Deprecate the Terraform CI/CD templates

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Deprecation Summary

This issue is about making the deprecation announcement to remove the Terraform CI/CD templates in 17.0 %18.0. The announcement must happen in %16.9

In %16.9 we also want to add a warning job to the templates (stable and latest) that instructs how to migrate to the OpenTofu CI/CD components.

The components will be introduced with

• Create OpenTofu CI/CD component (#438008 - closed)
• Document migration from Terraform CI/CD templat... (#438009 - closed)

A warning job could look like this:

deprecation-move-to-opentofu:
   stage: validate  # not sure, users could have disabled that stage ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
   allow_failures: true
   script:
     - echo "The Terraform CI/CD templates have been deprecated, read more about this here: ..."
     - echo "We recommend you to either:"
     - echo "  - Move to the new OpenTofu CI/CD components, read more about this here: ..."
     - echo "  - Build your own Terraform image and template, with instructions from here: ..."
     - false  # let job fail

Breaking Change

Affected Topology

Affected Tier

Checklists

Labels

• This issue is labeled deprecation, and with the relevant ~devops::, ~group::, and ~Category: labels.
• This issue is labeled breaking change if the removal of the deprecated item will be a breaking change.

Timeline

Please add links to the relevant merge requests.

• As soon as possible, but no later than the third milestone preceding the major release (for example, given the following release schedule: 14.8, 14.9, 14.10, 15.0 – 14.8 is the third milestone preceding the major release):
  • A deprecation announcement entry has been created so the deprecation will appear in release posts and on the general deprecation page.
  • Documentation has been updated to mark the feature as deprecated.
• On or before the major milestone: A removal entry has been created so the removal will appear on the removals by milestones page and be announced in the release post.
• On the major milestone:
  • The deprecated item has been removed.
  • If the removal of the deprecated item is a breaking change, the merge request is labeled breaking change.

Mentions

• Your stage's stable counterparts have been @mentioned on this issue. For example, Customer Support, Customer Success (Technical Account Manager), Product Marketing Manager.
  • To see who the stable counterparts are for a product team visit product categories
    • If there is no stable counterpart listed for Sales/CS please mention @timtams
    • If there is no stable counterpart listed for Support please mention @gitlab-com/support/managers
    • If there is no stable counterpart listed for Marketing please mention @cfoster3
• Your GPM has been @mentioned so that they are aware of planned deprecations. The goal is to have reviews happen at least two releases before the final removal of the feature or introduction of a breaking change.

Deprecation Milestone

Planned Removal Milestone

Links