Document which ES versions are supported by Rally

With this commit we add a dedicated page to our documentation that explains which Elasticsearch versions can be benchmarked with which Rally version. As our documentation is versioned, this helps users to determine whether their version of Rally can benchmark a specific Elasticsearch version. Relates elastic#714
kumarh1982 · Jun 18, 2019 · 5dd37d6 · 5dd37d6
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diff --git a/docs/command_line_reference.rst b/docs/command_line_reference.rst
@@ -384,16 +384,7 @@ If you want to benchmark a binary distribution, you can specify the version here
    esrally --distribution-version=2.3.3
 
 
-Rally will then benchmark the official Elasticsearch 2.3.3 distribution.
-
-Rally works with all releases of Elasticsearch that are `supported by Elastic <https://www.elastic.co/support/matrix#show_compatibility>`_.
-
-The following versions are already end-of-life:
-
-* ``0.x``: Rally is not tested, and not expected to work for this version; we will make no effort to make Rally work.
-* ``1.x``: Rally works on a best-effort basis with this version but support may be removed at any time.
-
-Additionally, Rally will always work with the current development version of Elasticsearch (by using either a snapshot repository or by building Elasticsearch from sources).
+Rally will then benchmark the official Elasticsearch 2.3.3 distribution. Please check our :doc:`version support page </versions>` to see which Elasticsearch versions are currently supported by Rally.
 
 ``distribution-repository``
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
@@ -19,8 +19,6 @@ You want to benchmark Elasticsearch? Then Rally is for you. It can help you with
 
 We have also put considerable effort in Rally to ensure that benchmarking data are reproducible.
 
-In general, Rally works with all versions of Elasticsearch starting from 1.x. :doc:`Benchmarking with plugins </elasticsearch_plugins>` and :ref:`benchmarking source builds <pipelines_from-sources-complete>` will only work from Elasticsearch 5.0 onwards.
-
 Getting Help or Contributing to Rally
 -------------------------------------
 
@@ -55,6 +53,7 @@ Rally's source code is available on `Github <https://github.com/elastic/rally>`_
    :caption: Reference Documentation
    :maxdepth: 2
 
+   versions
    command_line_reference
    offline
    track

diff --git a/docs/versions.rst b/docs/versions.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+Elasticsearch Version Support
+-----------------------------
+
+Minimum supported version
+=========================
+
+Rally |release| can benchmark Elasticsearch 1.7.0 and above.
+
+End-of-life Policy
+==================
+
+The latest version of Rally allows to benchmark all currently supported versions of Elasticsearch. Once an `Elasticsearch version reaches end-of-life <https://www.elastic.co/support/eol>`_, Rally will support benchmarking the corresponding version for two more years. For example, Elasticsearch 1.7.x has been supported until 2017-01-16. Rally drops support for Elasticsearch 1.7.x two years after that date on 2019-01-16. Version support is dropped in the next Rally maintenance release after that date.
+
+Version-specific Limitations
+============================
+
+The following features require at least Elasticsearch 5.0.0:
+
+* :doc:`Benchmarking with plugins </elasticsearch_plugins>`
+* :ref:`Benchmarking source builds <pipelines_from-sources-complete>`