Differences between Long Term Support and Feature Release versions of Syslog-ng Store Box (4278363)

Syslog-ng Store Box (SSB) has two release branches, Long Term Support (LTS) and Feature Release (FR).

This article is intended to describe the differences between the two releases.

Support terms

Long Term Supported (LTS) releases are supported for 3 years after their original publication date and for 1 year after the next LTS release is published (whichever date is later). Maintenance releases to LTS releases contain only bugfixes and security updates. 

Feature releases (FR) are supported for 6 months after their original publication date and for 2 months after succeeding Feature or LTS Release is published (whichever date is later). Feature releases contain enhancements and new features, presumably 1-3 new features per release. Only the latest of the feature releases is supported. 

Versioning policy

The second digit of the revisions of LTS releases is always 0, for example SSB 5.0.2. The third digit indicates the number of the LTS release.

The seconds number of the revisions of FR indicates the number of the feature release in the FR branch (for example, SSB 5.2.0). The third number indicates if the release contains bug fixes. (for example SSB 5.2.1 means that the release has the same features as 5.2.0 but additionally contains security bug fixes)

Technical differences

• LTS is built on syslog-ng Premium Edition (PE) 6. FR since version 5.2.0 is built on syslog-ng Premium Edition 7.
• FR includes HDFS destination functionality, but does not support SNMP destinations and SQL sources.
• Upgrade to FR is tested and supported from the latest SSB 5 LTS maintenance version.
• Downgrade from FR to LTS is not supported.