Release 12.9

First steps

  • Create a new slack channel #f_release_12_9
  • Set the channel topic to Issue: <link_to_this_issue>
  • Invite all current release managers
  • Inside the old release slack channel, notify about #f_release_12_9 
    Hello :wave:
We are starting 12.9 into #f_release_12_9
Please join #f_release_12_9 if interested

Monitor

  • Monitor QA issues for each deploy to gstg
  • Ensure any deploys that do not make it to canary are investigated
  • Try to push any successful deploy to canary into production after some time has passed, preferably after all QA tasks are accounted and checked
  • Monitor for any blockers to production and determine if canary should be disabled

17th

If this date is on a weekend, do this work on the next working day

  • Find the latest sha that made it into production successfully: gitlab-org/gitlab@8e2c09fd
  • Notify Engineering Managers that this is the sha that is guaranteed to be released on the 22nd, in #releases: 
    :mega: This is the latest commit running on GitLab.com and this is guaranteed to be released on the 22nd.
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/commits/SHA
Another auto-deploy branch for the release will be created on the 18th (pending weekend).
The inclusion of the auto-deploy branch created on the 18th in the release is subject to the usual caveats (CI green, successfully made it to GitLab.com by 20th)
  • Link the above message to additional channels: #development, #backend, and #frontend

18th

If this date is on a weekend, do this work on the last Friday before the 18th.

  • Proceed to cut a new auto-deploy branch 
    # In Slack:
/chatops run auto_deploy prepare
  • Ensure this build makes it through into production
  • Grab the sha from this new auto-deploy branch and notify Engineering Managers that this is the candidate sha for the release, in #releases: 
    :mega: This is the _candidate_ commit to be released on the 22nd.
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/commits/SHA
  • Link the above message to additional channels: #development, #backend, and #frontend

Two working days before the 22nd

If this date is on the weekend, do this work on the last Friday before the 20th.

  • Determine what the last green auto deploy branch is and add it here: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/commits/12-10-auto-deploy-20200318

  • Create the stable branches using chatops by running the following in Slack: /chatops run release stable_branch 12.9.0

  • Verify that the CE stable branch contains the right commits

    • There should be at least two commits: the last commit from the previous stable branch (usually a version update), and the sync commit created by the merge train.
    • The sync commit will have the message "Add latest changes from gitlab-org/gitlab@12-9-stable-ee"

  • Create a RC version to ensure that the final version builds correctly

    # In Slack:
/chatops run release tag 12.9.0-rc42

22nd: release day

No new code can be added to the release that was not included in the final RC.

  • At 08:00 UTC, final release is ready for tagging (Including changes at this stage requires signoff from the VP of Engineering):

  • Before 10:00 UTC:

  • At 12:00 UTC:

    • Post an update about the package building status in #f_release_12_9
    • If 12.9.0 has not been deployed to the preprod environment already, deploy it manually with the following ChatOps command: 
      # In Slack:
/chatops run deploy 12.9.0-ee.0 --pre

  • At 13:00 UTC, post an update about the package building status in #f_release_12_9

  • At 13:30 UTC:

    • ⚠ Make sure that neither packages nor the blog post get published earlier than 13:30UTC without approval by the messaging lead of the release post. Mind that you don't need their approval if you're on time ⚠
    • Publish the packages via ChatOps: 
      # In Slack:
/chatops run publish 12.9.0
    • If anything goes wrong and the release is delayed, ping the release post manager on Slack to make them aware of the issue. Cross-post the slack message to the #marketing channel to notify them too

  • At 14:10 UTC:

    • Verify that packages appear on packages.gitlab.com: EE / CE
    • Verify that Docker images appear on hub.docker.com: EE / CE
    • Create the 12.9.0 version on version.gitlab.com
    • Post an update about the status in #f_release_12_9
    • Once all packages are available publicly and GitLab.com is up and running on the release version, ping the release post manager on Slack (#release-post channel) to give them a go to merge the release post at ~14:20 UTC, so that it will be live at 15:00 UTC

  • Open MR to Bump VERSION file to the next version to be released

Edited by John Jarvis