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., quincy-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 download.ceph.com.

  8. Release containers are built and pushed to 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 17.2.3, git checkout -f -B quincy-release origin/v17.2.3

  2. git cherry-pick -x the necessary hotfix commits

  3. git push -f origin quincy-release

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

  5. 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., v17.2.4) 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 17.2.3, git checkout -f -B quincy-release origin/v17.2.3

  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 quincy-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 quincy pretending 17.2.4 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 quincy-release releases/quincy-release
git push -f origin quincy-release
git push origin v17.2.4
# Now create a Pull Request of quincy-release targeting quincy to merge the version commit and security fixes back into the quincy branch

1. Preparing the release branch

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

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

2. Starting the build

We’ll use a stable/regular 15.2.17 release of Octopus 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=octopus
TAG=checked
VERSION=15.2.17
RELEASE_TYPE=STABLE
ARCHS=x86_64 arm64

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

    Release

    Distro Codemap

    octopus (15.X.X)

    focal bionic centos7 centos8 buster

    pacific (16.X.X)

    focal bionic buster bullseye

    quincy (17.X.X)

    jammy focal centos9 bullseye

  5. 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., v15.2.17’s ceph.git (docs.ceph.com) PR)

  2. ceph.io Release Notes (e.g., v15.2.17’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.

#. 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 octopus 8a82819d84cf884bd39c17e3236e0632ac146dc4
sync for: ceph octopus
********************************************
Found the most packages (332) in ubuntu/bionic.
No JSON object could be decoded
No JSON object could be decoded
ubuntu@chacra.ceph.com:/opt/repos/ceph/octopus/8a82819d84cf884bd39c17e3236e0632ac146dc4/ubuntu/bionic/flavors/default/* /opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/debian/jessie/
--------------------------------------------
receiving incremental file list
db/
 db/checksums.db
        180.22K 100%    2.23MB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#1, to-chk=463/467)
db/contents.cache.db
        507.90K 100%    1.95MB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#2, to-chk=462/467)
db/packages.db

etc...

  1. Sign the DEBs:

    merfi gpg /opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/debian

    Example:

    $ merfi gpg /opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/debian
--> Starting path collection, looking for files to sign
--> 18 matching paths found
--> will sign with the following commands:
--> gpg --batch --yes --armor --detach-sig --output Release.gpg Release
--> gpg --batch --yes --clearsign --output InRelease Release
--> signing: /opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/debian/jessie/dists/bionic/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/octopus-15.2.17/debian/jessie/dists/focal/Release
--> Running command: gpg --batch --yes --armor --detach-sig --output Release.gpg Release
--> Running command: gpg --batch --yes --clearsign --output InRelease Release

etc...

  2. Sign the RPMs:

    sign-rpms ceph octopus

    Example:

    $ sign-rpms ceph octopus
Checking packages in: /opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/centos/7
signing:  /opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/centos/7/SRPMS/ceph-release-1-1.el7.src.rpm
/opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/centos/7/SRPMS/ceph-release-1-1.el7.src.rpm:
signing:  /opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/centos/7/SRPMS/ceph-15.2.17-0.el7.src.rpm
/opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/centos/7/SRPMS/ceph-15.2.17-0.el7.src.rpm:
signing:  /opt/repos/ceph/octopus-15.2.17/centos/7/noarch/ceph-mgr-modules-core-15.2.17-0.el7.noarch.rpm

etc...

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

    sync-push ceph octopus

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

Architecture-specific containers are built during the ceph build and pushed to quay.ceph.io/ceph/prerelease-{amd64,arm64}, containing the packages built in that ceph build. The prerelease ‘fat’ container, or manifest-list container, that refers to both arch-specific containers, is built by hand using the command “make-manifest-list.py” in ceph.git:src/container/make-manifest-list.py. Note that you must be logged into the appropriate container repos for any of these manipulations: quay.ceph.io for fetching prerelease arch-specific containers and pushing the prerelease manifest-list container, and quay.io for promoting the prerelease containers to released containers.

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

Reasonable defaults are set for all inputs, but environment variables can be used to override:

  • ARCH_SPECIFIC_HOST (default ‘quay.ceph.io’): host of prerelease repos

  • AMD64_REPO (default ‘ceph/prerelease-amd64’) prerelease amd64 repo

  • ARM64_REPO (default ‘ceph/prerelease-arm64’) prerelease arm64 repo

(prerelease arch-specific containers will be copied from here)

  • MANIFEST_HOST (default ‘quay.ceph.io’) prerelease manifest-list host

  • MANIFEST_REPO (default ‘ceph/prerelease’) prerelease manifest-list repo

(prerelease manifest-list containers will be placed here)

Finally, when all appropriate testing/ verification is done on the container images, you can use make-manifest-list.py to promote them to their final release location on quay.io/ceph/ceph:

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

Two more environment variables can override the default destination for promotion (the source of the prerelease container to be promoted is as above, in MANIFEST_HOST/REPO):

  • RELEASE_MANIFEST_HOST (default ‘quay.io’) release host

  • RELEASE_MANIFEST_REPO (default ‘ceph/ceph’) release repo

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.