John Thank you for taking time writing out the LTS proposal.
> Broad community support is vital to guarantee the twenty (20) month > support period for each LTS branch. Given the ebbs and flows of > contribution and committer priorities, ShapeBlue will provide a release > manager, as well as, engineering support to fill any contribution gaps > to ensure that the community fulfills LTS commitments. You guys rock!! I'm +1 on this, Can you please expand on the QA side of LTS. Since this is more around long term bug/security fix - i'd think - the testing will be minimal, to the scope that fix applies - which will speed up the release process in general. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks ilya On 1/15/16 10:48 AM, John Burwell wrote: > Motivation > ======== > > The current monthly release cycle addresses the needs of users focused > on deploying new functionality as quickly as possible. It does not > address the needs of users oriented towards stability rather than new > functionality. These users typically employ QA processes to comply with > corporate policy and/or regulatory requirements. To maintain a growing, > thriving community, we must address the needs of both user types. > Therefore, I propose that we overlay a LTS release cycle onto the > monthly release cycle to address the needs of stability-oriented users > with minimal to no impact on the monthly release cycle. This proposed > LTS release cycle has the following goals: > > * Prefer Stability to New Functionality: Deliver releases that only > address defects and CVEs. This narrowly focused change scope greatly > reduces the upgrade risk/operational impact and shorter internal QA cycles. > * Reliable Release Lifetimes: Embracing a time-based release strategy, > the LTS release cycle will provide users with a reliable support time > frames. Users can use these time frames provide users with an 20 month > window in which to plan upgrades. > * Support Sustainability: With a defined end of support for LTS releases > and a maximum of two (2) LTS releases under active maintenance at any > given time, community members can better plan their commitments to > release support activities. We also have a agreed upon policy for > release end-of-life (EOL) to debate about continuing work on old releases. > > Proposed Process > ============== > > LTS release branches will be cut twice year on 1 Jan and 1 July from the > tag of the most recent monthly release. The branch will be named <base > version>-LTS and each LTS release will be versioned in the form of <base > version>-<LTS revision number>. For example, if we cut an LTS branch > based on 4.7.0, the branch would be named 4.7.0-LTS and the version of > the first LTS release would be 4.7.0-0, the second would be 4.7.0-1, > etc. This release naming convention differentiates LTS and monthly > releases, communicates the version on which the LTS release is based, > and allows the maintenance releases for monthly releases without version > number contention/conflict. Finally, like master, an LTS branch would be > always deployable following its initial release. While it is unlikely > that LTS users would deploy from the branch, the quality discipline of > this requirement will benefit the long term stability of LTS releases. > All PRs targeting an LTS would require two LGTMs in order to be merged. > > The following are the types of changes that would permitted and > guarantees provided to users: > > * No features or enhancements would be backported to LTS release branches. > * Database changes would be limited to those required to address the > backported defect fixes. > * Support for the release/version of the following components from the > release on which the LTS is based throughout the entire release cycle: > * MySQL/MariaDB > * JDK/JRE > * Linux distributions > * API compatibility for between all LTS revisions. API changes would be > limited to those required to fix defects or address security issues. > > An LTS release would have a twenty (20) month lifetime from the date the > release branch is cut. This support period allows up to two (2) months > of branch stabilization before initial release with a minimum of > eighteen (18) months of availability for deployment. LTS releases would > have the following support periods: > > * 0-14 months: backport all defect fixes in the scope of the LTS release > functionality; fix all blocker and critical priority defects identified > in the branch > * 14-20 months: backport only CVE fixes in the scope of the LTS release > functionality; fix all blocker priority defects in the branch > > Defect fixes that originate in an LTS branch will be pulled forward to > master only. Finally, an LTS branch should be release the fewest times > necessary to deliver fixes in a relatively timely manner. Therefore, LTS > releases will be triggered based on the number of pending of fixes and > their severity with no defect fix awaiting release more than forty-five > (45) days. CVE fixes would trigger an immediate release of an LTS branch. > > Resourcing and Proposed Timeline > =========================== > > Broad community support is vital to guarantee the twenty (20) month > support period for each LTS branch. Given the ebbs and flows of > contribution and committer priorities, ShapeBlue will provide a release > manager, as well as, engineering support to fill any contribution gaps > to ensure that the community fulfills LTS commitments. > > In order to prepare for supporting LTS releases, we would need to > complete the following items: > > 1. All tools that do version number comparisons would be made aware of > the LTS versioning scheme > 2. Officially support running the management server on Java 8 since Java > 7 has been EOL since last April [1] (i.e. compile to 1.7 with the Java > 1.8 compiler and run on Java 1.8). Providing a 20-month support window > on an EOL JVM is an unacceptable security risk. > 3. Update the wiki and website to explain the new release cycle and help > users decide which release type suits their needs > 4. Define an initial test plan for LTS stabilization > 5. Agree on the definitions of ticket severities > > In order to address these items and start on a regular rhythm, I propose > that first LTS cycle begin on 1 July 2015. In the interim, we would > continue to ship critical bug fixes from the 4.5 release as this release > seems to be the most commonly deployed in the community. > > Together, the monthly and LTS release cycles address the needs of the > entire Apache CloudStack user community. I believe that the process > described in the proposal will yield releases that meet the needs of > users requiring release stability without adversely affecting the > velocity of the monthly release cycle. > > Thanks, > -John > > [1]: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html > > > ShapeBlue <http://www.shapeblue.com> > John Burwell > ShapeBlue > > d: *+44 (20) 3603 0542 | s: +1 (571) 403-2411 * > <tel:+44%20(20)%203603%200542%20|%20s:%20+1%20(571)%20403-2411> > > e: *john.burw...@shapeblue.com | t: * > <mailto:john.burw...@shapeblue.com%20|%20t:> | w: > *www.shapeblue.com* <http://www.shapeblue.com> > > a: 53 Chandos Place, Covent Garden London WC2N 4HS UK > > 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. 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