Checklist/XenHypervisorReleaseWithMarketing

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Icon Info.png 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 (normally done by the Developer community; either Ian Jackson or Jan Beulich)

Step 3: Publish source tarballs. Coordinate with Ian Jackson to get the tarballs made and get URLs from him


Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Action Ian Jackson: You may want to add instructions for creating the Tarballs

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:

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

Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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
  • 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 the press team (see above)
  • 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/press team can drive this.

Step 2: Scheduling

  • Before the release, agree a date with Sarah Conway/press team (see above) 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.

Social Media

Post the release news on

  • Twitter
  • Xen Project Facebook page
  • Xen Masters on LinkedIn
  • Xen Project Google+ page