Update release documentation

.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/release_tracking.md

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+---
+name: 🚋 Release cycle tracking
+about: Create a new release cycle tracking issue for a CAPV minor release
+title: Tasks for v<release-tag> release cycle
+labels: ''
+assignees: ''
+
+---
+
+Please see the corresponding sections in [release-tasks.md](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/blob/main/docs/release/release-tasks.md) for documentation of individual tasks.  
+
+## Tasks
+
+Early in the cycle:
+* [ ] [Prepare main branch for development of the new release](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/blob/main/docs/release/release-tasks.md#prepare-main-branch-for-development-of-the-new-release)
+* [ ] [Remove previously deprecated code](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/blob/main/docs/release/release-tasks.md#remove-previously-deprecated-code)
+
+If and when necessary:
+* [ ] [Bump the Kubernetes version](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/blob/main/docs/release/release-tasks.md#optional-bump-the-kubernetes-version)
+
+Late in the cycle:
+* [ ] [Bump dependencies](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/blob/main/docs/release/release-tasks.md#bump-dependencies)
+* [ ] [Create the new release branch](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/blob/main/docs/release/release-tasks.md#create-a-release-branch)
+* [ ] [opt] [Cut beta/rc releases](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/blob/main/docs/release/release-tasks.md#repeatedly-cut-a-release)
+* [ ] [Cut the minor release](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/blob/main/docs/release/release-tasks.md#repeatedly-cut-a-release)
+
+Continuously:
+* [Reduce the amount of flaky tests](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/blob/main/docs/release/release-tasks.md#continuously-reduce-the-amount-of-flaky-tests)

Makefile

@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ APIDIFF_OLD_COMMIT ?= $(shell git rev-parse origin/main)
 apidiff: $(GO_APIDIFF) ## Check for API differences
 	$(GO_APIDIFF) $(APIDIFF_OLD_COMMIT) --print-compatible
 
-ALL_VERIFY_CHECKS = boilerplate modules gen conversions
+ALL_VERIFY_CHECKS = doctoc boilerplate modules gen conversions
 
 .PHONY: verify
 verify: $(addprefix verify-,$(ALL_VERIFY_CHECKS)) lint-markdown lint-shell ## Run all verify-* targets
@@ -362,6 +362,10 @@ verify-gen: generate  ## Verify go generated files are up to date
 verify-conversions: $(CONVERSION_VERIFIER)  ## Verifies expected API conversion are in place
 	$(CONVERSION_VERIFIER)
 
+.PHONY: verify-doctoc
+verify-doctoc:
+	TRACE=$(TRACE) ./hack/verify-doctoc.sh
+
 .PHONY: verify-boilerplate
 verify-boilerplate: ## Verify boilerplate text exists in each file
 	TRACE=$(TRACE) ./hack/verify-boilerplate.sh

