Anton - Release Supervisor Onboarding

Release Manager-Contractor Onboarding

Anton Kozin - @akozin-ext

Welcome to your Release/Deploy Manager onboarding!

Important Note for Contractors: As a contractor in the Release Manager role, you will have limited permissions compared to full-time team members. All deployment and release activities should be performed through chatops commands rather than direct system access. This template combines steps from our machine setup and RM onboarding specifically for contractor workflows.

We need to keep iterating on this checklist so please submit MR's for any improvements that you can think of. The file is located in an issue template in the 'Delivery team issue template section'.

The goal is to get you set up with the necessary tools and knowledge to perform Release Manager duties through chatops and approved workflows. At any time, feel free to ask your onboarding buddy for help, or reach out in #g_delivery.

• Contractor = C
• Onboarder = O
• Manager = M

Acronyms and Terms to Know

• CR: Change Request
• EOC: Engineer On-Call
• GPRD-CNY: GitLab Production Canary
• GPRD: GitLab Production
• PDM: Post-Deploy Migration
• RM: Release Manager
• SIRT: Security Incident Response Team
• Chatops: Chat-based operations (your primary tool as a contractor)

Getting Started

1. C: Cross-link general orientation issue https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/temporary-service-providers/lifecycle/-/issues/2658
2. C: Read about Release Manager Responsibilities
3. C: Read about your specific Release Supervisor Responsibilities
4. C: Overall release process can be found here.
5. C: Deployments big picture
6. C: Browse the release docs and runbooks
7. C: Assign yourself and the Release Manager you will shadow to this issue
8. C: Sync with the Release Manager you will be shadowing to go over any initial questions and your learning style and align on your expectations for your shadowing experience. Set-up a weekly sync for the succeeding shadowing weeks for any additional questions as you go over the release management tasks.

Usernames

Contractor: Make a note of your usernames across GitLab instances and add them to this issue. It is best practice to make your username the same across all instances.

Instance	Username
gitlab.com	@akozin-ext
dev.gitlab.org	@akozin-ext
ops.gitlab.net	@akozin-ext

Accounts and Access

1. O: Verify contractor has been added to necessary GitLab groups with developer permission levels
   • O: Add contractor as developer to gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-supervisors
   • O: Add contractor as developer to gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/release-supervisors
   • O: Add contractor as developer to ops.gitlab.net/gitlab-com/release-supervisors
2. C: Ensure you can log in to ops.gitlab.net. After login, change your username to match your gitlab.com username

Tool Setup (Chatops-Focused)

Contractor: Ensure you have completed all the steps in Accounts and Access before doing this section.

1. C: Clone release-tools locally for reference and follow the setup in https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-tools/-/blob/master/doc/README.md#development
2. C: Verify chatops access by running /chatops run auto_deploy status in #chat-ops-test Slack channel
   • If you don't have access, ask your onboarder to run: /chatops run member add USER gitlab-com/chatops --ops (replacing USER with your ops.gitlab.net username)
   • This is your primary interface for Release Manager activities
3. C: Test basic chatops commands in #chat-ops-test:
   • /chatops run auto_deploy status

Manager/Onboarder Tasks

1. M/O: Add to weekly team meeting
2. M/O: Mention Contractor in a comment on our Release Manager Handover issue

Monitoring and Dashboards

1. C: Log in to the Grafana private monitoring infrastructure using Google to create an account
2. C: Familiarize yourself with key dashboards (read-only access):
   • Release manager dashboard
   • Auto-deploy packages dashboard
   • Deployment frequency and lead time
   • Deployment Blockers dashboard
   • Release management dashboard
   • Omnibus versioning dashboard
   • Kibana logs for release-tools

Learning and Documentation

1. C: Join the following Slack Channels:
   • #announcements - Shows deployments moving through the various environments
   • #f_upcoming_release - Channel used by release managers to perform daily activities
   • #g_delivery - Delivery group channel. A good place to ask any questions
   • #incident-management - Any declared incidents will display in this channel
   • #production - Contains production discussions and feature flag toggles
   • #releases - Contains messages about monthly releases, patch releases, stable branch failures
   • #chat-ops-test - For testing chatops commands
2. C: Read through essential documentation:
   • Release guides
   • Deployment and releases documentation
   • Release documentation
   • Deployment documentation
   • Deploy docs
   • Chatops documentation/cheatsheet - Focus on commands you'll use daily

Contractor-Specific Chatops Training

Important: As a contractor, you will primarily work through chatops. Master these workflows:

1. C: Practice chatops commands under supervision:
   • /chatops run auto_deploy status - Check deployment status
   • /chatops run version show - Show current versions
   • /chatops run deploy status - Check deployment pipeline status
   • /chatops run auto_deploy promote - Promote packages (with approval) # To be created
2. C: Understand chatops approval workflows:
   • Understand escalation paths for blocked operations
   • Know who to contact for emergency situations

Tasks to Shadow (Chatops-Focused)

Not every task will happen during your shadowing shift. Focus on chatops-based activities:

• Promoting a package via chatops
• Monitoring deployment status through dashboards and chatops
• Patch release coordination (chatops commands)
• Monthly release activities (chatops-based)
• Deployment blocking incident response
• Opening release/tasks issues for failures
• Execute the PDM pipeline via chatops
• Staging rollback practice via chatops

Tasks to Practice (Contractor-Safe)

These tasks are safe for contractors to practice under supervision - contact a release manager to schedule a practice session:

• Staging rollback practice - Using chatops commands
• Promoting a package - Via chatops with approval
• Execute the PDM pipeline - Through approved chatops workflow
• Monitoring and reporting on deployment status
• Creating and updating release/tasks issues

Contractor Limitations and Guidelines

Important Reminders:

• C: All deployment activities should go through chatops
• C: Escalate to full-time Release Managers for operations requiring elevated permissions
• C: Focus on monitoring, coordination, and chatops-based activities
• C: Always verify commands with your trainer before executing in production