StarlingX/Release Plan

Releases

StarlingX is released periodically; one release in 2018 and three releases/year starting in 2019. A release consists of a branch in the source code repositories that enables repeatable builds over time.

Release Definition

A StarlingX milestone/release is a tagged branch in the source code repositories that:

is considered stable and can be used for repeatable builds
will have no additional features added
will backport bug fixes for critical issues only
will be maintained in the canonical repositories for a specified minimum period
The list of repos included is maintained in stx-manifest/default.xml (or similar) for any given release. (Note: this file included non-StarlingX-managed repos, only repos from the "starlingx" and "stx-staging" remotes are included.)
The actual release is a tag on the corresponding branch, i.e. r/2018.10 release branch will be initially tagged as 2018.10.0

Release Cadence and Schedule

Releases are published in a time based fashion:

The initial StarlingX release is planned for October 2018
From 2019, the regular release cadence is 3 releases/year; released in March, July, and November.

Formal Releases

Released three times per year
For each release, the code freeze for that release is four weeks prior to the release date.
Branch name format r/YYYY.MM[.n]
- 'r/' is the branch name prefix (release)
- .n is a sequence number appended if more than one branch is created in a given month

r/2018.10

Release Candidate is tagged as YYYY.MM.rcX
Release is tagged as YYYY.MM.0

Monthly Milestones

Informal milestones to be used by the test team for a pre-defined sanity/regression test cycle.
Created each month in the 2nd week of the month a branch will be pulled.
Branch name format m/YYYY.MM
- 'm/' is the branch name prefix (milestone)
- .n is a sequence number appended if more than one branch is created in a given month

m/2018.07

Milestone is tagged as YYYY.MM.0

Release Milestones

StarlingX follows the openstack release milestones. The criteria for each milestone is defined to align more closely with the StarlingX deliverables/development cycle

Milestone-1:
- Release priorities and major features defined.
- High level resourcing secured.
Milestone-2:
- Spec Freeze
- Feature Development underway
- TBD: others? Doc deliverables? Test Automation deliverables?
Milestone-3:
- Feature Freeze: All Feature Code Submitted and Feature Testing Complete
- No blocking issues from Automated Sanity and Regression
- Release Test Plan Defined (any specific test automation deliverables?)
- Preliminary Documentation Available
- TBD: any criteria for # of open bugs for the milestone declaration?
RC1 (aka RC period start):
- Release Branch Created & First Release Candidate Tagged
- RC ISO and supporting build artifacts posted on CENGN (?)
  - To be discussed: how often do we build an "RC" ISO and post during the RC period?
- Release Testing Start
- Only Bug fixes are allowed in the release branch
Final Release
- Release Testing Complete and Pass Rate meets project criteria (> 95% ?)
- All release gating issues are addressed or reviewed/accepted for deferral
- Release tagged on release branch
- Release ISO and supporting build artifacts posed on CENGN (?)
- Final documentation posted on docs.startlingx.io

Release Maintenance

Formal releases are supported for 12 months. This allows support to two previous StarlingX (n and n-1) releases.
During the maintenance window, if there are fixes on the release branch, a new maintenance release will be created once a month. (will need to include a mini-test cycle) and the corresponding binaries posted publicly on CENGN.
Long Term Support (if any): TBD

List of Releases

Planned

Version	Milestone-1	Milestone-2	Milestone-3	RC1	Release Date	End of Life Date
2018.10.0	N/A	N/A	2018/09/26	2018/09/28	2018/10/24	TBD
2019.xx.0	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
2019.yy.0	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD

Release Team

For team members and other information, visit the StarlingX Releases sub-project wiki page here

Release Diagram

Diagram needs to be updated