Notice

This document is for a development version of Ceph.

Ceph Release Process

Prerequisites

Signing Machine

The signing machine is a virtual machine in the Sepia lab. SSH access to the signing machine is limited to the usual Infrastructure Admins along with a few other component leads (e.g., nfs-ganesha, ceph-iscsi).

The ubuntu user on the machine has some build scripts that help with pulling, pushing, and signing packages.

The GPG signing key permanently lives on a Nitrokey Pro and is passed through to the VM via RHV. This helps to ensure that the key cannot be exported or leave the datacenter in any way.

New Major Releases

For each new major (alphabetical) release, you must create one ceph-release RPM for each RPM repo (e.g., one for el8 and one for el9). chacra is a python service we use to store DEB and RPM repos. The chacra repos are configured to include this ceph-release RPM, but it must be built separately. You must make sure that chacra is properly configured to include this RPM for each particular release.

  1. Update chacra so it is aware of the new Ceph release. See this PR for an example.

  2. Redeploy chacra (e.g., ansible-playbook chacra.ceph.com.yml)

  3. Run https://jenkins.ceph.com/view/all/job/ceph-release-rpm/

Summarized build process

  1. QE finishes testing and finds a stopping point. That commit is pushed to the $release-release branch in ceph.git (e.g., squid-release). This allows work to continue in the working $release branch without having to freeze it during the release process.

  2. The Ceph Council approves and notifies the “Build Lead”.

  3. The “Build Lead” starts the Jenkins multijob, which triggers all builds.

  4. Packages are pushed to chacra.ceph.com.

  5. Packages are pulled from chacra.ceph.com to the Signer VM.

  6. Packages are signed.

  7. Packages are pushed to a prerelease area on download.ceph.com.

  8. Prerelease containers are built and pushed to quay.ceph.io.

  9. Final test and validation are done on prerelease packages and containers.

  10. Prerelease packages and containers are promoted to official releases on download.ceph.com and quay.io.

Hotfix Release Process Deviation

A hotfix release has a couple differences.

  1. Check out the most recent tag. For example, if we’re releasing a hotfix on top of 19.2.1, git checkout -f -B squid-release tags/v19.2.1.

  2. git cherry-pick -x the necessary hotfix commits (Note: only “cherry-pick” must be used).

  3. git push -f origin squid-release.

  4. Verify the commits in the $release-release branch:

    1. To check against the previous point release (if we are making 19.2.2, this would be 19.2.1), run git log --pretty=oneline --no-merges tags/v19.2.1..origin/squid-release. Verify that the commits produced are exactly what we want in the next point release.

    2. To check against the RC in the “ceph-ci” repo (ceph-ci in this example), run git log --pretty=oneline --no-merges origin/squid-release...ceph-ci/squid-release. There should be no output produced if the $release-release branch in the ceph repo is identical to the RC in ceph-ci. Note the use of git triple dot notation, which shows any commit discrepencies between both references.

  5. Notify the “Build Lead” to start the build.

  6. The “Build Lead” should set RELEASE_TYPE=HOTFIX instead of STABLE.

Security Release Process Deviation

A security/CVE release is similar to a hotfix release with two differences:

  1. The fix should be pushed to the ceph-private repo instead of ceph.git (requires GitHub Admin Role).

  2. The tags (e.g., v19.2.3) must be manually pushed to ceph.git by the “Build Lead.”

  1. Check out the most recent tag. For example, if we’re releasing a security fix on top of 19.2.2, git checkout -f -B squid-release origin/v19.2.2

  2. git cherry-pick -x the necessary security fix commits

  3. git remote add security git@github.com:ceph/ceph-private.git

  4. git push -f security squid-release

  5. Notify the “Build Lead” to start the build.

  6. The “Build Lead” should set RELEASE_TYPE=SECURITY instead of STABLE.

  7. Finally, the ceph-tag steps need to be manually run by the “Build Lead” as close to the Announcement time as possible:

