[ubuntu-cloud] Cloud Image UDS-R Proposal: Automatic Releases

[Ben Howard]

Over this last cycle I have been putting a bit of thought into the
Ubuntu Cloud Images build, daily promotion and release process. Of
concern is making sure that the Ubuntu Cloud Images are of the quality
and performance that our users both expect and demand.

At UDS [1,2] this October, I am going to propose a change in the way
that Ubuntu Cloud Image stable releases are generated and released [3]. 
Specifically of interest to this audience, I am going to propose that we
move from the ad-hoc release  cadence -- where a release is need-based
-- to an automatic release schedule based on the availability of
security and boot critical packages that normally require a reboot upon
updating[4].  For most stable released Ubuntu versions, a new version of
the  cloud images would be made available every three weeks, which
follows the release cadence of the Kernel SRU team (or ~18 releases per
stable release per year).  The biggest motivation for  proposing this
change is to reduce the number of updates upon boot and  to make sure
that the stable release images are up-to-date.

One side effect to having an automatic release process is that the email
announcements of new cloud images will need to change in both content
and frequency. Are these emails valuable, is the content  sufficient or
too much or if we released automatically every three  weeks, would it be
better to discontinue the emails? Or would it be sufficient to capture
this information on a webpage?

Before UDS, I wanted to gather feedback from our valued community; any
feedback, concerns or questions about this proposal would be most
appreciated. 

Thanks,
Ben

[1] http://uds.ubuntu.com/
[2] UDS is from 29 October to 01 November 2012
[3] https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-cloudtesting
[4] i.e. kernel, glibc, security updates


-- 


Ben Howard
ben.howard at canonical.com
Canonical
GPG ID 0x5406A866



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