Tasks for v1.12 release cycle

[sbueringer]

Please see the corresponding sections in release-tasks.md for documentation of individual tasks.

Tasks

Early in the cycle:

• [x] Prepare main branch for development of the new release: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/pull/3159
• [x] Remove previously deprecated code

Release-specific tasks:

• [ ] https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/issues/3022
• TODO

After the Kubernetes minor release:

• [ ] Bump the Kubernetes version
  • [ ] Publish new OVA images
  • Build new OVA images via image-builder
  • Make them available in the CI environment
  • Publish them via a GitHub release (e.g. templates/v1.30.0)
  • Update README.md accordingly
  • [ ] Bump e2e tests
  • Add the new image to internal/test/helpers/vcsim/model.go
  • Bump template env variables in test/e2e/config/vsphere.yaml and test/e2e/config/config-overrides-example.yaml
    • Also bump KUBERNETES_VERSION_*
    • Also bump KUBERNETES_VERSION_LATEST_CI to the next minor version
    • Also bump CPI_IMAGE_K8S_VERSION
    • Regenerate packaging/flavorgen/cloudprovider/cpi/cpi.yaml by checking out the release tag of https://github.com/kubernetes/cloud-provider-vsphere and running helm template charts/vsphere-cpi
  • Bump in:
    • test/e2e/data/infrastructure-vsphere-govmomi/main/clusterclass/patch-vsphere-template.yaml
    • test/e2e/data/infrastructure-vsphere-supervisor/main/clusterclass/patch-vsphere-template.yaml
  • [ ] Update ProwJob configuration accordingly

Late in the cycle:

• [x] Bump dependencies
• [ ] Create the new release branch
• [ ] [opt] Cut beta/rc releases
  • [x] https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/pull/3249
  • [x] https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/pull/3259
• [ ] Cut the minor release

Continuously:

• Reduce the amount of flaky tests

Probably for the next cycle:

• [ ] https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-vsphere/issues/3221

[sbueringer]

Checked for deprecations, nothing to do for this cycle

[sbueringer]

@chrischdi @fabriziopandini Release note highlight draft as of today (19th November):

## Highlights

- Tested with Kubernetes v1.32 & cloud-provider-vsphere v1.32
- Based on Cluster API v1.9
- Bumped to controller-runtime v0.19, k8s.io/* v0.31, controller-gen v0.16
- Bumped to Ubuntu 24.04 images (#3156) (backported to v1.11.1)

supervisor mode:
- Implement support for autoscale to/from zero (#3161) (backported to v1.11.1)

govmomi mode:
- Add field to VSphereCluster to allow explicitly disabling cluster modules (#3224)
- Support vCenter 9 (#3225) (backported to v1.11.2)
- Proper ignore IPv6 announcements when IPv6 is not requested (#3246) 
- Allow using moid (#3229)
- Add NetworkConfigurations to VSphereFailureDomain (#3049)