Checklist/XenHypervisorReleaseWithMarketing

This list contains a complete checklist for making a Xen Release, including PR

Planning the Release

• Agree a rough schedule of RC's
• Plan and communicate a schedule of Checklist/Kicking_off_Test_Days
• Start establishing the list of features on publicity@lists.xenproject.org
• Reach out to the press team to get started on the press release (takes about 4 weeks). Ideally Sarah ought to be contacted before we make the first RC

Press Team

• Sarah Conway = sconway at linuxfoundation dot org
• Publicity = publicity at lists dot xenproject dot org (Sarah is also on there).

Making the Release

Step 1: See Checklist/XenHypervisorRelease

Step 2: Branch the codebase

Step 3: Publish source tarballs

 Action Ian Jackson: Add instructions; Ian Jackson normally creates these

Publishing the release on the XenProject website

Step 4: Publish the tarballs on http://xenproject.org/downloads/xen-archives.html - this requires website admin rights and is done in the Docman component. Notes:

• If a new x.y release is created you will need to create a new category for the series http://xenproject.org/downloads/xen-archives/supported-xen-43-series.html. You may also need to rename older series such that they become unsupported in line with the following policy: Xen_Maintenance_Releases. Make sure you only change the page name, not the *slug* (called alias in Joomla terminology). Also make sure you do *not* have the text *supported* in any new *slugs* : we made that mistake in the past and now cannot change slugs without breaking incoming links without creating a redirect on the server (this cannot be done via the CMS UI).
• Create a new category for x.y.z (see http://xenproject.org/downloads/xen-archives/supported-xen-43-series/xen-430.html as an example).
  • For x.y.0 releases, this contains links to release documents, documentation and contribution acknowledgement: check out the example. Note that the slug of the parent category is in the category.
  • For maintenance releases, this category contains the changes to the prior release (see http://xenproject.org/downloads/xen-archives/supported-xen-43-series/xen-431.html)
• Create a document for the tarballs of the release and the signature : see the following examples
  • http://xenproject.org/downloads/xen-archives/supported-xen-43-series/xen-430/287-xen-430-2.html
  • http://xenproject.org/downloads/xen-archives/supported-xen-43-series/xen-430/286-xen-430-signature.html

Step 5: Update the *Hypervisor Downloads* module to include a link to the latest release. Remove older ones as appropriate

Step 6: Announce on all developer mailing lists, user lists and the announce lists.

Important note: these announcements must happen after the press release has gone out on the wire and the timing must be coordinated with the press team. Otherwise the release will not make a media impact.

Important note: the blog and main website have a scheduling feature for most pages. Make sure you compare the clock with the scheduling time such that you don't trip over time zone differences

Step 7: Publish blog post

Documentation

• Create contribution stats using GitDM

 Action Lars: Add instructions

• Find all release documents related to the previous release and clone them. Create a new category for this release and add documents to them (see Category:Xen 4.3 as example). Update these documents as appropriate.

Important: links to documents in xenbits need to be changed to the correct release branch after it was created.

• Find all documents related to new features and add them the new release category
• Update portal pages, such as
  • Category:Manual
  • Xen_4.x_Manuals (for a major release change, you will need to clone_)
• Do a final sanity check by searching for the previous release (e.g 4.4, 4.x) on the wiki to see whether you covered all bases

Press Release

Step 1: Preparation and Approval

• About 2-3 weeks before the press release, a draft of the press release should be available. Ping Sarah Conway <sconway@linuxfoundation.org>
• The press release needs to be reviewed (by somebody who has a little experience)
• The press release needs to be approved by the Advisory Board. Sarah can drive this.

Step 2: Scheduling

• Before the release, agree a date with Sarah Conway <sconway@linuxfoundation.org> on when
  • The press release gets sent out to the wire
  • When journalists are pre-briefed
  • Important note: the earlier of the dates above are a point of no return. The release must happen at this date
  • Agree a live date and time : this is the time when
    • All Documentation must be live
    • All pages listed in Publishing the release on the XenProject website must be live (note that Joomla has a scheduling mechanism : in other words you can create artefacts and objects and they stay hidden ). Some artefacts such as *Hypervisor Downloads* module can be done within an hour ow two after the date

Step 3: Copy the press release (typically a word document) into http://xenproject.org/about/in-the-news.html - this is done by creating a new article in the *article category* called press releases. Again, you can schedule the article to appear.