Firewall and Virtualization End of Support Dates 2026
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TL;DR
In the firewall and virtualization rows of endoflife.date (read October 21, 2026, counted from October 27, 2026), FortiOS, PAN-OS, ESXi and vCenter Server use four phase names: End of Engineering Support, End of Support, End-of-life Date and General Support. A date under one name marks the end of that phase only, never the end of all support, so each date has to be read under its own label and confirmed on the vendor's lifecycle page.
- FortiOS has two phase names in the source, End of Engineering Support and End of Support. PAN-OS uses End-of-life Date. ESXi and vCenter Server share General Support.
- FortiOS 7.4, PAN-OS 11.1 and 11.2, and ESXi and vCenter Server 8.0 and 9.0 all have a listed phase date in the 181 to 365 days band counted from October 27, 2026.
- FortiOS 7.2 reached End of Support on September 30, 2026, which falls in the 90 days before our count.
- Every date here is endoflife.date's, not the vendor's. The source cites no vendor lifecycle page for FortiOS.
- We make no recommendation about what to buy, upgrade or replace.
Does a date under one phase name mean support ends?
No. A date under one phase name marks the end of that phase only, and the four names in the source are not interchangeable. In the rows we read from endoflife.date on October 21, 2026 (dates counted from October 27, 2026), FortiOS uses End of Engineering Support and End of Support, PAN-OS uses End-of-life Date, and ESXi and vCenter Server both use General Support.
endoflife.date is a community-maintained project that compiles vendors' published lifecycle dates, so we attribute every date in this article to it rather than to the vendors. We do not define what each phase covers. The vendor lifecycle pages the source cites are where those definitions and confirmations live, and they may not show every phase.
endoflife.date uses four phase names across FortiOS, PAN-OS, ESXi and vCenter Server, so no single label covers every product.
This article makes no recommendation about what to buy, upgrade or replace. It is a dated reading of one public source, and a buyer's own inventory and vendor agreements decide what a date means in practice.
Which versions have dates in the next twelve months?
The firewall and virtualization versions with a phase date in the next twelve months all fall in the 181 to 365 days band counted from October 27, 2026. The table lists those versions, plus one FortiOS phase that already ended in the 90 days before our count. Every row is as endoflife.date lists it, read October 21, 2026.
endoflife.date lists FortiOS, PAN-OS, ESXi and vCenter Server versions with phases ending 181 to 365 days after October 27, 2026.
The table shows only phases ending inside the windows we count. A cycle the source marks as having some support left can carry a date outside those windows, and a reader should not take a missing row as a statement about that cycle.
| When | Product and cycle | Phase (the source's name) | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ended in the last 90 days | FortiOS 7.2 | End of Support | September 30, 2026 |
| ends in 181 to 365 days | Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 11.2 | End-of-life Date | May 2, 2027 |
| ends in 181 to 365 days | Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 11.1 | End-of-life Date | May 3, 2027 |
| ends in 181 to 365 days | FortiOS 7.4 | End of Engineering Support | May 11, 2027 |
| ends in 181 to 365 days | VMware ESXi 9.0 | General Support | September 17, 2027 |
| ends in 181 to 365 days | VMware vCenter Server 9.0 | General Support | September 17, 2027 |
| ends in 181 to 365 days | VMware ESXi 8.0 | General Support | October 11, 2027 |
| ends in 181 to 365 days | VMware vCenter Server 8.0 | General Support | October 11, 2027 |
How do the FortiOS and PAN-OS dates read?
Each firewall date reads only under its own label. For FortiOS, endoflife.date shows version 7.2 at End of Support on September 30, 2026, and version 7.4 at End of Engineering Support on May 11, 2027. Those are two different phases, so the later date for 7.4 cannot be set beside the earlier date for 7.2 as if both marked the same milestone.
endoflife.date lists FortiOS 7.4 as reaching End of Engineering Support on May 11, 2027, a different phase from End of Support.
Our reading shows no End of Support date for FortiOS 7.4 inside the next twelve months. We make no claim about when one falls. The source lists 8 FortiOS cycles, 3 with some support left, and its newest is FortiOS 8.0 (released April 21, 2026). The FortiOS row last changed on May 1, 2026, which is older than the other firewall and virtualization rows.
For PAN-OS the source uses a single phase name, End-of-life Date. It lists May 2, 2027 for version 11.2 and May 3, 2027 for version 11.1. Of 26 PAN-OS cycles listed, 4 have some support left, the newest is PAN-OS 12.2 (released July 30, 2026), and the row last changed on October 16, 2026.
How do the ESXi and vCenter Server dates read?
ESXi and vCenter Server read the same way: the source names only General Support for both, so each date is the end of that one phase and nothing the source says about other phases. A shared label does not make the two rows identical, though. ESXi lists 10 cycles with 3 having some support left, while vCenter Server lists 11 cycles with 3 having some support left. Both show version 9.1 as newest, released May 12, 2026.
endoflife.date lists General Support ending October 11, 2027 for version 8.0 of VMware ESXi and vCenter Server, and September 17, 2027 for version 9.0.
The ESXi row last changed on September 24, 2026 and the vCenter Server row on September 5, 2026, so the two were not refreshed on the same day. A reader checking a deployment should match the product and version number on both sides, since an ESXi date does not stand in for a vCenter Server date even when the two are equal.
Because the source names only General Support, a single date from it is silent on any other phase the vendor may publish. We have no basis in this reading for saying what, if anything, follows that date.
Where should a reader confirm a date before acting?
On the vendor lifecycle page the source cites, which may not show every phase. For PAN-OS the source cites Palo Alto Networks' end-of-life summary. For ESXi it cites Broadcom's product lifecycle page. For vCenter Server it cites a Broadcom knowledge article whose address refers to build numbers and versions, so a reader may find the phase dates harder to locate there.
endoflife.date cites no vendor lifecycle page for FortiOS, so a FortiOS date has to be confirmed through another route.
Two limits apply to everything above. The source is community-maintained, and our figures are a reading taken on October 21, 2026. A concrete step for any team: when an inventory records an end date, record the source's phase label and the product version beside it, and ask your IT provider to show both. For the Microsoft, Apple and other rows that end in the same month, see What Reaches End of Support in October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is End of Engineering Support the same as End of Support for FortiOS?
The source treats them as two separate phases and lists them separately. Our reading shows FortiOS 7.4 at End of Engineering Support on May 11, 2027 and FortiOS 7.2 at End of Support on September 30, 2026.
Does the PAN-OS End-of-life Date mean the same as a FortiOS date?
The source gives PAN-OS a single phase name, End-of-life Date, and gives FortiOS two different names. We read each date under its own label and do not equate them.
Whose dates are these?
They are endoflife.date's, read October 21, 2026 and counted from October 27, 2026. The source compiles vendors' published lifecycle dates, and the vendor lifecycle pages it cites are where a reader can confirm them.