TeamCity Release Cycle
Why Upgrade TeamCity
TeamCity is systematically and frequently updated with new features and optimizations. We highly recommend upgrading your server and agents as soon as the new version is released. Each release introduces the following key improvements:
new functionality: including new runners, build features, UI enhancements, integration with third-party software, and instruments for customization. The recent release notes give an example of the number and scale of features provided per major release. New features are mostly released in major versions. To ensure smooth upgrade/downgrade between minor versions, bugfix updates do not add any important features but aim at fixing occurring problems.
performance improvements: one of the primary focuses of our team is to make TeamCity as fast and responsive as possible, which includes smooth UX, stable server performance, reasonable utilization of hardware resources, and many other aspects.
security updates: to comply with the industry-best security practices, we continuously analyze TeamCity and introduce multiple security improvements per release (for more details on security in TeamCity, read these notes).
bug fixes: thanks to our QA team and active user feedback, we can quickly catch and fix even rare bags. If we notice a critical bug soon after releasing another TeamCity version, it is our priority to release the respective patch or the next bugfix update as soon as possible, which makes it especially crucial that you don't skip regular updates. Any news concerning patches, release issues, and upgrade notes are published here.
Major updates are released twice a year, and each major release is followed by multiple minor (bugfix) releases. Read more about the release stages in the following section.
Version Numbers
A major release is represented with the YYYY.N number, where YYYY is the release year and N is the serial number of the release during this year. For example, 2020.1 and 2020.2 are two major versions released in year 2020.
A minor release is represented with the YYYY.N.M number, where YYYY.N corresponds to its preceding major release and M is the serial number of the minor release. For example, 2020.2.2 is the second bugfix update released for major version 2020.2.
The dates of all previous releases and the sequence of TeamCity versions are listed here.
Release Stages
The default stages of a TeamCity release:
| Release Stage | Description |
|---|---|
Early Access Program (EAP) | Allows trying a new version of TeamCity prior to its official release, while the new features are in the development state. Usually available only for major releases, starts several months before the major release it corresponds to. Typically, new EAP releases are published monthly or bimonthly. |
General Availability | A new major version becomes generally available after its release and stays in this stage until the next major version is released. A major version is usually released every 6-7 months. There are multiple minor (bugfix) releases following the major release. Bugfix releases and support patches for critical issues, if applicable, are provided until End of Sale of the release. |
End of Sale | Occurs for the previous major version with the release of the next major version. After this time, no bugfix updates or patches are usually provided (except critical issues without a workaround which allow for a relatively simple fix, or make it impossible to upgrade to the next version). Only limited support is provided for a major version after its end of sale. |
End of Support | Occurs with the release of two newer major versions. At this point, we stop providing regular technical support for the release. |