Concern about End of Support for Python Runtimes (python27 and python37)

[secretlm]

Hi team,

Currently we have used Python runtimes as below for our applications on Google App Engine

Runtime: Python27 and Runtime: Python37

We have seen that 2 above runtimes will be reached End of Support on 2024-01-30.

Python 3.7 Ubuntu 18.04 python37 2024-01-30
Python 2.7 App Engine Legacy Environment python27 2024-01-30

I'd like to confirm what are the consequences on 2024-01-30. What are the impacts?

From the runtime lifecycle (https://apc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloud.google.com%2Fappengine%2Fdoc...)
> End of support
When runtime components reach the end of support date:

Google will no longer apply security updates or patches to components of the runtime environment.
Your application will continue to run and receive traffic.
You will no longer be able to create and/or update the application on the unsupported runtime.
Issues arising from the use of an unsupported runtime will not be eligible for technical support

=> Looks like the application still continue to run and receive traffic.
However, we can't update our application and can't deploy a new version for our existing services with python27 and python37 runtimes, right?
=> Does it mean that we need to the upgrade for our runtime before 2024-01-30 for python27 and python37, right?

> Notification period
App Engine will begin issuing in-app notifications 90 days before the application reaches end of support. Upon notification, you should prepare to upgrade your application to a newer runtime that is supported in the standard environment.
=> Does it mean that 30 days before 2024-01-30, we will receive the notification, right?

Besides, Do we have a good strategy for upgrade Python runtimes from version 2 to version 3 or version 3.7 to 3.9 or 3.11?

Thanks,
Toan

[NoCommandLine · Accepted solution]

This documentation should answer all of your questions

1. You can't create new apps or redeploy existing Apps. There is an exception for redeploying existing Apps and it's documented here

2. Yes, you need to upgrade any runtime which is going to reach end of support before the end of support date

3. Google will start sending out notifications 90 days before the application reaches end of support. It doesn't mean you'll get it exactly 90 days before but you won't get it before then so you might as well start planning ahead instead of waiting to receive it.

4. Google has documentation on migrating from Python 2 to 3. Don't believe upgrading from 3.7 to anything higher has documentation or requires one. The differences aren't that significant as that of Python 2/Python 3. I think you can switch to the higher Python 3 version on your dev machine and then test your App

..... NoCommandLine ......

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