docs/release/release-tasks.md

@@ -0,0 +1,187 @@
+# Release Tasks
+
+**Notes**:
+
+- The examples in this document are based on the v1.8 release cycle.
+
+<!-- START doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->
+<!-- DON'T EDIT THIS SECTION, INSTEAD RE-RUN doctoc TO UPDATE -->
+
+- [Prepare main branch for development of the new release](#prepare-main-branch-for-development-of-the-new-release)
+- [Remove previously deprecated code](#remove-previously-deprecated-code)
+- [[Optional] Bump the Kubernetes version](#optional-bump-the-kubernetes-version)
+- [Bump dependencies](#bump-dependencies)
+- [Create a release branch](#create-a-release-branch)
+- [Cut a release](#cut-a-release)
+- [[Continuously] Reduce the amount of flaky tests](#continuously-reduce-the-amount-of-flaky-tests)
+
+<!-- END doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->
+
+## Prepare main branch for development of the new release
+
+TODO(sbueringer): Finalize this section once we do this for the first time
+
+The goal of this issue is to bump the versions on the main branch so that the upcoming release version
+is used for e.g. local development and e2e tests. We also modify tests so that they are testing the previous release.
+
+This comes down to changing occurrences of the old version to the new version, e.g. `v1.7` to `v1.8`:
+
+1. Setup E2E tests for the new release:
+   1. Goal is that our clusterctl upgrade tests are testing the right versions. For `v1.8` this means:
+      - v1beta1: `v1.7` (will change with each new release)
+      - v1alpha4: `v0.8`
+   2. Update providers in `vsphere-ci.yaml`, `vsphere-dev.yaml`, `integration-dev.yaml`:
+      1. Add a new `v1.7.0` entry.
+      2. Remove providers that are not used anymore in clusterctl upgrade tests.
+      3. Change `v1.7.99` to `v1.8.99`.
+   3. Adjust `metadata.yaml`'s:
+      1. Add new release to the top-level `metadata.yaml`
+      2. Create a new `v1.7` `metadata.yaml` (`test/e2e/data/shared/v1.7/metadata.yaml`) by copying
+        `test/e2e/data/shared/main/metadata.yaml`
+      3. Add the new v1.8 release to the main `metadata.yaml` (`test/e2e/data/shared/main/metadata.yaml`).
+      4. Remove old `metadata.yaml`'s that are not used anymore in clusterctl upgrade tests.
+   4. Adjust cluster templates in `test/e2e/data/infrastructure-vsphere`:
+      1. Create a new `v1.7` folder. It should be created based on the `main` folder and only contain the templates
+        we use in the clusterctl upgrade tests (as of today `remote-management`).
+      2. Remove old folders that are not used anymore in clusterctl upgrade tests.
+   5. Modify the test specs in `test/e2e/capi_clusterctl_upgrade_test.go` (according to the versions we want to test described above).
+      Please note that both `InitWithKubernetesVersion` and `WorkloadKubernetesVersion` should be the highest mgmt cluster version supported by the respective Cluster API version.
+2. Update `clusterctl-settings.json`: `v1.7.99` => `v1.8.99`.
+3. Make sure all tests are green (also run `pull-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-e2e-full-main` and `pull-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-conformance-main`).
+
+Prior art: TODO(sbueringer): link example PR
+
+## Remove previously deprecated code
+
+The goal of this task is to remove all previously deprecated code that can be now removed.
+
+1. Check for deprecated code and remove it.
+   **Note**: We can't just remove all code flagged with `Deprecated`. In some cases like e.g. in API packages
+   we have to keep the old code.
+
+Prior art: TODO(sbueringer): link example PR
+
+## [Optional] Bump the Kubernetes version
+
+TODO(sbueringer): Write this when we do it the next time
+
+## Bump dependencies
+
+The goal of this task is to ensure that we have relatively up-to-date dependencies at the time of the release.
+This reduces the risk that CVEs are found in outdated dependencies after our release.
+
+We should take a look at the following dependencies:
+
+- Go dependencies in the `go.mod` file. (usually dependabot takes care of that)
+- Tools used in our Makefile (e.g. kustomize).
+
+## Create a release branch
+
+The goal of this task is to ensure we have a release branch with test coverage and results in testgrid. While we
+add test coverage for the new release branch we will also drop the tests for old release branches if necessary.
+The milestone applier should also apply milestones accordingly.
+From this point forward changes which should land in the release have to be cherry-picked into the release branch.
+
+1. Create the release branch locally based on the latest commit on main and push it.
+
+   ```bash
+      # Create the release branch
+      git checkout -b release-1.8
+
+      # Push the release branch
+      # Note: `upstream` must be the remote pointing to `github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api`.
+      git push -u upstream release-1.8
+     ```
+
+2. Create the milestone for the new release via GitHub UI.
+3. Update the [milestone applier config](https://github.com/kubernetes/test-infra/blob/151bab62dc023525f592e6d1fdc2a8de5305cd01/config/prow/plugins.yaml#L523) accordingly (e.g. `release-1.8: v1.8`
+   and `main: v1.9`)
+4. Create new jobs based on the jobs running against our `main` branch:
+5. Copy `config/jobs/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/cluster-api-provider-vsphere-periodics-main.yaml` to `config/jobs/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/cluster-api-provider-vsphere-periodics-release-1.8.yaml`.
+6. Copy `config/jobs/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/cluster-api-provider-vsphere-presubmits-main.yaml` to `config/jobs/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/cluster-api-provider-vsphere-presubmits-release-1.8.yaml`.
+7. Modify the following:
+   1. Rename the jobs, e.g.: `periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-test-main` => `periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-test-release-1-8`.
+   2. Change `annotations.testgrid-tab-name`, e.g. `periodic-test-main` => `periodic-test-release-1-8`.
+   3. For periodics additionally:
+     - Change `extra_refs[].base_ref` to `release-1.8` (for repo: `cluster-api-provider-vsphere`).
