Roll out the feature - ci_dynamic_pipeline_inputs

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Summary

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

Owners

  • Most appropriate Slack channel to reach out to: #g_pipeline_authoring
  • Best individual to reach out to: @anna_vovchenko @lauraXD

Expectations

What are we expecting to happen?

Functionality described -> &18546

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

  • Verify the MR with the feature flag is merged to master and has been deployed to non-production environments with /chatops run auto_deploy status <merge-commit-of-your-feature>
  • Enable the feature globally on non-production environments with /chatops run feature set ci_dynamic_pipeline_inputs 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.

Specific 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.

  • Ensure that the feature MRs have been deployed to both production and canary with /chatops run auto_deploy status <merge-commit-of-your-feature>
  • 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 <feature-flag-name> true
    • For group-actor: /chatops run feature set --group=gitlab-org,gitlab-com <feature-flag-name> true
    • For user-actor: /chatops run feature set --user=<gitlab-username-of-dri> <feature-flag-name> true
    • For all internal users: /chatops run feature set --feature-group=gitlab_team_members <feature-flag-name> 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.
  • 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.

  • Incrementally roll out the feature on production.
    • - /chatops run feature set ci_dynamic_pipeline_inputs 25 --actors.
    • - /chatops run feature set ci_dynamic_pipeline_inputs 50 --actors.
    • - /chatops run feature set ci_dynamic_pipeline_inputs 75 --actors.
  • After the feature has been 100% enabled, wait for at least one day before releasing the feature.

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 ci_dynamic_pipeline_inputs 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.
  • 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 to indicate the feature will be released in the current milestone.
  • Once the cleanup MR has been deployed to production, clean up the feature flag from all environments by running these chatops command in #production channel: /chatops run feature delete ci_dynamic_pipeline_inputs --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production

Rollback Steps

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