Foreman 3.7.1 release process

[Griffin-Sullivan]

Make this post a wiki (help)

Roles

• Release Owner: @Griffin-Sullivan
• Release Engineer: @ekohl
• Installer Maintainer: @

Preparing code: 2023-10-31

Installer Maintainer

• Make patch releases of installer modules that have important changes
  • Branch to MAJ.MIN-stable if recent changes to the module aren’t suitable for patch (x.y.z) release

Release Owner

• Add a new Redmine version for the next minor, unless the series is EOL. Be sure the version is set to sharing with subprojects.
• Remove/change target version field for any open Redmine tickets assigned to the release still (next minor, unset it or reject)
• Ensure that code in git matches issues fixed in 3.7.0 in redmine. issues can be used to generate a comparison between the two.
• Change Redmine version 3.7.0 state to Closed using close_redmine_version

Tagging a release: 2023-10-31

Release Owner

• Make sure test_3_7_stable and smart-proxy3.7-stable-test are green using verify_green_jobs
• Run make -C locale tx-update in foreman 3.7-stable
• Update release version similar to here
• Tag the projects
  • Create tags using tag_project
  • Push tags using tag_push
• Run the Jenkins Tarballs Release using release_tarballs to create tarballs

Release Engineer

• Sign Tarballs
  • download_tarballs
  • inspect_tarballs
  • Sign and upload detached signatures using sign_tarballs

Note: If for some reason there was an issue with the tarballs that required uploading new tarballs, CDN cache should be invalidated so that the builders use the updated tarballs.

Packaging a release: 2023-10-31

Note it is considered good practice to release on a day when the next day is a working day. This means no releases on Fridays or on the day before a holiday.

Release Engineer

Background documentation

• Update foreman-packaging branches
  • rpm/3.7 using bump_rpm_packaging
  • deb/3.7 using bump_deb_packaging
• Wait for packages to be built using wait_packaging (checks rpm/3.7 and deb/3.7). This takes a while so you can already start on the manual updates.
• Check for outstanding PRs against 3.7 packaging, and merge if possible:
  • rpm/3.7
  • deb/3.7
• Sign the RPMs in the release
  • download_rpms
  • sign_rpms
  • upload_rpm_signatures
  • upload_rpms
• Sign RPMs for client repos (call scripts with PROJECT=client)
  • download_rpms
  • sign_rpms
  • upload_rpm_signatures
  • upload_rpms
• Kick off the release pipeline by calling [release_pipeline](https://github.com/theforeman/theforeman-rel-eng/blob/master/release_pipeline)
• Kick off the client pipeline by calling PROJECT=client [release_pipeline](https://github.com/theforeman/theforeman-rel-eng/blob/master/release_pipeline)
• Kick off the plugins pipeline by calling plugins_pipeline

Manual updates: 2023-10-31

Release Owner

• Update manual if applicable for any additional installation steps
• Update the website’s release notes section in the manual
  • Using the release notes script: ./scripts/release_notes.rb foreman 3.7.1
  • Append CLI release notes taken from the hammer-cli and hammer-cli-foreman changelogs, in theforeman.org.
  • Submit this as a PR
• Update docs.theforeman.org
  • Using redmine_release_notes script (see README as well): ./guides/doc-Release_Notes/redmine_release_notes foreman 3.7.1 > ./guides/doc-Release_Notes/topics/foreman-3.7.1.adoc
  • Append CLI release notes taken from the hammer-cli and hammer-cli-foreman changelogs to foreman-3.7.1.adoc.
  • Add topics/foreman-3.7.1.adoc to guides/doc-Release_Notes/master.adoc: sed -i '/x.y.z releases here/a include::topics/foreman-3.7.1.adoc[leveloffset=+1]' guides/doc-Release_Notes/master.adoc
  • Make sure foreman-contributors.adoc is updated
  • Make sure headline features, upgrade warnings and deprecations are in sync with the website
  • Submit this as a PR
• Update the apipie docs and place those in the foreman/3.7/apidoc directory if any changes were made to the API

After the packages have been released

Release Owner

• Update theforeman.org
  • Update _config.yml
    • Update foreman_latest_releases
• Announce the release on Discourse using release_announcement
• Update the topic in #theforeman channel on Libera.Chat
• Share the release announcement on Twitter
• Release pipeline will trigger foreman-plugins-3.7-deb-test-pipeline and foreman-plugins-3.7-rpm-test-pipeline. These don’t block releases but can be used to understand known issues around plugin compatibility with Foreman 3.7.

[ekohl]

I noticed the process was generated for 3.7.0 instead of 3.7.1, so some steps aren’t quite correct.

And packaging PRs are open:

Release 3.7.1

Release 3.7.1

[pcreech]

3.7.1 bits are live