Understanding the CloudStack Release Process
- 1. Understanding the CloudStack Release Process David Nalley @ke4qqq [email protected]
- 2. #whoami • Director, The Apache Software Foundation • VP Infra, The Apache Software Foundation • PMC Member, Apache CloudStack • Employed by Citrix – Work in the Open Source Business Office – Originally at Cloud.com
- 3. Releases • Releases provide end users with usable software • Releases are official actions of the Foundation • Aside from a vote, the release process is left up to the project.
- 4. Releases – what we’ve done • We ‘strive’ for a 4 months release cycle. – We’ve never maintained schedule • We have multiple ‘phases’ for the release cycle.
- 5. Phase 1: Feature Development • Features developed on branches and merged when ready in this phase.
- 6. Phase 2: Feature Freeze • No new functionality • Only bugfixes committed
- 7. Phase 3: Code freeze • When all testing is supposed to occur • Stabilize the code base in preparation for release
- 8. Phase 4: Release candidates • This is when most testing seems to occur • We end up with many release candidates – The churn causes much frustration
- 9. The result • We ‘generally’ have acceptable releases, but sometimes they are delayed many months. • We exhaust our community with repeated test cycles.
- 10. Where we want to move (Disclaimer: I am only one person – my views may not be what we end up with. I do not have fiat authority)
- 11. Where we want to move • Reliance on automated testing. • Much more rigid acceptance standards for code – Require automated test coverage for new features – Require that problems be fixed and have tests
- 12. Where we want to move • Gated commits – based on automated testing. (passing tests as a requirement for each commit)
- 13. Faster • We want to release more frequently • Smaller changesets – minimize the effect of change on quality
- 14. Questions?
- 15. Join us • [email protected] • @cloudstack on Twitter • #cloudstack on irc.freenode.net