Release of `v22.0.0-RC1`

[frouioui]

Note

This release is scheduled for Tue 8 Apr 2025.
The release of vitess-operator v2.15.0-RC1 is also planned.
Release team: @vitessio/release

Important

Please do not edit the content of the Issue's body manually.
The vitess-releaser tool is managing and handling this issue.
You can however click on the check boxes to mark them as done/not done, and write comments.

Prerequisites (~2 weeks before)

• General prerequisites.
  • Be part of the Release team in the vitessio GitHub organization, here.
  • Be an admin of the planetscale/vitess-operator repository.
  • Have access to Vitess' Java repository and have it working locally, guide here.
  • Have vitessio/vitess and planetscale/vitess-operator cloned in the same parent directory.
• Notify the community on Slack.
• Make sure the release notes summary is prepared and clean.
• Make sure important Pull Requests are merged, list below.
  • [release-22.0] Release of v22.0.0-RC1 #380
• Make sure release blocker items are closed, list below.

Code Freeze (1 week before)

• Code Freeze.
  • [release-22.0] Code Freeze for v22.0.0-RC1 #378
• Copy branch protection rules.
• Create new labels.
  • https://github.com/frouioui/vitess/labels?q=release-22.0
• Update the SNAPSHOT version on main.
  • Bump to v23.0.0-SNAPSHOT after the v22.0.0-RC1 release #379
• Create new GitHub Milestone.
  • https://github.com/frouioui/vitess/milestone/16
• Create vitess-operator release branch.
• Bump the version vitess-operator main.
  • [main] Bump version.go to 2.15.0 vitess-operator#29
• Update vitess-operator compatibility table.

Pre-Release (~1-3 days before)

• Create Release PR. _{^{(We do this earlier to catch any issues in the tool and let CI run.)}}
  • [release-22.0] Release of v22.0.0-RC1 #380
• Update vitess-operator Golang version.
• Update Cobra Docs.

Release (Tue 8 Apr)

• Merge the Release PR.
  • [release-22.0] Release of v22.0.0-RC1 #380
• Tag the release.
• Java release.
• Create vitess-operator Release PR.
• Update release notes on main.
• Go back to dev mode on the release branch.
• Update the website documentation.
• Make sure the release is benchmarked by arewefastyet.
• Docker Images available on DockerHub.
• Check that release artifacts were generated.
• Merge the vitess-operator Release PR.
• Tag the vitess-operator release.
• Go back to dev mode on vitess-operator.
• Manual update of vitess-operator test code.

Post-Release (Tue 8 Apr)

• Notify the community on Slack for the new release.
• Twitter announcement.
• Remove bypass branch protection rules, if required.
• Close this Issue.