This document outlines the currently supported releases and compatibility between individual Mender components. To understand the general compatibility policy of Mender, see the Compatibility policy.
The latest long term support (LTS) versions of Mender components are shown in the in the table below:
| Released component | Release month | Supported until end of |
|---|---|---|
| Mender Client 5.0 | 2025-01 | 2026-01 |
| Mender Gateway 2.0 | 2025-01 | 2026-01 |
| Mender Server 4.0 | 2025-01 | 2026-01 |
| Mender 3.7 (bundle) | 2024-05 | 2025-05 |
The following Yocto Project LTS releases are currently supported by meta-mender:
Each Yocto Project release has a corresponding branch in meta-mender. Note that you will find other branches in meta-mender but they are not updated during a future Mender release.
The Mender Artifact format is versioned to support new features over time. It is used by the Mender Client (to install Artifacts), Mender Server (to parse and display meta-data, and to generate some types of Artifacts) and the mender-artifact CLI utility (to create Artifacts).
| Artifact format | Client | Server | mender-artifact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artifact v1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Artifact v2 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 2.0 |
| Artifact v3 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 |
Before you create Artifacts of a new format version, make sure that every Mender
component you use anywhere supports the version of the Artifact format.
The compatibility between the Mender Server and Client is managed by the Device API versions exposed by the Server and used by the Client. If the Mender Server supports the API version of the Mender Client, they are compatible.
The higher version API contains a mix of old and new API endpoints. For endpoints which have not changed in the new version, previous version ones are assumed. For example, if the Device uses the v2 Device API, it expects this single v2 Deployments endpoint to be available. For all other endpoints it will use v1.
| Device API | Server | Gateway | Client |
|---|---|---|---|
| API v1 | 1.0 | N/A | 1.0 |
| API v2 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
Make sure to upgrade the Server first to support a new API version. Next it is
recommended to update any Gateway components and finally Client.
So far, Mender Server supports all Device API versions ever released. In other words,
a current Mender Server will still work with Mender Client v1.0. However, it is good practice and required for commercial support to regularly update all your Mender components to ensure they all run supported versions. This will prevent issues in the future.
The Mender Client consists of several subcomponents. See the table below for a mapping of which subcomponents are included in a given Mender Client version.
| Mender Client | mender-connect | mender-configure | mender-monitor | mender-binary-delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1.5 |
| 4.0 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
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