Release v0.9

[lionelvillard]

• Introduction
• Prerequisites
• Release Process
• Announce the Release
• Final Steps

Introduction

This document defines the process for releasing llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler.

Prerequisites

1. Permissions to push to the llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler repository.

2. Choose whether you are releasing a release candidate or an official release, and set the environment variables accordingly:

   • For a Release Candidate (e.g. v0.9.0-rc.1):

     export VERSION=v0.9.0-rc.1
     export BRANCH_VERSION=0.9
     export REMOTE=upstream

   • For an Official Release (e.g. v0.9.0):

     export VERSION=v0.9.0
     export BRANCH_VERSION=0.9
     export REMOTE=upstream
     export FORK_REMOTE=origin

3. If needed, clone the llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler repo.

   git clone -o ${REMOTE} git@github.com:llm-d/llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler.git

Release Process

Before Creating the Release Branch

1. If you already have the repo cloned, ensure it's up-to-date and your local branch is clean.

2. Create a new branch from the main branch and name it pre-release-${BRANCH_VERSION} (e.g., pre-release-0.9):

3. Pin the following dependencies:

   • Set newTag to ${VERSION} in config/base/manager/kustomization.yaml for the manager image.

4. Commit and push the changes:

   git add config/base/manager/kustomization.yaml
   git commit -m "Prepare for release ${VERSION}" -s -S
   git push ${REMOTE} pre-release-${BRANCH_VERSION}

Create or Checkout branch

1. Release Branch Handling:

   • For a Release Candidate:
     Create a new release branch from the main branch. The branch should be named release-${BRANCH_VERSION}, for example, release-0.9:

     git checkout -b release-${BRANCH_VERSION}

   • For a Major, Minor or Patch Release:
     A release branch should already exist. In this case, check out the existing branch:

     git checkout release-${BRANCH_VERSION} ${REMOTE}/release-${BRANCH_VERSION}

2. Push your release branch to the llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler remote.

   git push ${REMOTE} release-${BRANCH_VERSION}

Tag commit and trigger image build

1. Tag the head of your release branch with the version:

   git tag -s -a ${VERSION} -m "llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler ${VERSION} Release"

2. Push the tag to the llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler repo:

   git push ${REMOTE} ${VERSION}

3. Pushing the tag triggers CI action to build and publish the llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler image (ghcr.io/llm-d/llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler) to the ghcr registry.

4. Verify the CI release workflow completed successfully before proceeding.

5. Test the steps in the tagged quickstart guide after the PR merges.

Create the release!

1. Create a new release:

   1. Choose the tag that you created for the release.

   2. Use the tag as the release title ${VERSION}

   3. Click "Generate release notes" to auto-populate the list of PRs and contributors.

   4. Summarize the release notes using an LLM of your choice (e.g., Gemini, Copilot, ChatGPT) with the following prompt:

      Please summarize these release notes into three clear sections:
      1. Highlights (key features, performance wins, bug fixes)
      2. Upgrade Steps & Deprecations (configuration changes, deprecated flags/metrics)
      3. Known Issues (if any, otherwise omit)
      Provide results in markdown format, with each section clearly labeled and bulleted where appropriate.
      

      Review the generated content, edit it if necessary to ensure accuracy, and then copy and prepend this summary at the very top of the release description box on GitHub.

   5. If this is a release candidate, select the "This is a pre-release" checkbox.

2. If you find any bugs in this process, create an issue.

After the Release

Update the autoscaling guides to reference the new release version.

1. Clone the llm-d repo if you haven't already, ensure it's up-to-date and your local branch is clean.

2. Create a new branch in your fork from the main branch and name it update-autoscaling-guides-${BRANCH_VERSION} (e.g., update-autoscaling-guides-0.9):

   git checkout -b update-autoscaling-guides-${BRANCH_VERSION}

3. Update the version references in the following files:

   • https://github.com/llm-d/llm-d/blob/main/guides/workload-autoscaling/wva-config/platform/k8s/kustomization.yaml
   • https://github.com/llm-d/llm-d/blob/main/guides/workload-autoscaling/wva-config/platform/ocp/kustomization.yaml

4. Commit and push the changes to your fork:

   git add .
   git commit -m "Update autoscaling guides for release ${VERSION}" -s -S
   git push ${FORK_REMOTE} update-autoscaling-guides-${BRANCH_VERSION}

5. Create a pull request from your fork to the main branch of the llm-d repo, and request a review from the llm-d team.

After the llm-d Release

Unpin all dependencies that were pinned for the release in the llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler and llm-d repos, and update the release tracking issue with the final release link.

Announce the Release

Use the following steps to announce the release.

1. Generate the announcement email content by running the following block in your terminal (make sure ${VERSION} is set in your current shell):

   cat <<EOF
   Subject: [ANNOUNCE] llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler ${VERSION} is released
   
   Hi all,
   
   We are pleased to announce the release of llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler ${VERSION}!
   
   ### Container Images
   * WVA controller: ghcr.io/llm-d/llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler:${VERSION}
   
      ### Release Notes
   For more details, please see the GitHub release notes: https://github.com/llm-d/llm-d-workload-variant-autoscaler/releases/tag/${VERSION}
   EOF

2. Copy the generated subject and body, and send an email to llm-d-contributors@googlegroups.com.

3. Add a link to the final release in this issue.

4. Close this issue.