End of life statements

We aim to have a release every six months. The latest release receives correctness, stability and security updates. The two releases before that get critical updates only. Older releases are marked end of life and receive no updates at all. Pre-releases do not receive immediate security updates.

The currently supported release train of PowerDNS Authoritative Server is 4.9.

PowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.8 will only receive critical updates and will be end of life after PowerDNS Authoritative Server 5.1 is released.

PowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.7 will only receive critical updates and will be end of life after PowerDNS Authoritative Server 5.0 is released.

PowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.0 through 4.6, 3.x, and 2.x are End of Life.

Note: Users with a commercial agreement with PowerDNS.COM BV or Open-Xchange can receive extended support for releases which are End Of Life. If you are such a user, these EOL statements do not apply to you.

PowerDNS Authoritative Server Release Life Cycle
Version Release date Critical-Only updates End of Life
4.9 15th of March 2024 ~September 2024 ~September 2025
4.8 1st of June 2023 ~ December 2023 ~ December 2024
4.7 20th of October 2022 ~ April 2023 ~ April 2024
4.6 25th of January 2022 20th of October 2022 EOL March 2024
4.5 July 13 2021 25th of January 2022 EOL June 2023
4.4 December 18 2020 25th of January 2022 EOL 20th of October 2022
4.3 April 7 2020 ~ April 2021 EOL 25th of January 2022
4.2 August 30 2019 December 2020 EOL July 2021
4.1 and older EOL EOL EOL

PowerDNS Authoritative Server 3.x

1st of December 2017

The PowerDNS Authoritative Server 3.x releases are no longer supported, and will not receive any further updates, not even for security purposes.

All users are urged to upgrade to the latest version. To upgrade from 3.x to 4.x, follow these instructions

If you need help with upgrading, we provide migration services to our supported users. If you are currently running 3.x and need help to tide you over, we can also provide that as part of a support agreement.

PowerDNS Authoritative Server 2.x

21st of May 2015 (updated January 2017)

PowerDNS Authoritative Server 2.9.22 was released in January 2009. Because of its immense and durable popularity, some patch releases have been provided, the last one of which (2.9.22.6) was made available in January 2012.

The 2.9.22.x series contains a number of probable and actual violations of the DNS standards. In addition, some behaviours of 2.9.22.x are standards conforming but cause interoperability problems today. Finally, 2.9.22.4 and earlier are impacted by PowerDNS Security Advisory 2012-01, which means PowerDNS can be used in a Denial of Service attack.

Although we have long been telling users that we can no longer support the use of 2.x, and urging upgrading, with this statement we formally declare 2.x end of life.

This means that any 2.x issues will not be addressed. This has been the case for a long time, but with this statement we make it formal.

To upgrade to 3.x, please consult the instructions on how to upgrade the database. To upgrade from 3.x to 4.x, follow these instructions. If you need help with upgrading, we provide migration services to our supported users. If you are currently running 2.9.22 and need help to tide you over, we can also provide that as part of a support agreement.

But we urge everyone to move on to PowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.x - it is a faster, more standards conforming and more powerful nameserver!