a simple readme file
dropped here (for example http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8/readme for already
EOL'ed version). Worth knowing that some SIGs are still building for RHEL8,
still supported for SIGs through https://cbs.centos.org so such kind of content
will continue to be available there as long as SIGs can build against/for it
> 
> # CBS/koji (https://cbs.centos.org)
> No impact on CBS env itself ( not running centos 7 nor 8s for a long time
now) but the various build tag reflecting centos 7 and 8s will be locked so that
nobody would be able to build content anymore : that would even be impossible as
content itself will have been removed from mirror.centos.org (internally used
for cbs build tags)
> 
> # CentOS Forums (https://forums.centos.org) :
> still running on centos 7 and even if that's easy to migrate to
newer/supported EL version, it was decided to just shutdown the service (based
on discussion with the actual moderation team). An option (to be announced on
forums.centos.org ?) is to eventually start moving thread/discussions on Fedora
discourse (There is already a CentOS category there :
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/c/neighbors/centos/71)
> So the plan is just to shutdown forums.centos.org and remove A/AAAA records
from DNS
> 
> # mirrorlist.centos.org service :
> Starting from Stream 9 (and above), deployed CentOS instance ares using
Fedora infra mirrormanager instance for metalink= instead of mirrorlist= in
.repo files. We'll just decommission our mirror crawler (also running with a
mix of perl/python2 code), so not validating any mirror for legacy/EOL releases.
mirrorlist.centos.org A/AAAA records will be removed in the following weeks
after c7 will be EOL'ed.
> That means that people still running CentOS 7 or 8-stream will not have
functional yum/dnf stack, except if they point to either vault or have internal
mirror but at least people would be aware that distro itself is EOL and that
they shouldn't expect to receive any update anymore
> 
> # CentOS mailing-lists
> Currently running on mailman2 stack, on top of CentOS 7 linux : there is
WIP to port everything to up2date mailman3 stack, actually packaged for EPEL9.
> We have successfully imported archives into mailman3 and same for lists
config but let's start a different/separate thread to discuss changes (like
renaming lists, see next coming thread)
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> -- 
> Fabian Arrotin
> The CentOS Project | https://www.centos.org
> gpg key: 17F3B7A1 | @arrfab[@fosstodon.org]
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
-- 
Aleksandar Ivanisevic
Head of Operations and Support
2e Systems

Tel: +49 - 6196 - 950 58 14
Fax: +49 - 6196 - 950 58 94
E-mail: Aleksandar.Ivanisevic at 2e-systems.com

Address: 2e Systems GmbH,  Koenigsteiner Str. 107, 65812 Bad Soden am Taunus
Company registration: Amtsgericht Koenigstein (Germany), HRB 7303
Director: Philip Douglas

http://www.2e-systems.com - making your business fly!