CIQ Bridge

Technical Overview

As CentOS 7.9 reaches its End of Life (EOL) on June 30, 2024, enterprises need a reliable solution to maintain security and stability during their transition to newer platforms. CIQ Bridge provides a solution to ensure your systems remain secure and operational while giving you time to migrate.

Offering Details

CIQ Bridge’s base offering supports the default 3.10 kernel version and mission-critical API/ABI compatible userspace packages included with CentOS 7. Bridge extends CentOS’s life by delivering high-severity security fixes via a private package repository.

Kernel Support

Ongoing support for the default 3.10 kernel version.

Userspace Packages

Includes mission-critical API/ABI compatible userspace packages.

Security Updates

Provides fixes for vulnerabilities with CVSS scores of 7-10, with an industry standard format (CSAF) feed of resolved vulnerabilities distributed through a CIQ repository.

Professional Services

Available for issues below CVSS 7 and for functionality fixes, proprietary driver support, and other custom needs. The cost and timeline for these additional services is evaluated individually based on the level of effort required.

Limitations:

  • No active development or backporting of new drivers or subsystems.
  • No non-security updates or Desktop Support.
  • Proprietary drivers will incur a professional services charge for troubleshooting.
  • Some complex fixes may require time and materials billing.
  • Some CVEs might not be mitigatable despite best efforts.

Service Components

  • Access to a private repository containing CentOS packages with CVE fixes and, where required, their dependencies
  • Subscription to the CentOS 7.9 Mirror repository (Vaulted July 1st, 2024)
  • Subscription to the CIQ Bridge repository with patched packages beyond the EOL date.

Customer Onboarding

CIQ’s Customer Success team will assist you and your team with onboarding to the private repository and accessing updates from CIQ Bridge. We also have documentation available about how to set up your systems to retrieve updates from the Bridge repository available on the CIQ website.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Due to the age of CentOS and the complexity of Long Term Support, CIQ does not provide hard SLAs for CVE resolution. CVEs will be pursued on a best-effort basis with respect to commercial viability.

CIQ prioritizes CVE resolution for a curated list of packages critical to our customers. The list of priority packages, broken out into Source and Binary RPMs, can be found at the following Github repository. This repository also includes a script which your team can run in your production environment to identify installed packages which are not on this list.

If you do not see one of your installed packages on this list, please reach out to your Sales Representative or Customer Success Manager. Please note that some packages may require additional consideration to support.

Your path to Rocky Linux

Rocky Linux emerged in 2021 as a formidable alternative to CentOS, built with enterprise-grade performance in mind. As the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux, CIQ is uniquely positioned to provide enterprise-level support, making your migration as seamless as possible.

Compliance and Redistribution

Customers may redistribute packages as part of their products but cannot resell them independently or use them to compete with CIQ’s Bridge service. For detailed maintenance coverage, consult the CIQ supported packages table and discuss specific needs with your sales representative.

Get in Touch

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Headquarters:

560 Mill St. Suite 302 Reno, NV 89502

Mailing Address:

1050 N Hills Blvd. Suite 61180 Reno, NV 89506

Contact:

Phone: (800) 220-5243
Email: info@ciq.com

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