TSC Meeting (13 Jul 2021): v3.5 Released 🎉, v3.6 Roadmap Planning, Maintenance

[arm4b]

NOTE! Due to US holiday, TSC requested to move the meeting. New date is 13th July instead of 6th.

July 2021 @StackStorm/tsc 1 hour meeting will take place on Tuesday, 13th July 2021, 09:30 AM US Pacific. See #33 for more info about how to join.

Meeting Agenda

• News/Announcements (3min)
• StackStorm v3.5.0 was released 🎉 (10min)
  • Release Manager @amanda11, Release Assistant: @winem
  • Feedback, Retrospective from the team?
  • what went well
  • what didn't?
  • Post-release: update st2cicd to the latest dev version?
• StackStorm v3.6.0 Roadmap planning (25min)
  • Target date: (3mo)?
  • Release Manager: @winem (based on release rotation).
  • Release Assistant: WHO @StackStorm/maintainers?
  • What was @StackStorm/maintainers and Partners impact in v3.5.0?
  • What are @StackStorm/maintainers and Partners plans for v3.6.0?
  • Roadmap WIP
  • ChatOps
  • short-term: Node 14 -> 16 update ?
  • long-term: Python ChatOps discussion?
• StackStorm Partners Program was shipped 🎉 (5min)
  • Coordinator: @mickmcgrath13
  • https://stackstorm.com/
  • https://stackstorm.com/partners/
  • https://stackstorm.com/partners-program/
• StackStorm Infra & Expenses (10min)
  • AWS account expenses, FOSS credits (@punkrokk)
  • PackageCloud.io paid plan (#74)
  • Infra/Maintenance: stackstorm.com website migration to static pages #76
  • Infra/Maintenance: Forum -> Github Discussions migration #75
• Any other random Questions and Discussions (5min)
  • Officially relaxing our governance requirements document (@blag)

[arm4b]

FYI due to US holiday, TSC requested to move the meeting. New date is 13th July.

@StackStorm/tsc @StackStorm/contributors

[arm4b]

Participants

Host: @armab Attendees: @blag @amanda11 @winem @punkrokk @cognifloyd + :bust_in_silhouette: 1 community

Meeting Minutes

Project Updates

• Congratulations @arms11 for becoming one of the st2 @StackStorm/contributors https://github.com/StackStorm/st2/pull/5288
• Thanks @cognifloyd from @StackStorm/contributors for shipping 15+ PRs to st2 K8s Helm chart
  • opportunity to promote K8s chart beta -> stable later: https://github.com/stackStorm/stackstorm-ha
• Encore is helping around the Puppet-st2 maintenance
• We applied to Docker Open Source program and they whitelisted https://hub.docker.com/r/stackstorm/ org. No rate limiting for users downloading st2 images whatsoever.

StackStorm v3.5.0 release

• StackStorm v3.5.0 is out :tada: !
• Thanks @amanda11 and @winem for their hard work leading it!
• Feedback:
  • low participation from @stackstorm/tsc in the pre-release testing

Random Discussion: Release Cadence

• How to make releases easier and faster?
  • how about weekly/on-demand releases when needed?
• Note: 1 yr old first community release feedback to do faster release cadence: https://github.com/StackStorm/discussions/issues/20
• Note: Sept 2020 we moved to lower 3mo release cadence: https://github.com/StackStorm/discussions/issues/50
• Problem: Hard to find release manager/coordinator, releases are too time-consuming, a major effort
• Observation: Historically being a company-supported product, StackStorm still has a lot of Q/A processes that require full-time effort and maintenance
  • it shouldn't be that hard for OSS community to manage it
  • reduce the quality bar, ship faster?
• Minimize Release complexity, Change the approach?
  • simplify st2cicd workfows and number of moving pieces?
  • rely more on python packaging solutions?
  • ditch the deb/rpm packages? Let the users build st2 from sources or maybe partners to provide packaging solutions?
  • remove the manual Q/A pre-release testing process?
  • remove st2cicd, rely on CircleCI only?
  • remove environments and package promotion complexity: staging, unstable, staging-unstable, staging-stable?
• @punkrokk will provide a Github Discussion with the hot topic for others to get involved & gather feedback and proposals

