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Platforms

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Chef software is supported on the various operating systems (platforms) listed below. To see which versions of our software we currently support, see the Supported Versions page.

Platforms

The sections below list the platforms that Chef Software Inc. supports. Support is divided into two levels:

  • Commercial Support consists of the platforms that are supported as part of a paid commercial support contract with Chef Software Inc.
  • Community Support is made up of platforms for which support is only available through the Chef community

Any platforms or versions not explicitly listed here are unsupported, both commercially and by the community.

Commercial support generally follows Chef community support policies, which track the lifecycle policies of the underlying operating system vendor.

In all cases (beyond community support), a maintenance contract with Chef Software Inc. is required in order to open support tickets and get SLA-based assistance from our support desk.

Chef Infra Client

Commercial Support

The following table lists the commercially-supported platforms and versions for Chef Infra Client:

PlatformArchitectureVersion
AIXpowerpc7.1 (TL5 SP2 or higher, recommended), 7.2
Amazon Linuxx86_64, aarch64 (2.x only)2013+ and 2.0
CentOSx86_64, ppc64le (7.x only), ppc64 (7.x only), aarch64 (7.x / 8.x only)6.x, 7.x, 8.x
Debianx86_64aarch64 (10.x only)9, 10
FreeBSDamd6411.x, 12.x
macOSx86_6410.14, 10.15, 11.0
Oracle Enterprise Linuxx86_64aarch64 (7.x / 8.x only)6.x, 7.x, 8.x
Red Hat Enterprise Linuxx86_64, ppc64le (7.x only), ppc64 (7.x only), aarch64 (7.x / 8.x only)6.x, 7.x, 8.x
Solarissparc, i86pc11.2, 11.3, 11.4
SUSE Enterprise Linux Serverx86_64, aarch64 (15.x only)12, 15
Ubuntu (LTS releases)x86_64,aarch64 (18.04/20.04 only)16.04, 18.04, 20.04
Microsoft Windowsx86, x648.1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 10 (all channels except "insider" builds), 2019 (Long-term servicing channel (LTSC), both Desktop Experience and Server Core)

Community Support

The following platforms are supported only via the community:

PlatformArchitectureVersion
Arch Linuxx86_64current version
Fedorax86_64current non-EOL releases
Gentoox86_64current version
openSUSEx86_6415.x
Scientific Linuxx86_646.x, 7.x
Ubuntux86_64Current non-LTS releases
Windowsx64Windows Server, Semi-annual channel (SAC) (Server Core only)

Chef Workstation

Commercial Support

The following table lists the commercially-supported platforms and versions for the Chef Workstation:

PlatformArchitectureVersion
macOSx86_6410.14, 10.15, 11.0
Debianx86_649, 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linuxx86_646.x, 7.x, 8.x
Ubuntux86_6416.04, 18.04, 20.04
Microsoft Windowsx648.1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 10 (all channels except "insider" builds), 2019 (Long-term servicing channel (LTSC), Desktop Experience only)

Chef InSpec

Commercial Support

The following table lists the commercially-supported platforms and versions for Chef InSpec:

PlatformArchitectureVersion
Amazon Linuxx86_64, aarch642013+ and 2.0
Debianx86_64aarch64 (10.x only)9.x, 10.x
macOSx86_6410.14, 10.15, 11.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linuxx86_64, aarch64 (7.x and 8.x only)6.x, 7.x, 8.x
SUSE Enterprise Linux Serverx86_6412, 15
Ubuntux86_6416.04, 18.04, 20.04
Microsoft Windowsx86_648.1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 10 (all channels except "insider" builds), 2019

Chef InSpec Target Mode (inspec --target) may be functional on additional platforms, versions, and architectures but are not validated by Chef Software, Inc.

