There was a customer communication on this in April 2015.
CPC-1502-07
End of Engineering Support for Data ONTAP 8.1.x
This customer product communiqué announces a change in the support status of the NetApp® Data ONTAP® 8.1.x release family. Customers running Data ONTAP 8.1.x (7-Mode or clustered Data ONTAP) on their FAS/V-Series systems are urged to consider this information and take any necessary action.
NetApp remains committed to supporting the Data ONTAP 8.1.x release family; however, Data ONTAP 8.1.4 (7-Mode and clustered Data ONTAP), currently available on the NetApp Support site, is the last maintenance release of the Data ONTAP 8.1.x release family. Further, effective March 30, 2015, feature PVRs specific to the Data ONTAP 8.1.x release family will no longer be accepted.
Through August 30, 2015:
• New maintenance and patch releases on the Data ONTAP 8.1.x release family will be delivered only on an as-needed basis. Fixes for critical software issues found on FAS/V-Series systems running Data ONTAP 8.1.x will be delivered only in patch derivatives of Data ONTAP 8.1.4 and/or a later version of Data ONTAP (that is, Data ONTAP 8.2.x).
• Interoperability testing with Data ONTAP 8.1.x and updates to the NetApp Interoperability Matrix Tool, including SAN qualification PVRs, will continue.
After August 30, 2015:
• Requests for bug fixes on the Data ONTAP 8.1.x release family will no longer be accepted. Fixes for issues found on FAS/V-Series systems running Data ONTAP 8.1.x will be delivered only in patch derivatives of Data ONTAP 8.2.x and/or a later version of Data ONTAP.
• Interoperability testing with Data ONTAP 8.1.x and updates to the NetApp Interoperability Matrix Tool will stop.
• Manufacturing and SAN qualification PVRs specific to the 8.1.x release family will not be accepted.
• For platforms that cannot be upgraded to Data ONTAP 8.2.x, specifically FAS2040, for the remainder of the customer’s current support entitlement, NetApp will provide critical updates if NetApp determines that they are necessary and commercially reasonable.
