Hi Wido and Lucian, There are many ways to get to a stable product including fixing coverity issues, unit/integration tests etc. but one of those ways is to simply support existing releases with bugfix releases because most CloudStack users just don’t care about git workflows, or coverity or unit/integration tests, they simply expect it to work and if it has bugs they expect them to be fixed.
We don’t have production usage data and feedback from users to conclude that 4.4.x releases are stable enough. Some of them (include our customers) have tried to upgrade their test prod. environments from 4.3.x to 4.4.x and have failed. So we decided to put backporting/testing efforts on 4.3 which we have confidence that it just works until a stable 4.5.x on which we have a certain confidence is released. Just to put out a note here - many smart and active contributors/users may know their way around CloudStack such as Wido/PCExtreme and Lucian, but many large/serious CloudStack users are slow to change and upgrading every 3-4 months may not be an option for them. I know quite a few users who are operating large clouds and are still on ACS 4.2.x. This simply means they are not going to simply upgrade just because there is a new release with lots of new features. Therefore the idea of supporting those releases until we have a confidence of a new stable release. Note: This is not to say that 4.4.x is not stable, we’re simply saying we recommend 4.3.x because we have a confidence of its stability and we encourage serious CloudStack users to use it. The 4.4 branch does not contain many bugfixes which are in 4.3 and on master/4.5. I anticipate that 4.5.0 should be out in about 2 months time around Jan/Feb 2015. With this anticipation and known confidence of 4.3.x in production at ShapeBlue we decided to support 4.3 branch until a stable 4.5.x branch is out. > On 25-Nov-2014, at 6:39 pm, Nux! <n...@li.nux.ro> wrote: > > Like Wido, I also agree with LTS, but also think 4.3 is kind of old by now > and 4.4.2 is looking good. > > Perhaps take a step back and see how 4.5 goes and start with that one? > > -- > Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology! > > Nux! > www.nux.ro > > ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Rohit Yadav" <rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com> >> To: "dev" <dev@cloudstack.apache.org> >> Cc: us...@cloudstack.apache.org >> Sent: Tuesday, 25 November, 2014 11:30:53 >> Subject: [DISCUSS] LTS Releases > >> Hi, >> >> During CCCEU14 conference and over emails, I spoke with many CloudStack users >> and I think most of us would like to have and use LTS releases. I propose >> that; >> >> - We encourage a habit to backport a bugfix to all qualifying branches >> whether >> or not those branches are LTS >> - We contribute (unit, integration) tests on LTS branches as well on other >> qualifying branches >> - We put correct affect version and fix version on JIRA so issues that >> should be >> backported to a branch are identified >> - We adapt the LTS release model from Fedora/Ubuntu projects. Please share >> ideas, comments? >> - We officially recognize a LTS release branch, say 4.3 now and everyone >> helps >> to maintain it, backport bugfixes etc. >> - Until a next latest stable release is published that we all mutually >> agree, we >> keep working on the LTS branch. After say we have a stable 4.5.0 or 4.5.1 >> release, we can agree to recognize 4.5 as our next LTS branch and work on it. >> >> Having a robust product release means we all (developers, users, sysadmins, >> ops >> etc.) can save time consumed on firefighting a CloudStack cloud. Having a LTS >> branch and releases will get us there because on a LTS release/support branch >> we don’t do feature work at all and we only invest time to do bugfixing etc. >> >> ShapeBlue is already serving their customers with product patching service >> and >> using our own packages hosting (http://shapeblue.com/packages) we publish >> patches on the “main” repository for everyone. We also publish details of the >> patch we publish on our Github wiki, such as this example; >> https://github.com/shapeblue/cloudstack/wiki/Release-Notes:-ACS-4.4.1-ShapeBlue-Patch01 >> We’ve recently started putting patches and release notes publicly (rather >> than >> just using emails) so you’ll see more of these in future. When we make >> patches >> we push the changes to upstream branches as well, in fact we fix on upstream >> first. >> >> In our experience the 4.3.x releases are most stable and so we’re backporting >> bugfixes from 4.4/4.5/master. I’m personally going through a list of JIRA >> issues which has affect version 4.3.0 and/or 4.3.1 but the bugfix either does >> not exist or exists in a non-4.3 branch. >> >> Regards, >> Rohit Yadav >> Software Architect, ShapeBlue >> M. +91 88 262 30892 | rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com >> Blog: bhaisaab.org | Twitter: @_bhaisaab >> >> Find out more about ShapeBlue and our range of CloudStack related services >> >> IaaS Cloud Design & Build<http://shapeblue.com/iaas-cloud-design-and-build//> >> CSForge – rapid IaaS deployment framework<http://shapeblue.com/csforge/> >> CloudStack Consulting<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-consultancy/> >> CloudStack Software >> Engineering<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-software-engineering/> >> CloudStack Infrastructure >> Support<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-infrastructure-support/> >> CloudStack Bootcamp Training >> Courses<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/> >> >> This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are intended >> solely >> for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions >> expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent >> those >> of Shape Blue Ltd or related companies. If you are not the intended recipient >> of this email, you must neither take any action based upon its contents, nor >> copy or show it to anyone. Please contact the sender if you believe you have >> received this email in error. Shape Blue Ltd is a company incorporated in >> England & Wales. ShapeBlue Services India LLP is a company incorporated in >> India and is operated under license from Shape Blue Ltd. Shape Blue Brasil >> Consultoria Ltda is a company incorporated in Brasil and is operated under >> license from Shape Blue Ltd. ShapeBlue SA Pty Ltd is a company registered by >> The Republic of South Africa and is traded under license from Shape Blue Ltd. >> ShapeBlue is a registered trademark. Regards, Rohit Yadav Software Architect, ShapeBlue M. +91 88 262 30892 | rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com Blog: bhaisaab.org | Twitter: @_bhaisaab Find out more about ShapeBlue and our range of CloudStack related services IaaS Cloud Design & Build<http://shapeblue.com/iaas-cloud-design-and-build//> CSForge – rapid IaaS deployment framework<http://shapeblue.com/csforge/> CloudStack Consulting<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-consultancy/> CloudStack Software Engineering<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-software-engineering/> CloudStack Infrastructure Support<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-infrastructure-support/> CloudStack Bootcamp Training Courses<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/> This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Shape Blue Ltd or related companies. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither take any action based upon its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone. Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in error. Shape Blue Ltd is a company incorporated in England & Wales. ShapeBlue Services India LLP is a company incorporated in India and is operated under license from Shape Blue Ltd. Shape Blue Brasil Consultoria Ltda is a company incorporated in Brasil and is operated under license from Shape Blue Ltd. ShapeBlue SA Pty Ltd is a company registered by The Republic of South Africa and is traded under license from Shape Blue Ltd. ShapeBlue is a registered trademark.