+   1. For presubmits additionally: Adjust branches: `^main$` => `^release-1.8$`.
+8. Remove tests for old release branches if necessary
+9. Verify the jobs and dashboards a day later by taking a look at [testgrid](https://testgrid.k8s.io/sig-cluster-lifecycle-cluster-api-provider-vsphere)
+10. Update `.github/workflows/scan.yaml` - to setup Trivy scanning for the currently supported branches.
+
+## Cut a release
+
+1. Ensure via testgrid that CI is stable before cutting the release
+   Note: special attention should be given to image scan results, so we can avoid cutting a release with CVEs or document known CVEs in release notes.
+2. Create and push the release tags to the GitHub repository:
+
+   ```bash
+      # Export the tag of the release to be cut, e.g.:
+      export RELEASE_TAG=v1.8.0-beta.0
+      # Create tags locally
+      # Warning: The test tag MUST NOT be an annotated tag.
+      git tag -s -a ${RELEASE_TAG} -m ${RELEASE_TAG}
+
+      # Push tags
+      # Note: `upstream` must be the remote pointing to `github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api`.
+      git push upstream ${RELEASE_TAG}
+   ```
+
+   This will automatically trigger:
+   - a [GitHub Action](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/actions/workflows/release.yaml) to create a draft release and
+   - a [ProwJob](https://prow.k8s.io/?repo=kubernetes-sigs%2Fcluster-api-provider-vsphere&job=post-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-push-images) to publish images to the staging image repository.
+3. Promote images from the staging repository to the production registry (`registry.k8s.io/cluster-api-vspher`):
+   1. Wait until images for the tag have been built and pushed to the [staging repository](https://console.cloud.google.com/gcr/images/k8s-staging-capi-vsphere/global/cluster-api-vsphere-controller) by
+      the [push images job](https://prow.k8s.io/?repo=kubernetes-sigs%2Fcluster-api-provider-vsphere&job=post-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-push-images).
+   2. If you don't have a GitHub token, create one by going to your GitHub settings in [Personal access tokens](https://github.com/settings/tokens). Make sure you give the token the `repo` scope.
+   3. Create a PR to promote the images to the production registry:
+
+      ```bash
+      # Export the tag of the release to be cut, e.g.:
+      export RELEASE_TAG=v1.8.0-beta.0
+      export GITHUB_TOKEN=<your GH token>
+      make promote-images
+      ```
+
+      **Notes**:
+       - `make promote-images` target tries to figure out your Github user handle in order to find the forked [k8s.io](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io) repository.
+       If you have not forked the repo, please do it before running the Makefile target.
+       - if `make promote-images` fails with an error like `FATAL while checking fork of kubernetes/k8s.io` you may be able to solve it by manually setting the USER_FORK variable
+       i.e.  `export USER_FORK=<personal GitHub handle>`
+       - `kpromo` uses `[email protected]:...` as remote to push the branch for the PR. If you don't have `ssh` set up you can configure
+       git to use `https` instead via `git config --global url."https://github.com/".insteadOf [email protected]:`.
+       - This will automatically create a PR in [k8s.io](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io) and assign the CAPI maintainers.
+4. Merge the PR (/lgtm + /hold cancel) and verify the images are available in the production registry:
+    - Wait for the [promotion prow job](https://prow.k8s.io/?repo=kubernetes%2Fk8s.io&job=post-k8sio-image-promo) to complete successfully. Then verify that the production images are accessible:
+
+     ```bash
+     docker pull registry.k8s.io/cluster-api-vsphere/cluster-api-vsphere-controller:${RELEASE_TAG}
+     ```
+
+5. Publish the release.
+   1. Finalize release notes
+      1. Pay close attention to the `## :question: Sort these by hand` section, as it contains items that need to be manually sorted.
+      2. Ensure consistent formatting of entries (e.g. prefix).
+      3. Merge dependency bump PR entries for the same dependency into a single entry.
+      4. Move minor changes into a single line at the end of each section.
+      5. Sort entries within a section alphabetically.
+      6. Write highlights section based on the initial release notes doc. (for minor releases and important changes only)
+      7. **For minor releases** Modify `Changes since v1.x.y` to `Changes since v1.x`
+         **Note**: The release notes tool includes all merges since the previous release branch was branched of.
+   2. Publish the release and ensure release is flagged as `pre-release` for all `beta` and `rc` releases or `latest` for a new release in the most recent release branch.
+6. **For minor releases** Update supported versions in versions.md.
+
+- Cutting a release as of today requires permissions to:
+  - Create a release tag on the GitHub repository.
+  - Create/update/publish GitHub releases.
+
+## [Continuously] Reduce the amount of flaky tests
+
+The CAPV tests are pretty stable, but there are still some flaky tests from time to time. To reduce the amount of flakes please periodically:
+
+1. Take a look at recent CI failures via `k8s-triage`:
+    - [periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-test-main](https://storage.googleapis.com/k8s-triage/index.html?pr=1&job=periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-test-main)
+    - [periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-test-integration-main](https://storage.googleapis.com/k8s-triage/index.html?pr=1&job=periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-test-integration-main)
+    - [periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-e2e-full-main](https://storage.googleapis.com/k8s-triage/index.html?pr=1&job=periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-e2e-full-main)
+    - [periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-conformance-main](https://storage.googleapis.com/k8s-triage/index.html?pr=1&job=periodic-cluster-api-provider-vsphere-conformance-main)
+2. Open issues for occurring flakes and ideally fix them or find someone who can.

