Hi everyone, Traditionally, we have done a major named "stable" release twice a year, and every other such release has been an "LTS" release, with fixes backported for 1-2 years.
With kraken and luminous we missed our schedule by a lot: instead of releasing in October and April we released in January and August. A few observations: - Not a lot of people seem to run the "odd" releases (e.g., infernalis, kraken). This limits the value of actually making them. It also means that those who *do* run them are running riskier code (fewer users -> more bugs). - The more recent requirement that upgrading clusters must make a stop at each LTS (e.g., hammer -> luminous not supported, must go hammer -> jewel -> lumninous) has been hugely helpful on the development side by reducing the amount of cross-version compatibility code to maintain and reducing the number of upgrade combinations to test. - When we try to do a time-based "train" release cadence, there always seems to be some "must-have" thing that delays the release a bit. This doesn't happen as much with the odd releases, but it definitely happens with the LTS releases. When the next LTS is a year away, it is hard to suck it up and wait that long. A couple of options: * Keep even/odd pattern, and continue being flexible with release dates + flexible - unpredictable - odd releases of dubious value * Keep even/odd pattern, but force a 'train' model with a more regular cadence + predictable schedule - some features will miss the target and be delayed a year * Drop the odd releases but change nothing else (i.e., 12-month release cadence) + eliminate the confusing odd releases with dubious value * Drop the odd releases, and aim for a ~9 month cadence. This splits the difference between the current even/odd pattern we've been doing. + eliminate the confusing odd releases with dubious value + waiting for the next release isn't quite as bad - required upgrades every 9 months instead of ever 12 months * Drop the odd releases, but relax the "must upgrade through every LTS" to allow upgrades across 2 versions (e.g., luminous -> mimic or luminous -> nautilus). Shorten release cycle (~6-9 months). + more flexibility for users + downstreams have greater choice in adopting an upstrema release - more LTS branches to maintain - more upgrade paths to consider Other options we should consider? Other thoughts? Thanks! sage _______________________________________________ ceph-users mailing list ceph-users@lists.ceph.com http://lists.ceph.com/listinfo.cgi/ceph-users-ceph.com
