Extended Security Maintenance is a Canonical service for the Ubuntu desktop and server. Its ethos follows the model of Debian's Extended Long Term Support, where older repositories of Debian software called packages are maintained by a small pool of professional developers to extend the lifetime of Debian's release.
Though ESM is an option, it is not a permanent solution, and it should be used to factor in new projects. All new projects should use the latest LTS on the start of development. For example, you wouldn't want to build an application exclusive to Windows 7 in 2020. ESM provides projects 2 additional years whereas the support window would've closed much earlier. This allows projects with long development like various engineering projects.
You will need to enable ESM support for your operating system. This is done through the Ubuntu Advantage service.
If you do not have an account, create one here.
Then install the UA client on your desktop/server.
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install ubuntu-advantage-tools
You can check your account status on Ubuntu 14.04 ESM in the following manner.
$ sudo ua status
Your output would read something like this.
Code:
$ ua status
SERVICE AVAILABLE DESCRIPTION
cc-eal no Common Criteria EAL2 Provisioning Packages
esm-infra yes UA Infra: Extended Security Maintenance
fips no NIST-certified FIPS modules
fips-updates no Uncertified security updates to FIPS modules
livepatch yes Canonical Livepatch service
This machine is not attached to a UA subscription.
See https://ubuntu.com/advantageThis machine is not attached to a UA subscription.
Now that you see this, you should have to sign into your ua account. Run the following command to attach your account's token to this computer.
$ sudo ua attach YOUR_TOKEN
Once your machine has been attached to your account, you can enable esm with the following.
$ sudo ua enable esm-infra
You should now see this whenever prompting for status.
Code:
$ sudo ua status
SERVICE ENTITLED STATUS DESCRIPTION
cc-eal yes n/a Common Criteria EAL2 Provisioning Packages
cis-audit no — Center for Internet Security Audit Tools
esm-infra yes enabled UA Infra: Extended Security Maintenance
fips yes n/a NIST-certified FIPS modules
fips-updates yes n/a Uncertified security updates to FIPS modules
livepatch yes disabled Canonical Livepatch service
Enable services with: ua enable <service>
Account: user@domain.tld
Subscription: user@domain.tld
Congratulations. You now have ESM enabled for your 14.04 ESM device. Learn more about ESM here. Follow me for more articles on Linux security and Ubuntu development topics.