Change default branch name for new projects

Production Change

Change Summary

GitLab now has a feature that allows people to change the name of their default branch. By default, this is master for any new project. With details described in delivery#1356 (closed) , we want to change the default for new projects to create a main branch instead of master.

Users are able to change the default for their group if they decide to do so.

Change Details

  1. Services Impacted - ServiceWeb
  2. Change Technician - @marin
  3. Change Criticality - C4
  4. Change Type - changescheduled
  5. Change Reviewer - SRE oncall
  6. Due Date - 2021-05-24 17:15
  7. Time tracking -
  8. Downtime Component - None

Detailed steps for the change

Change Steps - steps to take to execute the change

Estimated Time to Complete (mins) - Estimated Time to Complete in Minutes

  • Login to admin section of GitLab Admin Area > Settings > Repository and expand Default initial branch name.
  • Change the default initial branch to a main.
  • Save Changes.

Post-Change Steps - steps to take to verify the change

Estimated Time to Complete (mins) - Estimated Time to Complete in Minutes

  • Create a new project and confirm main is the new default
  • Load project that existed prior to the change to confirm old state is operational

Rollback

Rollback steps - steps to be taken in the event of a need to rollback this change

Estimated Time to Complete (mins) - Estimated Time to Complete in Minutes

  • Login to admin section of GitLab Admin Area > Settings > Repository and expand Default initial branch name.
  • Change the default initial branch to a master.

Monitoring

Key metrics to observe

Likely it should be sufficient to look at Web service dashboard and check for number of errors. Additionally, sentry would show any new exceptions.

Summary of infrastructure changes

  • No infrastructure changes.

Summary of the above

Changes checklist

  • This issue has a criticality label (e.g. C1, C2, C3, C4) and a change-type label (e.g. changeunscheduled, changescheduled) based on the Change Management Criticalities.
  • This issue has the change technician as the assignee.
  • Pre-Change, Change, Post-Change, and Rollback steps and have been filled out and reviewed.
  • Necessary approvals have been completed based on the Change Management Workflow.
  • Change has been tested in staging and resultes noted in a comment on this issue.
  • A dry-run has been conducted and results noted in a comment on this issue.
  • SRE on-call has been informed prior to change being rolled out. (In #production channel, mention @sre-oncall and this issue.)
  • There are currently no active incidents.
Edited by Marin Jankovski