Release Flatcar Container Linux Alpha 4054.0.0, Beta 4012.1.0 and Stable 3975.2.0

[tormath1]

The release of the following Flatcar Container Linux version is planning the week of the 5th August 2024

• Alpha 4054.0.0
• Beta 4012.1.0
• Stable 3975.2.0

1. Preparation

Owner: @tormath1

• A. Go/No-Go hackmd doc created from HackMD template for test tracking and release notes: https://hackmd.io/mj5O0k-SRFy0fnerDWPs3w?view
• B. All planned changes are merged & blocker bugs are fixed, last nightly reviewed for problems.
• C. Check that the kernel PR are merged for the channel(s) to be released. (6.6.44 and 6.1.103 on-hold due to Kernel regression)

2. Build

Owner: @sayanchowdhury

• A. Branched off the main branch (only for new major).
• B. Tagged all the build branches.
• C. Started the Jenkins builds, post the links into this issue as comment.

3. Release

i. The Go/No-Go Meeting

Owner: @tormath1

• A. Test status captured in the HackMD document.
• B. All tests are Green.
• C. Release notes / announcements added to Go/No Go doc from container/image_changes job by selecting Timestamps: None.
• D. QA: Checked the diff for image file list, packages, and image size in the container/image_changes job output.
• E. Conduct Matrix Go/No Go meeting (inc. release notes review).

ii. Artifacts goes public

Owner: @tormath1

• A. Created the Release Notes on the scripts repo for the respective tags on GitHub as GitHub Releases.
• B. Ran the container/release Release job.
• C. Images uploaded with copy-to-origin.sh.
• D. Symlink to "current" updated with set-symlink.sh.
• E. Website updated with ./update-flatcar-versions.sh and PR merged. (flatcar: new releases flatcar-website#357)

iii. Payload

Owner: @tormath1

• A. Update payload signed/uploaded.
• B. Release package published in Nebraska (Prerequisite: 3.ii.E should marked done).

iv. Cloud Marketplace & Cluster API

Owner:

• A. Azure

  • Offers updated and started publishing.
  • Sent the offers to publish to Live.

• B. GCP

  • Offer deployment package uploaded to Google Bucket & submit for verification.
  • Offer Publish

• C. Cluster API for new Stable

  • Azure: Manually run ./azure-sig.sh to create New Shared Community Gallery Images
  • OpenStack: documentation (test: bump Flatcar Stable version kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-openstack#2152)

4. Announcements

Owner: @tormath1

• A. Sent announcement to Mailing Lists
• B. Sent Tweet out to X (Twitter), and Toot out to Mastodon
• C. Brief version announcement in slack (k8s slack #flatcar) and the Flatcar Matrix channel

[tormath1]

CI:

• Alpha 4054.0.0: http://jenkins.infra.kinvolk.io:8080/job/container/job/packages_all_arches/4446/cldsv/
• Beta 4012.1.0: http://jenkins.infra.kinvolk.io:8080/job/container/job/packages_all_arches/4439/cldsv/
• Stable 3975.2.0: http://jenkins.infra.kinvolk.io:8080/job/container/job/packages_all_arches/4440/cldsv/

[tormath1]

update: release is blocked on Azure publishing because of links returning 404, I started to fix this but it's not done, someone has to takeover as I will be AFK in the next weeks (this needs: flatcar/flatcar-website#358)

[tormath1]

Superseeded by #1533