Tasks for v1.11 release cycle

[sbueringer]

Please see the corresponding sections in release-tasks.md for documentation of individual tasks.

Tasks

Early in the cycle:

• Prepare main branch for development of the new release @chrischdi
  • PR: 🌱 Prepare main for development of release v1.11 #2950
• Remove previously deprecated code

Release-specific tasks:

• Remove keep alive handler deprecated in: 🌱 Deprecate and disable keep alive handler for vSphere sessions #2896 @zhanggbj
  • PR: 🌱 Remove keep alive feature #2984
• Adopt clusterctl upgrade tests to: 🌱 Use kind as a secondary management cluster for clusterctl E2E tests cluster-api#10639 (once available for CAPV)
  • PR: 🌱 Use kind for clusterctl upgrade tests #3050

After the Kubernetes minor release:

• Bump the Kubernetes version
  • Publish new OVA images
    • Build new OVA images via image-builder
    • Make them available in the CI environment
    • Publish them via a GitHub release (e.g. templates/v1.30.0)
    • Update README.md accordingly
    • PR: 📖 README.md: add information about v1.31.0 OVA's #3157
  • Bump e2e tests
    • Add the new image to internal/test/helpers/vcsim/model.go
    • Bump template env variables in test/e2e/config/vsphere.yaml and test/e2e/config/config-overrides-example.yaml
      • Also bump KUBERNETES_VERSION_*
      • Also bump KUBERNETES_VERSION_LATEST_CI to the next minor version
      • Also bump CPI_IMAGE_K8S_VERSION
      • Regenerate packaging/flavorgen/cloudprovider/cpi/cpi.yaml by checking out the release tag of https://github.com/kubernetes/cloud-provider-vsphere and running helm template charts/vsphere-cpi
    • Bump in:
      • test/e2e/data/infrastructure-vsphere-govmomi/main/clusterclass/patch-vsphere-template.yaml
      • test/e2e/data/infrastructure-vsphere-supervisor/main/clusterclass/patch-vsphere-template.yaml
    • PR: ✨ Bump e2e tests to kubernetes v1.31.0 #3154
  • Update ProwJob configuration accordingly
    • PR: CAPV: Bump tests for k8s v1.31.0 kubernetes/test-infra#33305

Late in the cycle:

• Bump dependencies
  • ✨ Bump CAPI to v1.8.0-beta.0 #3107
  • 🌱 Bump sigs.k8s.io/cluster-api to v1.8.0-beta.1 #3119
  • 🌱 Bump CAPI to v1.8.0-rc.0 #3127
  • 🌱 test: Bump CPI to v1.31.0-rc.0 #3129
  • ✨ Bump CAPI to v1.8.1 and CPI to v1.31.0 #3155
  • Adopt:
    • ✨ Add QPS & burst options & flags for ClusterCacheTracker cluster-api#10880
    • 🐛 Also use tls options for metrics/diagnostics server cluster-api#10883
• Create the new release branch @ 1st August
• [opt] Cut beta/rc releases
  • v1.11.0-beta.0
  • v1.11.0-beta.1
  • v1.11.0-rc.0 @ 1st August
  • v1.11.0-rc.1 @ 7th August
• Cut the minor release @ 14th August

Continuously:

• Reduce the amount of flaky tests

[sbueringer]

@chrischdi Whoever takes Prepare main branch for development of the new release, let's take the chance to finalize the corresponding doc section after we finalized what exactly we have to do in the PR

[chrischdi]

@chrischdi Whoever takes Prepare main branch for development of the new release, let's take the chance to finalize the corresponding doc section after we finalized what exactly we have to do in the PR

PR for docs update: #2951

[sbueringer]

@adityabhatia @zhanggbj I think we can go ahead with "Remove keep alive handler" if someone has time / is looking for a bit of work :)

[zhanggbj]

@sbueringer I would like to work on it :-)

[fabriziopandini]

@sbueringer is Bump the Kubernetes version when we start testing Kubernetes 1.31?

[sbueringer]

@fabriziopandini I would say it's when we test against 1.31 (instead of just latest-ci)

[sbueringer]

Removed the test sub-task from this issue, will add it to a new umbrella issue

[sbueringer]

@chrischdi Assigned to both of us and added to the v1.11 milestone. Please keep especially building the OVA on your radar as it's one of the tasks we have to do after the 1.31 release that takes the most time until we can cut CAPV v1.11

[sbueringer]

@chrischdi @fabriziopandini

Highlights for the upcoming relase (notes) (based on v1.11.0-beta.0, probably have to amend later)

## Highlights

- Tested with Kubernetes v1.31 & cloud-provider-vsphere v1.31
- Based on Cluster API v1.8
- Bumped to controller-runtime v0.18, k8s.io/* v0.30, controller-gen v0.15
- Bumped to Go 1.22

supervisor mode:
- Significantly improved unit and e2e test coverage (#2995)
- VirtualMachine namingStrategy (#3099)
- Now uses vm-operator v1alpha2 APIs (#3029, #3104)
- Dropped ProviderServiceAccount ConfigMap and deprecated ProviderServiceAccountFinalizer (#3009)

govmomi mode:
- Support for vGPU (#3025)
- Removed the keep alive feature (#2984)
- Use sha256 thumbprint in tests (#3076) (using sha1 thumbprint is now deprecated)

[sbueringer]

@chrischdi Added a new sub-task to adopt recent CAPI changes in CAPV

[sbueringer]

Checked diff to latest rc. Nothing to add to the highlights

[chrischdi]

All PR's for v1.31 should be prepared now.

Waiting for the v1.31.0 release.

[sbueringer]

All done for v1.11.0 (updated the tasks above)

[chrischdi]

So should we close this one?

[sbueringer]

I wasn't sure because of v1.11.1. But let's drop this from this issue and just track it between us?

[sbueringer]

Didn't get a notification when you added the 👍 :)

/close

[k8s-ci-robot]

@sbueringer: Closing this issue.

In response to this:

Didn't get a notification when you added the 👍 :)

/close

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