Cut UXP v1.15.0-up.1 release on 29th Feb

[lsviben]

This issue can be closed when we have completed the following steps (in order).
Please ensure all artifacts (PRs, workflow runs, Tweets, etc) are linked from
this issue for posterity. Assuming vX.Y.Z-up.1 is being cut, after upstream
crossplane/crossplane vX.Y.Z has been released
according to the declared schedule, you should have:

• Created, or synced if already present, the release-X.Y release branch in upbound/crossplane, with upstream crossplane/crossplane release branch, up to the vX.Y.Z tag, adding any required change specific to the fork, see here for more details.
• Cut upbound/crossplane vX.Y.Z-up.1 release from the release-X.Y branch by:
  • Running the Tag workflow on the release-X.Y branch with the proper release version, vX.Y.Z-up.1. Message suggested but not required: Release vX.Y.Z-up.1.
  • Running the CI workflow on the release-X.Y branch to build and publish the latest tagged artifacts.
  • You should now be able to run: docker pull xpkg.upbound.io/upbound/crossplane:vX.Y.Z-up.1
• Created and merged a PR to the main branch of upbound/universal-crossplane with the following changes:
  • Update any reference to the old latest release to vX.Y.Z-up.1, such as CROSSPLANE_TAG and CROSSPLANE_COMMIT in the Makefile.
  • Run make generate to import any changes in the upstream Helm chart.
• Created the release-X.Y branch from main branch in UXP.
• Cut UXP vX.Y.Z-up.1 release from the release-X.Y branch by:
  • Running the Tag workflow on the release-X.Y branch with the proper release version, vX.Y.Z-up.1. Message suggested but not required: Release vX.Y.Z-up.1.
  • Running the CI workflow on the release-X.Y branch to build and publish the latest tagged artifacts.
  • Verify that the tagged build version exists on the releases.upbound.io build channel, e.g. build/release-X.Y/vX.Y.Z-up.K/...
• Cut the next prerelease of UXP from the main branch, vX.<Y+1>.0-up.1-rc.0 by:
  • Running the Tag workflow on the main branch with the proper release version, vX.<Y+1>.0-up.1-rc.0. Message suggested but not required: Release vX.<Y+1>.0-up.1-rc.0.
• Verify the produced helm chart available in the build channnel at build/release-X.Y/vX.Y.Z-up.K/charts by doing some sanity checks:
  • Installs on a cluster properly with helm -n upbound-system upgrade --install universal-crossplane <path-to-chart.tgz> --create-namespace.
  • Uses the correct image versions of upbound/crossplane, e.g. kubectl -n upbound-system get pods -o yaml | grep image:
  • Verify at least one of the above reference platforms works end to end by configuring and creating a claim, e.g. using https://github.com/upbound/platform-ref-gcp/blob/main/examples/cluster-claim.yaml:
    • https://marketplace.upbound.io/configurations/upbound/platform-ref-aws
    • https://marketplace.upbound.io/configurations/upbound/platform-ref-azure
    • https://marketplace.upbound.io/configurations/upbound/platform-ref-gcp
  • Upgrading from the latest supported version works, for example run:
    • create a kind cluster: kind create cluster
    • install the current stable version: up uxp install
    • install one of the above reference platforms
    • upgrade to this new version as above: helm -n upbound-system upgrade --install universal-crossplane <path-to-chart.tgz> --create-namespace
• Run the Promote workflow from the release-X.Y branch, to promote vX.Y.Z-up.1 to stable, here you should find universal-crossplane-X.Y.Z-up.1.tgz. Verify everything is correctly working by running up uxp install against an empty Kubernetes cluster, e.g. kind create cluster, which should result in an healthy UXP installation with expected image versions.
• Drafted, validated with the rest of the team and then published well authored release notes for UXP vX.Y.Z-up.1. See the previous release for an example, these should at least:
  • enumerate relevant updates that were merged in u/xp and u/uxp.
  • mention the xp/xp version it refers to.
  • list new contributors to u/uxp.
  • have the links to the full changelog of u/xp and u/uxp.
• Ensured that users have been notified of the release on all communitcation channels:
  • Slack: crossposting on Crossplane's Slack workspace channels #announcements, #upbound and #squad-crossplane on Upbound's Slack.
  • Twitter: ask #marketing on Upbound's Slack to do so.

[ezgidemirel]

release-1.15 branch on upbound/universal-crossplane repo was already created for the release candidate. Therefore, opened a PR to sync it instead of creating it.