Tasks for v1.12 release cycle

[sbueringer]

Please see the corresponding sections in release-tasks.md for documentation of individual tasks.

Tasks

Early in the cycle:

• Prepare main branch for development of the new release: 🌱 Prepare main branch for v1.12 development #3159
• Remove previously deprecated code

Release-specific tasks:

• Bump VM operator to the next release #3022
• TODO

After the Kubernetes minor release:

• Bump the Kubernetes version
  • Publish new OVA images
    • Build new OVA images via image-builder
    • Make them available in the CI environment
    • Publish them via a GitHub release (e.g. templates/v1.30.0)
    • Update README.md accordingly
  • Bump e2e tests
    • Add the new image to internal/test/helpers/vcsim/model.go
    • Bump template env variables in test/e2e/config/vsphere.yaml and test/e2e/config/config-overrides-example.yaml
      • Also bump KUBERNETES_VERSION_*
      • Also bump KUBERNETES_VERSION_LATEST_CI to the next minor version
      • Also bump CPI_IMAGE_K8S_VERSION
      • Regenerate packaging/flavorgen/cloudprovider/cpi/cpi.yaml by checking out the release tag of https://github.com/kubernetes/cloud-provider-vsphere and running helm template charts/vsphere-cpi
    • Bump in:
      • test/e2e/data/infrastructure-vsphere-govmomi/main/clusterclass/patch-vsphere-template.yaml
      • test/e2e/data/infrastructure-vsphere-supervisor/main/clusterclass/patch-vsphere-template.yaml
  • Update ProwJob configuration accordingly

Late in the cycle:

• Bump dependencies
• Create the new release branch
• [opt] Cut beta/rc releases
• Cut the minor release

Continuously:

• Reduce the amount of flaky tests

[sbueringer]

Checked for deprecations, nothing to do for this cycle