EOL and EOSL get used as if they were the same date. They are not. End of life is the announcement. End of sale is the last day you can buy the product. End of service life is the last day the OEM supports it. For Cisco hardware, end of support comes a median 5.0 years after end of sale, across 149 models in our EOSL library.
What do EOL, EOS and EOSL mean?
- End-of-life announcement (EOL)
- The OEM announces that a product is being retired and publishes the dates that follow. Cisco sends this notice typically six months before end of sale.
- End of sale (EOS)
- The last day to order the product from the OEM. Cisco's last ship date for hardware is three months after end of sale.
- End of routine failure analysis
- Cisco stops analyzing hardware failures one year after end of sale.
- End of service life (EOSL)
- The last day the OEM supports the hardware under a service contract. Cisco calls it the last date of support and gives hardware five years of TAC support from end of sale.
Source for the Cisco milestones: Cisco's End-of-Life Policy, cisco.com/c/en/us/products/eos-eol-policy.html. Other OEMs use their own names for these dates. For a box in production, the last date of support is the one that counts.
How far apart are end of sale and end of support?
Across the 149 Cisco models in our library that record both dates, the median gap is 5.0 years. 140 of them land at 5 years, which matches Cisco's policy. The 9 exceptions: Meraki MR42 (4.0 years), Meraki MR52 (4.3 years), UCS 6324 Fabric Interconnect (5.9 years), Meraki MS420 Series (7.0 years), Meraki MS220 Series (7.0 years), Meraki MS320 Series (7.0 years), Meraki MS390 Series (7.0 years), Meraki MX400 / MX600 (7.0 years) and Meraki MX65 / MX65W (7.0 years).
What should you do at each date?
- At the EOL announcement
- Check which of your models are on it. Put the end-of-sale and end-of-support dates in your asset list.
- Before end of sale
- Buy extra units or spares now if you want new stock from the OEM. After that date, parts come from the secondary market.
- Before end of support
- Decide per model: refresh, keep spares yourself, or move it to third-party maintenance. We support hardware 3 to 5+ years past EOSL with a 4-hour on-site SLA. Price maintenance.
Short answers
What is the difference between EOL and EOSL?
EOL, end of life, is the OEM's announcement that a product is being retired. EOSL, end of service life, is the last day the OEM supports it. End of sale, the last day to buy it, falls in between. Across 149 Cisco models in the Datacenterservices.ai EOSL library, end of support comes a median 5.0 years after end of sale.
How long after end of sale does Cisco support hardware?
Cisco's End-of-Life Policy gives hardware five years of TAC support from the end-of-sale date. The Datacenterservices.ai EOSL library matches it: 140 of 149 Cisco models with both dates land at 5 years. The full range runs from 4.0 to 7.0 years.
Can hardware be supported after EOSL?
Yes. The OEM stops selling support contracts at EOSL, but the hardware keeps running. Datacenterservices.ai supports it for 3 to 5+ years past that date, with a 4-hour on-site SLA and in-house Level 3+ engineers.