The OpenLDAP Project is pleased to announce the promotion of OpenLDAP 2.6 from Feature Release to Long Term Support (LTS) Release, effective January, 2025. It is now the recommended OpenLDAP version for deployments that prioritize stability over features. The projected lifespan for OpenLDAP 2.6 as the LTS release is five years.

OpenLDAP 2.5 is now in its end of life stage and, at the discretion of the Project, will receive critical fixes until January 15, 2027. After that it will be designated as a historical release and no longer supported or maintained by the Project. Users are encouraged to develop a plan that will help them upgrade quickly to the new LTS version so that they can continue on a supported release.

OpenLDAP 2.7 is the new Feature Release and will see its first public availability in the fall of 2024.

------------- Compatibility -------------

Replication: Replication compatibility between OpenLDAP 2.5 and 2.6 is excellent. The Project expects this to remain the case throughout the remaining end-of-life stage of OpenLDAP 2.5.

Configuration Files: Configuration file compatibility between OpenLDAP 2.5 and 2.6 is excellent, but may require some manual intervention at upgrade time, particularly if you are using the OpenLDAP Load Balancer daemon.

---------------------- Additional Information ----------------------

* The OpenLDAP Release Maintenance Policy can be found at https://lists.openldap.org/hyperkitty/list/openldap-announce@openldap.org/th...

* Notes covering upgrading from OpenLDAP 2.5 to 2.6 can be found at https://www.openldap.org/doc/admin26/appendix-upgrading.html