    # Example using squid pretending 19.2.3 is the security release version
# Add the ceph-releases repo (also requires GitHub Admin Role). The `ceph-setup <https://jenkins.ceph.com/job/ceph-setup>`_ job will have already created and pushed the tag to ceph-releases.git.
git remote add releases git@github.com:ceph/ceph-releases.git
git fetch --all
# Check out the version commit
git checkout -f -B squid-release releases/squid-release
git push -f origin squid-release
git push origin v19.2.3
# Now create a Pull Request of squid-release targeting squid to merge the version commit and security fixes back into the squid branch

1. Preparing the release branch

Once QE has determined a stopping point in the working (e.g., squid) branch, that commit should be pushed to the corresponding squid-release branch.

Notify the “Build Lead” that the release branch is ready.

2. Starting the build

We’ll use a stable/regular 19.2.2 release of Squid as an example throughout this document.

  1. Browse to https://jenkins.ceph.com/view/all/job/ceph/build?delay=0sec

  2. Log in with GitHub OAuth

  3. Set the parameters as necessary:

    BRANCH=squid
TAG=checked
VERSION=19.2.2
RELEASE_TYPE=STABLE
ARCHS=x86_64 arm64

NOTE: if for some reason the build has to be restarted (for example if one distro failed) then the TAG option has to be unchecked.

  1. Use https://docs.ceph.com/en/latest/start/os-recommendations/?highlight=debian#platforms to determine the DISTROS parameter. For example,

    Release

    Distro Codemap

    pacific (16.X.X)

    focal bionic buster bullseye

    quincy (17.X.X)

    jammy focal centos9 bullseye

    reef (18.X.X)

    jammy focal centos9 windows bookworm

    squid (19.X.X)

    jammy centos9 windows bookworm

  2. Click Build.

3. Release Notes

Packages take hours to build. Use those hours to create the Release Notes and Announcements:

  1. ceph.git Release Notes (e.g., v19.2.2’s ceph.git (docs.ceph.com) PR)

  2. ceph.io Release Notes (e.g., v19.2.2’s ceph.io.git (www.ceph.io) PR)

  3. E-mail announcement

See the Ceph Tracker wiki page that explains how to write the release notes.

4. Signing and Publishing the Build

  1. Obtain the sha1 of the version commit from the build job or the sha1 file created by the ceph-setup job.

  2. Download the packages from chacra.ceph.com to the signing virtual machine. These packages get downloaded to /opt/repos where the Sepia Lab Long Running (Ceph) Cluster is mounted. Note: this step will also run a command to transfer the source tarballs from chacra.ceph.com to download.ceph.com directly, by ssh’ing to download.ceph.com and running /home/signer/bin/get-tarballs.sh.

    ssh ubuntu@signer.front.sepia.ceph.com
sync-pull ceph [pacific|quincy|etc] <sha1>

    Example:

    $ sync-pull ceph squid 0eceb0defba60152a8182f7bd87d164b639885b8
sync for: ceph squid
********************************************
+ : 0eceb0defba60152a8182f7bd87d164b639885b8
+ project=ceph
+ release=squid
+ sha1=0eceb0defba60152a8182f7bd87d164b639885b8
+ echo 'sync for: ceph squid'
sync for: ceph squid
+ echo '********************************************'
********************************************
+ [[ ceph == \c\e\p\h ]]
+ current_highest_count=0
+ for combo in debian/bookworm debian/bullseye ubuntu/bionic ubuntu/focal ubuntu/jammy
++ wc -l
++ curl -fs https://chacra.ceph.com/r/ceph/squid/0eceb0defba60152a8182f7bd87d164b639885b8/debian/bookworm/flavors/default/pool/main/c/ceph/
+ combo_count=161
+ [[ 0 -eq 22 ]]
+ '[' 161 -gt 0 ']'
+ current_highest_count=161
+ highest_combo=debian/bookworm

etc...

