Update the release process documentation

Author: kishen-v

RELEASE.md

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 The Kubernetes cluster-api-provider-ibmcloud is released on an as-needed basis. The process is as follows:
 
 1. An issue is proposing a new release with a changelog since the last release
-1. All [OWNERS](OWNERS) must LGTM this release
-1. An OWNER runs `git tag -s $VERSION` and inserts the changelog and pushes the tag with `git push $VERSION`
-1. The release issue is closed
-1. An announcement email is sent to `[email protected]` with the subject `[ANNOUNCE] cluster-api-provider-ibmcloud $VERSION is released`
+2. All [OWNERS](OWNERS) must LGTM this release
+3. An OWNER runs `git tag -s $VERSION` and inserts the changelog and pushes the tag with `git push $VERSION`
+4. The release issue is closed
+5. An announcement email is sent to `[email protected]` with the subject `[ANNOUNCE] cluster-api-provider-ibmcloud $VERSION is released`

docs/book/src/developer/release.md

@@ -25,30 +25,35 @@
 > Note: In the above instructions, `v0.2.0-alpha.3` is the version/tag is being released
 
 ## GA Releases
-- Create a tag and push
+- Review if all issues linked to the release version are either completed or moved to the "Next" release.
+- Create a release branch from main.
+- Clone the repository and create a tag (release tag) and push to origin. Ensure that the GPG keys are set.
     ```shell
     git clone [email protected]:kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-ibmcloud.git
     git tag -s -m "v0.1.0" v0.1.0
     git push origin v0.1.0
     ```
-- Wait for the google cloud build to be finished
-- [Prepare release notes](#prepare-release-notes)
-- Create a draft release with release notes for the tag
-- Perform the [image promotion process](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io/tree/main/k8s.gcr.io#image-promoter):
+- Wait for the Google Cloudbuild to finish, which is triggered once the tag is created.
+  - The status of the build jobs can be tracked from : https://prow.k8s.io/?job=post-cluster-api-provider-ibmcloud-push-images
+  - The built images are available here: https://console.cloud.google.com/gcr/images/k8s-staging-capi-ibmcloud/
+- Create a draft release with release notes for the created tag.
+  - Use the `make release-notes` target to generate release notes. (Refer topic - [Prepare release notes](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-ibmcloud/blob/main/docs/book/src/developer/release.md#prepare-release-notes))
+  - Update the controller image version towards the bottom of the release document.
+- Perform the [image promotion process](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io/tree/main/registry.k8s.io#image-promoter):
   - Clone and pull down the latest from [kubernetes/k8s.io](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io)
   - Create a new branch in your fork of `kubernetes/k8s.io`. 
   - The staging repository is [here](https://console.cloud.google.com/gcr/images/k8s-staging-capi-ibmcloud/GLOBAL).
   - Once image is present in the above staging repository, find the sha256 tag for the image by following instructions
   ```shell
-  $ manifest-tool inspect --raw gcr.io/k8s-staging-capi-ibmcloud/cluster-api-ibmcloud-controller:v0.1.0 | jq '.[0].Digest'
+  $ manifest-tool inspect --raw gcr.io/k8s-staging-capi-ibmcloud/cluster-api-ibmcloud-controller:v0.1.0 | jq '.digest'
   "sha256:6c92a6a337ca5152eda855ac27c9e4ca1f30bba0aa4de5c3a0b937270ead4363"
   ```
   - In your `kubernetes/k8s.io` branch edit `k8s.gcr.io/images/k8s-staging-capi-ibmcloud/images.yaml` and add an entry for the version using the sha256 value got from the above command. For example: `"sha256:6c92a6a337ca5152eda855ac27c9e4ca1f30bba0aa4de5c3a0b937270ead4363": ["v0.1.0"]`
-  - You can use [this PR](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io/pull/3185) as example 
-  - Wait for the PR to be approved and merged
-  - Run `make release` command
-  - Copy the content from `out` directory to release asset 
-  - Publish the drafted release
+  - You can use [this PR]( https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io/pull/7780) as example.
+  - Wait for the PR to be approved and merged.
+  - This should trigger a build job to build artifacts through cloud-build / run `make release` on the release branch.
+  - Upload the binaries/files that are uploaded to Google Cloud Storage / built locally and publish the drafted release.
+  - Create an alpha tag for the `release-version+1` for allowing subsequent commits.
 
 > Note: In the above instructions, `v0.1.0` is the version/tag is being released