Enable custom_admin_roles feature flag by default

Summary

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

Owners

  • Most appropriate Slack channel to reach out to: #g_sscs_authorization
  • Best individual to reach out to: @jarka

Expectations

What are we expecting to happen?

The admin custom roles will be available in admin interface under Admin -> Settings -> Roles and permissions

What can go wrong and how would we detect it?

We would see errors when loading admin roles and permissions page

Rollout Steps

Note: Please make sure to run the chatops commands in the Slack channel that gets impacted by the command.

Rollout on non-production environments

  • Enable the feature globally on non-production environments with /chatops run feature set custom_admin_roles true --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref
  • Verify that the feature works as expected. The best environment to validate the feature in is staging-canary as this is the first environment deployed to. Make sure you are configured to use canary.
  • If the feature flag causes end-to-end tests to fail, disable the feature flag on staging to avoid blocking deployments.
    • See #e2e-run-staging Slack channel and look for the following messages:
      • test kicked off: Feature flag custom_admin_roles has been set to true on **gstg**
      • test result: This pipeline was triggered due to toggling of custom_admin_roles feature flag

If you encounter end-to-end test failures and are unable to diagnose them, you may reach out to the #s_developer_experience Slack channel for assistance. Note that end-to-end test failures on staging-ref don't block deployments.

Before production rollout

  • If the change is significant and you wanted to announce in #whats-happening-at-gitlab, it best to do it before rollout to gitlab-org/gitlab-com.

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.
  • 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).

Global rollout on production

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

(Optional) Release the feature with the feature flag

WARNING: This approach has the downside that it makes it difficult for us to clean up the flag. For example, on-premise users could disable the feature on their GitLab instance. But when you remove the flag at some point, they suddenly see the feature as enabled and they can't roll it back to the previous behavior. To avoid this potential breaking change, use this approach only for urgent matters.

See instructions if you're sure about enabling the feature globally through the feature flag definition

If you're still unsure whether the feature is deemed stable but want to release it in the current milestone, you can change the default state of the feature flag to be enabled. To do so, follow these steps:

  • Create a merge request with the following changes.
    • If feature was enabled for various actors, ensure the feature has been enabled globally on production /chatops run feature get custom_admin_roles. If the feature has not been globally enabled then enable the feature globally using: /chatops run feature set custom_admin_roles true
    • Set the default_enabled attribute in the feature flag definition to true.
    • Decide which changelog entry is needed.
  • Ensure that the default-enabling 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>
  • After the default-enabling MR has been deployed, clean up the feature flag from all environments by running these chatops command in the #production channel: /chatops run feature delete custom_admin_roles --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production
  • Close the feature issue to indicate the feature will be released in the current milestone.
  • Set the next milestone to this rollout issue for scheduling the flag removal.
  • (Optional) You can create a separate issue for scheduling the steps below to Release the feature.
    • Set the title to "[FF] <feature-flag-name> - Cleanup".
    • Execute the /copy_metadata <this-rollout-issue-link> quick action to copy the labels from this rollout issue.
    • Link this rollout issue as a related issue.
    • Close this rollout issue.

Rollback Steps

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