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

[Ben Howard]

Thanks Nick,

I've added your suggestion to the specifiction...all of these are great
ideas.

Thanks,
Ben

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-r-cloudtesting

On 10/03/2012 05:16 PM, Nick Barcet wrote:
> Hello Ben,
>
> As you know, I do see a lot of value in this automation.  Regarding
> notification, I think we could bundle in with this change a few
> modifications to the way we do them.
>
> What I would love to see:
>
> 1/ release notes for each releases are published and kept on
> cloud-images.ubuntu.com.  Maybe in /<suite>/release-notes/ with a link
> from the individual /<suite>/<version>/ directory? As you remove
> versions you still keep the release notes.
>
> 2/ Notification email is great, but I would rather use something that
> could be linked to via rss subscription.  Maybe as simple as publishing
> a status with a link to the release and notes on a dedicated twitter
> account?  This would allow some further user side automation process.
>
> 3/ As Eric suggested in his reply, keep email for a bit and check again
> a few month would seem reasonable to me.
>
> Thanks for leading this.
>
> Nick
>
> On 10/03/2012 10:59 PM, Ben Howard wrote:
>> 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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