[FF] integration_propagation_simplified_batching - Rollout

Summary

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

The feature simplifies the each_batch scope used when propagating integration settings to projects and groups under a large group hierarchy. By removing expensive NOT EXISTS subqueries and namespace subqueries from the batch boundary queries, we avoid statement timeouts that prevented integrations from being propagated to projects in large group trees (~1,364+ subgroups, ~6,200+ projects).

Query plan comparison (start query, LIMIT 1, namespace 9970):

  • Old: 7,606ms execution, Nested Loop Anti Join with 6,440 loops
  • New: 454ms execution, simple Index Scan with namespace_id filter
  • Speedup: ~17x

Owners

  • Most appropriate Slack channel to reach out to: #group-import
  • Best individual to reach out to: @carlad-gl

Expectations

What are we expecting to happen?

When the feature flag is enabled for a group, propagating integration settings (e.g., Jira, Datadog) to projects and subgroups under that group should complete without statement timeouts, even for large hierarchies.

The trade-off is that the batch scope is broader (includes projects that already have the integration or are archived/pending_delete), so some worker jobs may process empty batches. This is harmless — the worker re-applies all filters and skips projects that don't need the integration.

What can go wrong and how would we detect it?

  • Increased Sidekiq job volume: More worker jobs may be enqueued since the batch scope no longer pre-filters. Monitor PropagateIntegrationProjectWorker and PropagateIntegrationGroupWorker job counts and durations.
  • Memory usage from pluck: The namespace ID pluck loads all descendant namespace IDs into memory. For very large hierarchies this could use more memory than usual. Monitor Sidekiq worker memory usage.
  • Unexpected integration propagation failures: Monitor error rates on integration propagation in Kibana logs.

Relevant dashboards:

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>
  • Deploy the feature flag at a percentage (recommended percentage: 50%) with /chatops run feature set integration_propagation_simplified_batching 50 --actors --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref
  • Monitor that the error rates did not increase (repeat with a different percentage as necessary).
  • Enable the feature globally on non-production environments with /chatops run feature set integration_propagation_simplified_batching 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.

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.

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 group-actor: /chatops run feature set --group=gitlab-org,gitlab-com integration_propagation_simplified_batching 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.
  • 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.

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.

  • Create a merge request to remove the integration_propagation_simplified_batching feature flag. 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.
  • 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 integration_propagation_simplified_batching --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 integration_propagation_simplified_batching false
  • Disable the feature flag on non-production environments:
/chatops run feature set integration_propagation_simplified_batching false --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref
  • Delete feature flag from all environments:
/chatops run feature delete integration_propagation_simplified_batching --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production
Edited by Carla Drago