CircleCI’s Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 Linux virtual machine (VM) images will be temporarily unavailable in late March 2022, late April 2022, and mid-May 2022, and they will be permanently unavailable as of May 31, 2022. If you are using either of these images, update your config with a newer Ubuntu machine image before the 14.04 and 16.04 images are removed at the end of May 2022.
Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04 images are now deprecated
As of February 15, 2022, the Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 Linux VM images used with our machine executor have been deprecated. This means that there will be no new releases or support for these images moving forward. When these images reach end of life (EOL) on May 31, 2022, any pipelines that utilize Ubuntu 14.04 or 16.04 images will fail.
If any of your projects currently use the affected images, we will be contacting your team directly to encourage you to migrate to a newer Ubuntu image. However, we realize email notifications can be easy to miss, so after the notification period, we will also be implementing occasional brownouts, or short periods of unavailability for the affected images, leading up to the EOL date.
Ubuntu image deprecation timeline
Please refer to the following table for important dates regarding the deprecation of our older Ubuntu images:
| Date | What happens |
| Feb. 15, 2022 | Notification emails go out to affected teams. CircleCI’s Ubuntu 20.04 image is already available for teams who want to migrate right away. |
| Mar. 29, 2022 | CircleCI releases the first Ubuntu 22.04 Beta image. |
| Mar. 29, 2022 | First brownout. The deprecated images will be unavailable for 10 minutes at a time, for the following time periods: - UTC 00:00 — 00:10 & UTC 01:00 — 01:10 - UTC 10:00 — 10:10 & UTC 11:00 — 11:10 - UTC 15:00 — 15:10 & UTC 16:00 — 16:10 (Time zone helper) Any jobs referencing these images will receive a failed to create host: Image <image-name> is not supported error. |
| April 25, 2022 | CircleCI releases the Ubuntu 22.04 stable image. |
| April 26, 2022 | Second brownout. The deprecated images will be unavailable for 60 minutes at a time, for the following time periods: - UTC 00:00 — 01:00 - UTC 10:00 — 11:00 - UTC 15:00 — 16:00 (Time zone helper) Any jobs referencing these images will receive a failed to create host: Image <image-name> is not supported error. |
| May 19, 2022 | Third brownout. The deprecated images will be unavailable for 3 hours at a time, for the following time periods: - UTC 00:00 — 03:00 - UTC 08:00 — 11:00 - UTC 16:00 — 19:00 (Time zone helper) Any jobs referencing these images will receive a failed to create host: Image <image-name> is not supported error.Ubuntu 22.04 becomes the new default image for machine: true |
| May 31, 2022 | Ubuntu 14.04 & 16.04 end of life. These images are permanently unavailable. |
The first brownouts of the affected images will take place on March 29, 2022, followed by another round of brownouts on April 26, 2022 and a third on May 19, 2022. Any pipeline runs that depend on these images will fail during the specified brownout periods. The 14.04 and 16.04 images will be permanently removed on May 31, 2022, and pipelines using the affected images will fail permanently until a newer image is specified.
Why are the Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 images being deprecated?
CircleCI is committed to providing you and your team with the most stable and secure experience possible. Deprecating our Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 images in favor of newer versions has several benefits, including improved upstream support and stronger security and compatibility for your Linux VM-based pipelines.
Upstream support
Plain and simple, the Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 images are old! The corporate sponsor behind Ubuntu, Canonical, stopped supporting Ubuntu 14.04 in 2019 and 16.04 in 2021. This can be visualized in the chart below with Ubuntu’s standard support window (the images CircleCI and most providers offer) in orange.
Security and compatibility
The lack of upstream support for these images means a lack of bug fixes and security updates. This means no new versions of included software such as Node.js, Python, OpenJDK, etc. But more importantly, we can’t provide you updated images when security exploits affect the industry.
Security problems such as the log4j CVEs, GitHub’s OpenSSH protocol deprecation, the Let’s Encrypt certificate expiration, and more are either extremely difficult or virtually impossible to mitigate on these images. As they age further, this problem will get worse.
Does the Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 image deprecation affect me?
If any of your projects utilize one or more of the impacted images, we will notify you or someone on your team directly via email. Since emails can sometimes be overlooked, we will also be implementing brownouts for the impacted images. These will be an accurate indicator of whether a project will be affected when these images are removed permanently at the end of May. As a reminder, please see the table above for exact dates.
To check projects on your own, you can refer to the complete list of affected images below.
The following Ubuntu 14.04-based images will be removed:
machine: true(see note below)- circleci/classic:201703-01
- circleci/classic:201707-01
- circleci/classic:201708-01
- circleci/classic:201709-01
- circleci/classic:201710-01
- circleci/classic:201710-02
- circleci/classic:201711-01
- circleci/classic
- circleci/classic:latest
- circleci/classic:edge
Note: Using the default image means you are using machine: true in your config and thus are being served an Ubuntu 14.04-based image. If you are running CircleCI server or a CircleCI runner, then this does not apply to you. Otherwise, this deprecation applies, and you need to switch to a supported image.
In addition, the following Ubuntu 16.04-based images will be removed:
- circleci/classic:201808-01
- ubuntu-1604:201903-01
- ubuntu-1604:202004-01
- ubuntu-1604:202007-01
- ubuntu-1604:202010-01
- ubuntu-1604:202101-01
- ubuntu-1604:202104-01
This is example of what one of these images would look like in your config:
jobs:
my-job:
machine:
image: ubuntu-1604:202010-01
How to migrate to a supported Ubuntu image
There are a few ways to migrate your projects to a supported Ubuntu image depending on your technical requirements. The two most common approaches are using a Docker convenience image rather than a VM and updating your config to use a newer Ubuntu machine image.
Try our convenience images
The first thing to consider is whether your team really needs to be using a Linux machine/VM image in the first place. We have a fleet of Docker-based images called Convenience Images that are fast and flexible and cover most use cases. The How to Choose an Executor doc can help you make that decision.
Switch to a newer Ubuntu machine image
Decided that the machine executor is a requirement? Great. We have a supported Ubuntu 20.04 image you can start using today. Information on this and any other VM images can be found on the Developer Hub. Information on migrating to a newer image can be found at these two CircleCI Doc pages:
Note: Canonical will release the next Ubuntu long-term support (LTS) release, Ubuntu 22.04, in April. CircleCI will release a beta for this image on March 29, with regular updates until the GA release on April 25, a few days after Canonical provides its GA release. See the timeline table above for dates.
Conclusion
If any of your projects currently use Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04, plan to migrate off the deprecated images as soon as possible. If you migrate before the brownout dates in March, April, and May 2022, your pipelines will not be affected. Migrating off these images by the May 31 deadline is crucial, as all builds on pipelines still using an Ubuntu 14.04 or 16.04 based machine image after that date will fail.
If you have any questions about whether your projects are affected by the deprecation or how to migrate to a supported Ubuntu image, please contact support.
