[[breaking-changes-7.13]]

=== Breaking changes in 7.13
++++
<titleabbrev>7.13</titleabbrev>
++++

//NOTE: The notable-breaking-changes tagged regions are re-used in the
//Installation and Upgrade Guide

// tag::notable-breaking-changes[]

[discrete]
==== Beats may not be sending data to some distributions of {es}

In this release, Elastic is enabling a licensing change that was broadly
communicated earlier in 2021
(https://www.elastic.co/pricing/faq/licensing[Licensing FAQ]). This change would
imply that 7.13 instances of Beats would fail to connect to 7.10 or earlier open
source distributions of {es} and {kib}.

This licensing change ensures that the {beats} modules are sending data to an
officially supported versions of {es} and {kib} where Elastic can attest to the
quality and scale of the products.   
// end::notable-breaking-changes[]

See the <<release-notes,release notes>> for a complete list of changes,
including changes to beta or experimental functionality.
