Shibboleth Versions

NOTE: The Shibboleth team transitioned Shibboleth v1.3 from Previous Stable release to the Earlier / Unsupported category on June 30, 2010.
Information on upgrading to 2.x is available for IdPs and SPs.

Definitions for Formal Releases:

A development release is a point in time release of code that is under heavy development. We encourage people who wish to experiment with features that have been added to deploy it in a test environment. We will answer questions when we can but it shouldn't be considered a "supported" release.

The current stable release is the most stable release we have. We recommend people deploy this version in production. We MAY add features over time, but not break compatibility with other releases. We WILL provide security updates. We WILL produce binary releases on supported platforms. We monitor the bug/issue database and the support mailing list closely for questions, issues, and problems.

A previous stable release is any stable release prior to the current one that has not been moved to the "earlier/unsupported" category below. We WILL provide security updates, but WILL NOT usually add features, and do NOT promise that ongoing changes to the current stable release are backward-compatible with this release. We MAY produce updated binary releases. We monitor the bug/issue database and the support mailing list, but some issues will only be resolvable through an upgrade to the latest stable release, and particularly complex problems may not be addressed if research is required. There could be multiple "previous stable" releases at times.

Any earlier releases MAY be unsupported (check below for specific guidance). We are willing to entertain questions, but in many cases no resolution will be possible without upgrading.

Statements for Specific Releases:

Shibboleth 2.3.3 is the current stable release for the IdP and 2.4.3 is the current stable release for the SP. They will interoperate with Shibboleth v1.3.x deployments; they will NOT interoperate with Shibboleth 1.1 and earlier in some routine cases. There may be cases where this will work, but there may be significant limitations. Interoperability with Shibboleth 1.2 is relatively complete but may fail in some edge cases and has not been tested.

Shibboleth v1.3.x and earlier releases are unsupported.

Supported Platforms

The IdP, CDS, and other components in Java are currently supported on the following platforms:

Java, Standard Edition 1.6
Jetty 7, Apache Tomcat 6.0, JBoss 4.2

The SP is currently supported on the following platforms:

Windows XP SP2+/2003 SP1+/2008 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5+ (i386 and x86_64)
Novell SLES 10+, OpenSUSE 11.x (i386 and x86_64)
Macintosh OS X (available as source via Macports)
Solaris 2.9+

The following web server environments are supported:

Apache 2.0, 2.2 (1.3 works, but is now EOL)
Microsoft IIS on all supported Windows versions
Sun/Netscape Web Server V4+ on all supported Windows versions
FastCGI Authorizer-capable servers on all supported platforms

Binary packages might be available on the web site for other platforms from outside contributors or as project resources permit. We encourage those interested in other platforms to supply packages, report bugs and porting issues, and supply patches. However only officially supported platforms will receieve immediate binary support when patches are released. Other binaries will follow on different timetables, or may disappear entirely if no update can be made available. We recommend production deployers use a supported platform or build from source to ensure security updates can be applied promptly.