This issue aims to track all steps needed to prepare the release 1.3 branches/builds.

Please add all steps taken here so we can document for future releases

• (Optional) Update go dependencies. This must be done before branching so that PRs can be easily backported later. go get ... && go get ... && go mod tidy (then on istio/istio only: go mod vendor)
  • istio/istio
  • istio/pkg
  • istio/api
  • istio/cni
  • istio/operator
  • istio/tests
  • istio/client-go
• Create a release-1.3 branch in every Istio repo - run commands export org=xyz ; export repo=xyz ; (git clone git@github.com:${org}/${repo}.git && cd $repo && git checkout -b release-1.3 && git push --set-upstream origin release-1.3). (owner: @rlenglet)
  • istio/istio
  • istio/pkg
  • istio/api
  • istio/cni
  • istio/proxy
  • istio/envoy (branch from envoyproxy/envoy-wasm:master not from istio/envoy:master, cf. @PiotrSikora)
  • istio/operator
  • istio/installer
  • istio-releases/pipeline
  • istio/tests - not needed for 1.3 since this is a new repo
  • istio/client-go - not needed for 1.3 since this is a new repo
• Commit a PR into every release-1.3 branch (except istio-releases/pipeline) to modify every CODEOWNERS to contain only the release managers for this release. (owner: @rlenglet) Command: export org=xyz ; export repo=xyz ; (git clone git@github.com:${org}/${repo}.git && cd $repo && git checkout release-1.3 && git checkout -b release-1.3-codeowners && echo '* @istio/release-managers-1-3' > CODEOWNERS && git add CODEOWNERS && git commit -m 'Set release managers as CODEOWNERS for release-1.3' && git push --set-upstream origin release-1.3-codeowners). Those PRs need to be force-merged using admin privileges.
  • Set release managers as CODEOWNERS for release-1.3 #16246
  • Set release managers as CODEOWNERS for release-1.3 pkg#54
  • Set release managers as CODEOWNERS for release-1.3 api#1035
  • Set release managers as CODEOWNERS for release-1.3 cni#140
  • Set release managers as CODEOWNERS for release-1.3 proxy#2356
  • Set release managers as CODEOWNERS for release-1.3 envoy#89 (has no effect since CODEOWNERS is not enabled in that repo)
  • Set release managers as CODEOWNERS for release-1.3 operator#189
  • Set release managers as CODEOWNERS for release-1.3 installer#324
  • istio/tests - not needed for 1.3 since this is a new repo
  • istio/client-go - not needed for 1.3 since this is a new repo
• Disable Prow's merges-blocked-needs-admin check for the release-1.3 branch. (owner: @howardjohn) Remove merges-blocked-needs-admin from release-1.3 test-infra#1662
• Set up prow on release branches (owner: @howardjohn)
  • istio/istio Add jobs for istio/istio release-1.3 test-infra#1648
  • istio/api Add jobs for istio/api:release-1.3 test-infra#1659
  • istio/pkg - uses same config for master and release - no changes needed. This is ok as long as we don't need to change the prow config (which is unlikely to change)
  • istio/cni Add jobs for istio/cni release-1.3 test-infra#1654
  • istio/proxy Add jobs for istio/proxy release-1.3 test-infra#1653
  • istio/operator Add jobs for istio/operator release-1.3 test-infra#1655
  • istio/installer - not yet on prow
  • istio-releases/pipelines Add jobs for istio-release/pipelines test-infra#1656
  • istio/tests - not needed for 1.3 since this is a new repo
  • istio/client-go - not needed for 1.3 since this is a new repo
• Set up branch protection (owner: @howardjohn) Add release-1.3 branch protection test-infra#1649
• Update all repos that point to master branch of another repo to point to the release branch
  • istio/istio Move to daily release #16479
  • istio/proxy Update Envoy SHA to point to same commit in istio/envoy:release-1.3 proxy#2372
  • istio/installer Use release-1.3 tag for release-1.3 branch installer#345
  • istio/operator Use release-1.3 tag for release-1.3 branch operator#216
  • istio/cni Use release-1.3 tag for release-1.3 branch cni#150 Fix CircleCI branches used in release-1.3 tests cni#176
  • istio/tests - not needed for 1.3 since this is a new repo
  • istio/client-go - not needed for 1.3 since this is a new repo
• Point go.mod to release branches (owner: TBD) go get istio.io/istio/xyz:sha for each dependency (where sha is the hash of the commit at the HEAD of the release-1.3 branch), then go mod vendor. TODO: I think this is not needed -- go modules aren't pointing to a branch unlike dep, so we just need to make sure when we do update it we point to the right release branch.
• Setup daily builds
  • setup periodics that trigger daily builds (owner: @howardjohn) Add periodic job to trigger release-1.3 daily test-infra#1657
  • trigger daily build manually and ensure it works Manual build of release-1.3 istio-releases/pipeline#1027
• Run the long-running tests on the daily builds (owners: @mandarjog, @howardjohn, @JimmyCYJ)
• Send announcement on Discuss (owner: @geeknoid)

Once all this is done, create a first snapshot. #16411