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CentOS 7 Support is Discontinued from May, 2022

· 3 min read
Michael Klishin
Michael Klishin

RabbitMQ RPM packages for CentOS 7 will be discontinued from May 2022 because that CentOS release series provides outdated versions of OpenSSL and Linux kernel.

CentOS 7 users are recommended to migrate to a new cluster which uses a more recent distribution via one of the options:

From the 1st of May 2022, RabbitMQ will discontinue support for CentOS 7. Going forward, RabbitMQ RPM packages will support modern RPM-based distributions only, distributions such as: Fedora, Rocky Linux, CentOS Stream 8, and Centos Stream 9 (when it goes GA).

The Reasons Why CentOS 7 is Being Discontinued​

  • CentOS 7 still runs version 1.0 of OpenSSL. RabbitMQ requires 23.x and 24.x Erlang/OTP versions which in turn require OpenSSL 1.1 at a minimum for modern cryptography support in Erlang. With CentOS 7 still running on OpenSSL 1.0, this is one of the reasons RabbitMQ needs to discontinue its use.
  • CentOS 7 still runs version 3.x of the Linux kernel (a later version of the Linux kernel is needed).
  • There are many advances in OpenSSL version 1.1 compared to OpenSSL version 1.0 (which CentOS 7 still runs on). As a result, many projects including Erlang/OTP now require OpenSSL version 1.1.

What is Changing?​

What is not Changing?​

  • Previously published RabbitMQ releases that currently include RPM packages for CentOS 7 can still be used.
  • Erlang RPM packages of Erlang 23.3 releases can still be used.

The Actions You Must Complete​

To use RabbitMQ 3.10 version onwards with a Red Hat family operating system, you must migrate your RabbitMQ deployments to one of: Fedora, Rocky Linux, Red Hat Linux 8.5, CentOS Stream 8, or CentOS Stream 9. The ELevate project is an emerging tool that makes it easier to migrate from CentOS 7 to a more modern Red Hat Linux family distribution.

Operating system migrations can be completed in several ways:

Note: If you want to or it is a requirement that you need to upgrade the OS, the kernel, Erlang/OTP, and RabbitMQ at the same time, then it is highly recommended that you upgrade by either creating a new cluster and transferring the schema to it or by completing the Blue/Green deployment upgrade process.