hack/verify-doctoc.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Copyright 2019 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+
+if [[ "${TRACE-0}" == "1" ]]; then
+    set -o xtrace
+fi
+
+if [[ -z "$(command -v doctoc)" ]]; then
+  echo "doctoc is not available on your system, skipping verification"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+doctoc_files="docs/release/release-tasks.md"
+
+function check_doctoc(){
+    changed_files=""
+    for file in $doctoc_files
+    do
+        res=$(git diff --cached "$file")
+        if [ "$res" ]
+        then
+            changed_files="$changed_files\n$file"
+        fi
+    done
+
+    if [ "${changed_files}" ];then
+        echo -e "Please update these files: $changed_files."
+        echo "Update with doctoc FILENAME."
+        echo "Re-commit with -n/--no-verify option."
+        exit 1
+    fi
+
+}
+
+doctoc "${doctoc_files}" >/dev/null 2>&1
+check=$(git diff)
+if [ -n "$check" ];then
+    check_doctoc
+fi

test/e2e/capi_upgrade_test.go → test/e2e/capi_clusterctl_upgrade_test.go

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ var _ = PContext("ClusterAPI Upgrade Tests [clusterctl-Upgrade]", func() {
 				BootstrapClusterProxy:     bootstrapClusterProxy,
 				ArtifactFolder:            artifactFolder,
 				SkipCleanup:               skipCleanup,
-				InitWithBinary:            e2eConfig.GetVariable("INIT_WITH_BINARY_V1ALPHA4"),
+				InitWithBinary:            "https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/releases/download/v0.4.8/clusterctl-{OS}-{ARCH}",
 				InitWithProvidersContract: "v1alpha4",
 				MgmtFlavor:                "remote-management",
 			}