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[Feature flag] Rollout early_access_program_toggle

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Summary

This issue is to roll out the feature on production, that is currently behind the early_access_program_toggle feature flag.

Owners

  • Most appropriate Slack channel to reach out to: #developer-relations-early-access-program
  • Best individual to reach out to: @knockfog-ext

Expectations

What are we expecting to happen?

This feature flag covers the opt-in to GitLab Early access program. This FF has gitlab_com_derisk type.

Specific rollout on production

For visibility, all /chatops commands that target production should be executed in the #production Slack channel and cross-posted (with the command results) to the responsible team's Slack channel.

  • Ensure that the feature MRs have been deployed to both production and canary with /chatops run auto_deploy status e39e6b57a496a2be7086e4787b823df945f5fc8c
  • Depending on the type of actor you are using, pick one of these options:
    • For project-actor: /chatops run feature set --project=gitlab-org/gitlab,gitlab-org/gitlab-foss,gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com early_access_program_toggle true
    • For group-actor: /chatops run feature set --group=gitlab-org,gitlab-com early_access_program_toggle true
    • For user-actor: /chatops run feature set --user=knockfog-ext early_access_program_toggle true
  • Verify that the feature works for the specific actors.

Preparation before global rollout

  • Set a milestone to this rollout issue to signal for enabling and removing the feature flag when it is stable.
  • Check if the feature flag change needs to be accompanied with a change management issue. Cross link the issue here if it does.
  • Ensure that you or a representative in development can be available for at least 2 hours after feature flag updates in production. If a different developer will be covering, or an exception is needed, please inform the oncall SRE by using the @sre-oncall Slack alias.
  • Ensure that documentation exists for the feature, and the version history text has been updated.
  • Leave a comment on the feature issue announcing estimated time when this feature flag will be enabled on GitLab.com.
  • Ensure that any breaking changes have been announced following the release post process to ensure GitLab customers are aware.
  • Notify the #support_gitlab-com Slack channel and your team channel (more guidance when this is necessary in the dev docs).
  • Ensure that the feature flag rollout plan is reviewed by another developer familiar with the domain.

Global rollout on production

For visibility, all /chatops commands that target production should be executed in the #production Slack channel and cross-posted (with the command results) to the responsible team's Slack channel (#developer-relations-early-access-program).

  • (Optional) Incrementally roll out the feature on production environment.
    • Between every step wait for at least 15 minutes and monitor the appropriate graphs on https://dashboards.gitlab.net.
    • Perform actor-based rollout: /chatops run feature set early_access_program_toggle <rollout-percentage> --actors
  • Enable the feature globally on production environment: /chatops run feature set early_access_program_toggle true
  • Observe appropriate graphs on https://dashboards.gitlab.net and verify that services are not affected.
  • Leave a comment on [the feature issue][main-issue] announcing that the feature has been globally enabled.
  • Wait for at least one day for the verification term.

Release the feature

After the feature has been deemed stable, the clean up should be done as soon as possible to permanently enable the feature and reduce complexity in the codebase.

You can either create a follow-up issue for Feature Flag Cleanup or use the checklist below in this same issue.

  • Create a merge request to remove the early_access_program_toggle feature flag. Ask for review/approval/merge as usual. The MR should include the following changes:
    • Remove all references to the feature flag from the codebase.
    • Remove the YAML definitions for the feature from the repository.
    • Create a changelog entry.
  • Ensure that the cleanup MR has been included in the release package. If the merge request was deployed before the monthly release was tagged, the feature can be officially announced in a release blog post: /chatops run release check <merge-request-url> <milestone>
  • Close [the feature issue][main-issue] to indicate the feature will be released in the current milestone.
  • Clean up the feature flag from all environments by running these chatops command in #production channel: /chatops run feature delete early_access_program_toggle --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production
  • Close this rollout issue.

Rollback Steps

  • This feature can be disabled on production by running the following Chatops command:
/chatops run feature set early_access_program_toggle false
  • Disable the feature flag on non-production environments:
/chatops run feature set early_access_program_toggle false --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref
  • Delete feature flag from all environments:
/chatops run feature delete early_access_program_toggle --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production
Edited by 🤖 GitLab Bot 🤖