OEP-10: Open edX Releases#
OEP |
|
Title |
Open edX Releases |
Last Modified |
2020-04-26 |
Author |
Ned Batchelder <ned@edx.org> |
Arbiter |
Jeremy Bowman |
Status |
Accepted |
Type |
Process |
Created |
2016-10-14 |
Resolution |
Abstract#
Open edX is packaged occasionally into releases. This document details the process.
Motivation#
Open edX releases happen roughly every six months. This document standardizes aspects of the release process to ensure that all involved understand and participate appropriately.
Specification#
Components#
When talking about software that is part of Open edX, there are a number of components that might be useful to discuss, of various sizes:
Application: this is a user-visible application that provides some useful functionality. Examples are the LMS, Studio, Analytics Insights. These can be composed of a number of different repos and services.
Service (or IDA): this is a program that can be separately installed and started. Often applications will need a number of these working together to provide all functionality. The LMS and Studio applications are implemented by the edxapp service, which also uses the forums service. A service might or might not have a user interface.
Feature: large applications have major features which are configurable, and should be called out explicitly if their support status is different than the application they are a part of.
Library: code that is named as a dependency of another application, service, or library.
Levels of support#
Components in Open edX are either included or supported in a release.
To be included in an Open edX release, a component must meet these criteria.
It must be successfully merged into its repository’s release-from branch. This is typically master, though it can be any branch.
It must be installable in at least one of the supported installation methods.
It must be usable in the installed configuration.
Beyond inclusion, to be supported in an Open edX release, a component must meet further criteria:
It must be documented thoroughly and accurately.
An engineering team either in edX or outside of edX, must agree to be minimally available for answering questions in the public channels.
An engineering team either in edX or outside of edX, must agree to provide fixes if severe problems are identified.
Many of these criteria are open to interpretation, or varying degrees of effort. For example, what does “documented thoroughly” mean? We can’t quantify that. It and other loose criteria are included here because they are important parts of providing a finished quality product, and we don’t want to overlook them.
Dependencies#
Our software is built atop other software layers supported by their creators. It’s important to consider the support windows for those layers when choosing which version to use. An Open edX release is supported by edX until the next release, so for about six months. The supporting layers must be supported by their developers for the entire Open edX release.
Typically this means choosing Long Term Support (LTS) versions of the supporting layers, but it’s possible shorter-term support versions will provide the support needed.
The layers in question here are Django, Python, and Ubuntu. Here’s a calendar of the known support windows and how they overlap with Open edX plans.
Release creation#
A new release line is created roughly every six months. Release lines are named with words in alphabetical order: Dogwood, Eucalyptus, Ficus, Gingko, and so on. On a release line, there will be a handful of releases. The first is called .1 (Eucalyptus.1 for example). Follow-on releases are numbered from there: Eucalyptus.2, Eucalyptus.3, and so on.
After the .1 release, new releases in a line are made only for severe problems such as security problems, data loss, or feature breakage.
A new release line is created by making a “release master” branch in each involved repo. These are named “open-release/RELEASENAME.master”. This branch will be where changes are accumulated to create each release in the line. Releases will be tagged “open-release/RELEASENAME.1”, “open-release/RELEASENAME.2”, and so on.
Involving repos in the Open edX build process#
0004 Release Data in catalog-info.yaml
defines annotations the catalog-info.yaml metadata file that can be used to
indicate that a repo needs to be tagged for releases.
Details can be found in the above ADR but in summary there will be a new catalog
annotation by the name of openedx.org/release that will indicate whether or
not a given repo should be tagged for Open edX releases.
Installing Open edX#
Open edX provides a few supported installation methods, explained below. Currently, none of the supported installation methods are intended for production. Running production servers requires making many choices based on factors such as expected load, budget, and expertise.
Installation methods#
There are two supported installation methods:
Change History#
2023-09-28#
Reference catalog-info.yaml instead of OEP-2 for where we store release metadata.
2022-02-24#
Remove info about older installation methods that are no longer relevant.
2020-04-26#
Added the “maybe” key for “openedx-release”.
2018-08-22#
Installation details adjusted to match current Hawthorn realities.
2016-11-21#
Document created