  3. Sign the DEBs:

    merfi gpg /opt/repos/ceph/squid-19.2.2/debian/

    Example:

    --> Starting path collection, looking for files to sign
--> 1 repos found
--> signing: /opt/repos/ceph/squid-19.2.2/debian/jessie/dists/bookworm/Release
--> Running command: gpg --batch --yes --armor --detach-sig --output Release.gpg Release
--> Running command: gpg --batch --yes --clearsign --output InRelease Release
--> signing: /opt/repos/ceph/squid-19.2.2/debian/jessie/dists/jammy/Release
--> Running command: gpg --batch --yes --armor --detach-sig --output Release.gpg Release
--> Running command: gpg --batch --yes --clearsign --output InRelease Release

etc...

  4. Sign the RPMs:

    sign-rpms ceph squid

    Example:

    $ sign-rpms ceph squid

+ [[ 2 -lt 1 ]]
+ project=ceph
+ shift
+ '[' 1 -eq 0 ']'
+ releases=("$@")
+ distros=(centos rhel)
+ distro_versions=(7 8 9)
+ read -s -p 'Key Passphrase: ' GPG_PASSPHRASE
Key Passphrase: + echo

+ for release in "${releases[@]}"
+ for distro in "${distros[@]}"
+ for distro_version in "${distro_versions[@]}"
+ for path in /opt/repos/$project/$release*
+ '[' -d /opt/repos/ceph/squid-19.1.0/centos/7 ']'
...
+ echo 'Checking packages in: /opt/repos/ceph/squid-19.1.0/centos/9'
Checking packages in: /opt/repos/ceph/squid-19.1.0/centos/9
+ update_repo=0
+ cd /opt/repos/ceph/squid-19.1.0/centos/9
++ find -name '*.rpm'
+ for rpm in `find -name "*.rpm"`
++ grep '^Signature'

etc...

  5. Publish the packages to download.ceph.com:

    sync-push ceph squid-19.2.2 2

This leaves the packages, and the tarball, in a password-protected prerelease area at https://download.ceph.com/prerelease/ceph. Verify them from there. When done and ready for release, log into download.ceph.com and mv the directories and the tarballs from the prerelease home (/data/download.ceph.com/www/prerelease/ceph) to the release directory (/data/download.ceph.com/www).

5. Build Containers

Unlike CI builds, which have access to packages in the correct form for the container, release builds do not, because the build does not sign the packages. Thus, release builds do not build the containers. This must be done after 4. Signing and Publishing the Build.

A Jenkins job named ceph-release-containers exists so that we can test the images before release. The job exists both for convenience and because it requires access to both x86_64 and arm64 builders. Start the job as Build with Parameters on the Jenkins server, set BRANCH, SHA1 and VERSION fields and leave other fields as defaults. This job:

  • builds the architecture-specific container imagess and pushes them to quay.ceph.io/ceph/prerelease-amd64 and quay.ceph.io/ceph/prerelease-arm64

  • fuses the architecture-specific images together into a “manifest-list” or “fat” container image and pushes it to quay.ceph.io/ceph/prerelease

Finally, when all appropriate testing and verification is done on the container images, run make-manifest-list.py --promote from the Ceph source tree (at container/make-manifest-list.py) to promote them to their final release location on quay.io/ceph/ceph (you must ensure that you’re logged into quay.io/ceph and quay.ceph.io/ceph with appropriate permissions):

cd <ceph-checkout>/src/container
./make-manifest-list.py --promote

The --promote step should be performed only as the final step in releasing containers, after the container images have been tested and have been confirmed to be good.

6. Announce the Release

Version Commit PR

The ceph-tag Jenkins job creates a Pull Request in ceph.git that targets the release branch.

If this was a regular release (not a hotfix release or a security release), the only commit in that Pull Request should be the version commit. For example, see v15.2.17’s version commit PR.

Request a review and then merge the Pull Request.

Announcing

Publish the Release Notes on ceph.io before announcing the release by email, because the e-mail announcement references the ceph.io blog post.

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