Random Discussion: It's hard to setup st2 Development environment to contribute a first PR

• Provide a Vagrantfile in stackstorm/st2? https://github.com/StackStorm/st2vagrant/
• Provide a docker-compose file in stackstorm/st2? https://github.com/stackStorm/st2-docker

StackStorm v3.6.0 release planning - moved to August TSC Meeting

• Release manager: @winem. Release assistant: WHO from @StackStorm/tsc?
• Maintenance release? Just ship what was merged before the release date?
• When? (+3 mo or different?)
• Due to low TSC presence, release planning moved to the next August TSC Meeting

StackStorm Partners Program

• StackStorm Partners Program was officially shipped https://stackstorm.com/partners/ :tada:
  • Thanks @mickmcgrath13 for brilliantly leading it :+1:
  • @armab to follow-up on announcing it to ST2 OSS Community.

Project Expenses - re-iterate at August TSC Meeting

AWS

• We burned all the CommunityBridge donated $ due to the most recent 2 x $600+ bills
  • FOSS program 2-month lag, AWS being slow on renewing FOSS credits
• https://crowdfunding.lfx.linuxfoundation.org/projects/aec7b5bf-bb7a-4385-9820-eaef4e92bcfa (numbers are not updated yet, but it's close to 0).
• @punkrokk reports AWS promised to apply the AWS credits last week
• AWS confirmed: 2021 is the last year of FOSS credits
  • @punkrokk suggested to further minimize the AWS costs where possible
• Biggest $ back hole: Running full st2 e2e tests on 4 platforms by spinning fresh VM instances: U16/U18, EL7/EL8
• Team agreed to switch from nightly to weekly CI/CD e2e builds & tests (Done :heavy_check_mark: by @amanda11: https://github.com/StackStorm/st2cd/pull/466)
• @punkrokk will provide a PR to run builds on AWS spot instances instead of using EC2 on-demand (repo: https://github.com/StackStorm/st2ci/)

  PackageCloud

• Hidden complexity of moving to other deb/rpm provider: rework st2cicd workflows, create new st2 integration pack, releases, st2cicd, update users with the new URL
• With no $ on CommunityBridge and with the new official st2 Partners Program, reiterate with PackageCloud on FOSS program (we pay ~$120/mo)
• Last 14 month of PackageCloud BW usage was below the FOSS limits (Screenshot)
• TODO: Clean up unused deb/rpm packages (Screenshot)

  forum.stackstorm.com migration to GH Discussions - moved to August TSC Meeting

  stackstorm.com migration to GH static pages - moved to August TSC Meeting

  Relaxing ST2 Governance for Maintainers - moved to August TSC Meeting

• Problem: The requirements to join the TSC and become a StackStorm Maintainer are too high
• https://github.com/StackStorm/st2/blob/master/GOVERNANCE.md#how-to-become-a-maintainer
• Due to low TSC quorum, discussed has been moved to August TSC Meeting

Actionable Items:

• [ ] StackStorm Partners Program: @armab will work on announcing it to st2 OSS Community
• [x] Faster StackStorm Releases: @punkrokk will provide a focused Github Discussion with the topic for others to provide feedback and get involved
• [x] ~Reduce AWS $: @amanda11 to switch from nightly to weekly CI/CD builds~ (Done :heavy_check_mark:: https://github.com/StackStorm/st2cd/pull/466)
• [ ] Reduce AWS $: @punkrokk will provide a PR to run builds on AWS spot instances instead of on-demand (repo: https://github.com/StackStorm/st2ci/)
• [ ] PackageCloud: Clean up unused deb/rpm packages. WHO @StackStorm/tsc ?