Why is RHEL 7/8 support being dropped?
Mattermost server binaries link against the system C library (glibc). For the past year, we have deliberately built against Debian Bullseye — a slightly older Linux distribution — because its glibc 2.31 is compatible with both RHEL 7 (glibc 2.17) and RHEL 8 (glibc 2.28).
That workaround has a deadline: Debian Bullseye reaches end-of-life in August 2026. Rather than migrate to yet another aging baseline, we are switching to the official Go build image based on Debian Bookworm. Bookworm ships glibc 2.36, which is incompatible with RHEL 7 and RHEL 8.
RHEL 7 itself reached end-of-life in June 2024. RHEL 8 will reach its end-of-life in May 2029.
What will I see if I try to run Mattermost v11.9+ on RHEL 8?
The server binary will fail to start with an error like:
mattermost/bin/mattermost: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.32' not found (required by mattermost/bin/mattermost)
mattermost/bin/mattermost: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by mattermost/bin/mattermost)
Is Mattermost dropping Red Hat support entirely?
Absolutely not. Mattermost continues to fully support RHEL 9, which ships glibc 2.34 and is compatible with our updated build environment. Only RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 are affected.
What are my options?
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Upgrade to RHEL 9. Red Hat offers a supported in-place upgrade path from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9. This is the most direct route for existing RHEL deployments and keeps you on a fully supported OS through at least 2032.
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Migrate to another supported Linux distribution. Mattermost supports Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Debian Bookworm, and other modern distributions. Our deployment guides cover step-by-step installation on each platform.
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Switch to a container-based deployment. The official Mattermost Docker image runs on any Linux host regardless of the host’s glibc version, and is our recommended path for new installations. See our Docker deployment guide to get started.
When does this take effect?
Mattermost v11.11 (September 2026) is the last release to support RHEL 7 and RHEL 8. Starting with v12.0 (October 2026), server binaries will require glibc 2.34 or newer.
If you need more time to plan your migration, you can remain on the v11 releases while you prepare. We recommend completing your migration before the v11.7 ESR reaches the end of its support window.