Chef Infra Server

Commercial Support

The following table lists the commercially-supported platforms and versions for the Chef Infra Server:

PlatformArchitectureVersion
CentOSx86_646.x, 7.x, 8.x
Oracle Enterprise Linuxx86_646.x, 7.x, 8.x
Red Hat Enterprise Linuxx86_646.x, 7.x, 8.x
SUSE Enterprise Linux Serverx86_6412, 15
Ubuntux86_6416.04, 18.04, 20.04

Chef Automate Server

Commercial Support

Commercial support for the Chef Automate 2 Server is available for platforms that use:

  • a Linux kernel version of 3.2 or greater
  • systemd as the init system
  • useradd
  • curl or wget

Chef Automate Job Runners

Commercial Support

Chef Automate Job Runners are supported on the Commercial Support platforms for Chef Automate Server listed above as well as on the following platforms:

PlatformArchitectureVersion
macOSx86_6410.12

Chef Backend

Commercial Support

The following table lists the commercially-supported platforms for Chef Backend, the high-availability solution for Chef Infra Server:

PlatformArchitectureVersion
CentOSx86_646.x, 7.x
Red Hat Enterprise Linuxx86_646.x, 7.x
Ubuntu (LTS releases)x86_6416.04, 18.04

Chef Manage

Commercial Support

The following table lists the commercially-supported platforms for Chef Manage:

PlatformArchitectureVersion
CentOSx86_646.x, 7.x, 8.x
Red Hat Enterprise Linuxx86_646.x, 7.x, 8.x
Ubuntu (LTS releases)x86_6416.04, 18.04

Platform End-of-Life Policy

Chef’s products on particular platforms and versions generally reach end-of-life on the same date as the vendor EOL milestone for that operating systems. Because different vendors use different terminology, the following table clarifies when Chef products are end-of-life according to those vendors' terms:

PlatformVendor End-of-Life
Apple macOSApple generally supports the last three macOS releases, for example: 10.14, 10.15, and 11.0. Apple does not officially publish EOL dates.
DebianEnd of maintenance updates
Enterprise Linux (covers Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS)End of Production 3
FreeBSDEnd of Life
IBM AIXIBM End of Support Date
Microsoft WindowsEnd of Extended Support
Oracle Enterprise LinuxPremier Support Ends
Oracle SolarisPremier Support Ends
SUSE Linux Enterprise ServerGeneral Support Ends
Ubuntu LinuxEnd of maintenance updates

At Chef’s option, additional support may be provided to customers beyond the vendor end-of-life in the above table. As such, the following table indicates upcoming product end-of-life dates for particular platforms. On the Chef end-of-life date, Chef discontinues building software for that platform and version.

Platform and VersionVendor End-of-Life DateChef End-of-Life Date
Apple macOS 10.13Nov 13th, 2020Nov 13th, 2020
Debian 7 (Wheezy)May 31st, 2018May 31st, 2018
Debian 8 (Jessie)June 6th, 2020June 6th, 2020
Enterprise Linux 5 (covers Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS)April 30, 2017December 31, 2017
Enterprise Linux 6 (covers Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS)November 30, 2020November 30, 2020
FreeBSD 10-STABLEOctober 31, 2018October 31, 2018
FreeBSD 11-STABLESeptember 30, 2021September 30, 2021
IBM AIX 6.1April 30, 2017December 31, 2017
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (SP2)/R2 (SP1)January 13, 2015January 14, 2020
Microsoft Windows Server 2012/2012 R2October 10, 2023October 10, 2023
Microsoft Windows Server 2016November 11, 2027November 11, 2027
Microsoft Windows Server 2019October 10, 2028October 10, 2028
Oracle Enterprise Linux 5June 30, 2017December 31, 2017
Oracle Enterprise Linux 6March 31, 2021March 31, 2021
Oracle Solaris 10January 30, 2018January 30, 2018
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11March 31, 2019March 31, 2019
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12October 31, 2024October 31, 2024
Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTSApril 30, 2017April 30, 2017
Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTSApril 30, 2019April 30, 2019
Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTSApril 30, 2021April 30, 2021

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