Lifecycle guide for Open Liberty from IBM
📅 Last update on 2026-03-06
IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty is a highly composable, fast to start, dynamic
application server runtime environment.
The entire lifecycle of Open Liberty
The following figure shows you the visualised product life cycle of Open Liberty.
You can see all releases with the latest patch version, the long-term support characteristics
(orange flag in the green circle, the periods for version provision, maintenance and
support.
Figure: Release, patch and end-of-life cycle of product Open Liberty (IBM)
What is the Open Liberty release strategy?
## Continuous fix pack delivery
WebSphere Application Server Liberty follows a continuous delivery process. Instead
of delivering a large amount of content in a new version, new content is delivered
gradually as optional installable features in of each fix pack. Because of the Liberty
zero-migration policy, you can update to the latest fix pack and then continue to
use your existing configuration and applications, with no unexpected change in behavior.
In contrast to WebSphere Application Server traditional, which has different fix packs
for each version, Liberty has a single service stream. A Liberty fix pack contains
the same content regardless of which product version you purchased. Fix pack 16.0.0.2
is the next Liberty fix pack after 8.5.5.9.
## Fix pack numbering
Beginning with fix pack 16.0.0.2, WebSphere Application Server Liberty fix packs use
the following numbering scheme:
Y.R.M.F
where:
Y = year, last 2 digits
R = release
M = modification
F = fix pack release during the year
For example, fix pack 16.0.0.2 refers to year 2016, release 0, modification 0, and
the second fix pack of the year. For the third fix pack of 2018, the fix name would
be 18.0.0.3.
This numbering change applies only to Liberty. WebSphere Application Server traditional
fix packs continue to follow the V.R.M.F numbering scheme, where the letters stand
for version, release, modification, and fix pack.
Facts and figures about Open Liberty
Number of unstable versions
58
Number of versions affected by CVE
0
Licence
Eclipse Public license 1.0
Questions or interested? Talk to me!
Lukas Böttcher
Business Development Manager
P: +49-30-221986-51
