Tasks for v1.9 release cycle

[Sunnatillo]

Please see the corresponding sections of the role-handbooks for documentation of individual tasks.

Tasks

Notes:

• Weeks are only specified to give some orientation.
• The following is based on the v1.9 release cycle. Modify according to the tracked release cycle.

Week 1:

• [Release Lead] Finalize release schedule and team
  • 🌱 Add v1.9 release team members to timeline doc #11097
• [Release Lead] Add/remove release team members
  • 🌱 Swap in new 1.9 RT members in OWNERS #11096
• [Release Lead] Prepare main branch for development of the new release
  • PR: 🌱 Prepare main branch for v1.9 development #11059
• [Communications Manager] Add docs to collect release notes for users and migration notes for provider implementers
  • 📖 Add more documentation about the KCP pre-terminate hook #11153
• [Communications Manager] Update supported versions
  • 📖 Update CAPI support and guarantees for v1.9 #11163

Week 1 to 4:

• [Release Lead] [Track] Remove previously deprecated code
  • 🌱 Remove previously deprecated --metrics-bind-addr flag #11140

Week 4:

• [Release Lead] Cut the v1.7.6 & v1.8.3 releases
  • 🚀 Release v1.7.6 #11158
  • 🚀 Release v1.8.3 #11160

Week 8:

• [Release Lead] Cut the v1.7.7 & v1.8.4 releases
  • 🚀 Release v1.8.4 #11269
  • 🚀 Release v1.7.7 #11268

Week 11 to 12:

• [Release Lead] [Track] Bump dependencies
• 🌱 Bump Go to v1.22.8 version #11357

Week 12:

• [Release Lead] Cut the v1.9.0-beta.0 release
• [Release Lead] Cut the v1.7.8 & v1.8.5 releases
• [Release Lead] Create a new GitHub milestone for the next release
• [Communications Manager] Communicate beta to providers

Week 13:

• KubeCon idle week

Week 14:

• [Release Lead] Cut the v1.9.0-beta.1 release
• [Release Lead] Set a tentative release date for the next minor release
• [Release Lead] Assemble next release team
• [Release Lead] Select release lead for the next release cycle

Week 15:

• [Release Lead] Cut the v1.9.0-rc.0 release
• [Release Lead] Update milestone applier and GitHub Actions
• [CI Manager] Setup jobs and dashboards for the release-1.9 release branch
• [Communications Manager] Ensure the book for the new release is available

Week 16:

• [Release Lead] Cut the v1.9.0-rc.1 release

Week 17:

• [Release Lead] Cut the v1.9.0 release
• [Release Lead] Cut the v1.7.9 & v1.8.6 releases
• [Release Lead] Organize release retrospective
• [Communications Manager] Change production branch in Netlify to the new release branch
• [Communications Manager] Update clusterctl links in the quickstart

Continuously:

• [Release lead] Maintain the GitHub release milestone
• [Release lead] Bump the Go version
• [Communications Manager] Communicate key dates to the community
• [Communications Manager] Improve release process documentation
• [Communications Manager] Maintain and improve user facing documentation about releases, release policy and release calendar
• [CI Manager] Monitor CI signal
• [CI Manager] Reduce the amount of flaky tests

If and when necessary:

• [Release Lead] [Track] Bump the Cluster API apiVersion
• [Release Lead] [Track] Bump the Kubernetes version
• [Release Lead] Track Release and Improvement tasks

/priority critical-urgent
/kind feature

Reminder!
Add to release notes:

Deprecations and Removals

• The --clustercachetracker-concurrency, --clustercachetracker-client-qps and --clustercachetracker-client-burst flags on all core CAPI controllers have been renamed to --clustercache-concurrency, --clustercache-client-qps and --clustercache-client-burst
• ClusterCacheTracker: Deprecate CCT ErrClusterLocked (🌱 Deprecate CCT ErrClusterLocked #11340)
• ClusterCacheTracker: Deprecate ClusterCacheTracker (🌱 Deprecate ClusterCacheTracker #11312)
• API: Deprecate FailureMessage and FailureReason (🌱 api: deprecate FailureMessage and FailureReason #11317)

[sbueringer]

/triage accepted

(@Sunnatillo just fyi, I removed the spam)

[sbueringer]

@Sunnatillo fyi, I updated the issue description according to #11088 (mostly to fix the links)

[Sunnatillo]

I have fixed the week numbers to align with https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/blob/main/docs/release/releases/release-1.9.md

[sbueringer]

@Sunnatillo Would be great if we can link the PRs to the corresponding sub-tasks in this issue. Just makes it a lot easier to track the ongoing work and ensure nothing is missed

[Sunnatillo]

@Sunnatillo Would be great if we can link the PRs to the corresponding sub-tasks in this issue. Just makes it a lot easier to track the ongoing work and ensure nothing is missed

done

[sbueringer]

@Sunnatillo Can you please make a note that we should add something about the following to the release notes of v1.9.0? (please in a public place, e.g. in the description of this issue)

• The --clustercachetracker-concurrency, --clustercachetracker-client-qps and --clustercachetracker-client-burst flags on all core CAPI controllers have been renamed to --clustercache-concurrency, --clustercache-client-qps and --clustercache-client-burst
• Let's highlight deprecations:
  • Check all changes that contain "deprecate"
  • Especially noteworthy:
    • We should add a note about the deprecation of the ClusterCacheTracker (xref: 🌱 Deprecate ClusterCacheTracker #11312)

[sbueringer]

@Sunnatillo I'm going to use #11092 (comment) to collect further notes for the release notes. Let's just check this post once we write up the release notes closer to the release