<!-- Title suggestion: [Feature flag] Enable description of feature -->
## Feature
## Summary
This feature uses the `:feature_name` feature flag!
This issue is to rollout [the feature](ISSUE LINK) on production,
that is currently behind the `<feature-flag-name>` feature flag.
<!-- Short description of what the feature is about and link to relevant other issues. -->
-[Issue Name](ISSUE LINK)
## Owners
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@@ -26,14 +26,15 @@ Are there any other stages or teams involved that need to be kept in the loop?
## The Rollout Plan
- Partial Rollout on GitLab.com with beta groups
- Partial Rollout on GitLab.com with testing groups
- Rollout on GitLab.com for a certain period (How long)
- Percentage Rollout on GitLab.com
- Rollout Feature for everyone as soon as it's ready
<!-- Which dashboards from https://dashboards.gitlab.net are most relevant? Sentry errors reports can also be useful to review -->
**Beta Groups/Projects:**
## Testing Groups/Projects/Users
<!-- If applicable, any groups/projects that are happy to have this feature turned on early. Some organizations may wish to test big changes they are interested in with a small subset of users ahead of time for example. -->
-`gitlab-org/gitlab` project
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@@ -55,54 +56,97 @@ Are there any other stages or teams involved that need to be kept in the loop?
<!-- Which dashboards from https://dashboards.gitlab.net are most relevant? -->
## Rollout Timeline
<!-- Please check which steps are needed and remove those which don't apply -->
**Rollout Steps**
*Preparation Phase*
- [ ] Enable on staging (`/chatops run feature set feature_name true --staging`)
## Rollout Steps
- [ ] Test on staging
### Rollout on non-production environments
-[ ] Ensure that documentation has been updated ([More info](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/documentation/feature_flags.html#features-that-became-enabled-by-default))
- [ ] Ensure that the feature MRs have been deployed to non-production environments.
- [ ] `/chatops run auto_deploy status <merge-commit-of-your-feature>`
- [ ] Enable the feature globally on non-production environments.
- [ ] `/chatops run feature set <feature-flag-name> true --dev`
- [ ] `/chatops run feature set <feature-flag-name> true --staging`
- [ ] Verify that the feature works as expected. Posting the QA result in this issue is preferable.
- [ ] Announce on the issue an estimated time this will be enabled on GitLab.com
### Preparation before production rollout
- [ ] Ensure that the feature MRs have been deployed to both production and canary.
- [ ] `/chatops run auto_deploy status <merge-commit-of-your-feature>`
- [ ] Check if the feature flag change needs to be accompanied with a
- [ ] Ensure that you or a representative in development can be available for at least 2 hours after feature flag updates in production. If a different developer will be covering, or an exception is needed, please inform the oncall SRE by using the `@sre-oncall` Slack alias.
*Partial Rollout Phase*
- [ ] Enable on GitLab.com for individual groups/projects listed above and verify behaviour (`/chatops run feature set --project=gitlab-org/gitlab feature_name true`)
- [ ] Verify behaviour (See Beta Groups) and add details with screenshots as a comment on this issue
- [ ] If it is possible to perform an incremental rollout, this should be preferred. Proposed increments are: `10%`, `50%`, `100%`. Proposed minimum time between increments is 15 minutes.
- When setting percentages, make sure that the feature works correctly between feature checks. See https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/327117 for more information
- For actor-based rollout: `/chatops run feature set feature_name 10 --actors`
- For time-based rollout: `/chatops run feature set feature_name 10`
*Full Rollout Phase*
- [ ] Make the feature flag enabled by default i.e. Change `default_enabled` to `true`
-[ ] Cross post chatops slack command to `#support_gitlab-com` ([more guidance when this is necessary in the dev docs](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/controls.html#where-to-run-commands)) and in your team channel
- [ ] Announce on the issue that the flag has been enabled
- [ ] Create a cleanup issue using the "Feature Flag Removal" template
- [ ] Ensure that you or a representative in development can be available for at least 2 hours after feature flag updates in production.
If a different developer will be covering, or an exception is needed, please inform the oncall SRE by using the `@sre-oncall` Slack alias.
-[ ] Ensure that documentation has been updated ([More info](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/documentation/feature_flags.html#features-that-became-enabled-by-default)).
-[ ] Announce on [the feature issue](ISSUE LINK) an estimated time this will be enabled on GitLab.com.
-[ ] If the feature flag in code has [an actor](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/#feature-actors), enable it on GitLab.com for [testing groups/projects](#testing-groupsprojectsusers).
- [ ] `/chatops run feature set --<actor-type>=<actor> <feature-flag-name> true`
- [ ] Verify that the feature works as expected. Posting the QA result in this issue is preferable.
### Global rollout on production
-[ ] [Incrementally roll out](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/controls.html#process) the feature. If there is no risk that the feature affects usability or server loads, skip to the global rollout.
- If the feature flag in code has [an actor](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/#feature-actors), perform **actor-based** rollout.
- [ ] `/chatops run feature set <feature-flag-name> <rollout-percentage> --actors`
- If the feature flag in code does **NOT** have [an actor](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/#feature-actors), perform time-based rollout (**random** rollout).
- [ ] `/chatops run feature set <feature-flag-name> <rollout-percentage>`
- [ ] Enable the feature globally on production environment.
- [ ] `/chatops run feature set <feature-flag-name> true`
-[ ] Announce on [the feature issue](ISSUE LINK) that the feature has been globally enabled.
- [ ] Cross-post chatops slack command to `#support_gitlab-com`.
([more guidance when this is necessary in the dev docs](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/controls.html#communicate-the-change)) and in your team channel
-[ ] Wait for [at least one day for the verification term](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product-development-flow/feature-flag-lifecycle/#including-a-feature-behind-feature-flag-in-the-final-release).
### (Optional) Release the feature with the feature flag
If you're still unsure whether the feature is [deemed stable](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product-development-flow/feature-flag-lifecycle/#including-a-feature-behind-feature-flag-in-the-final-release)
but want to release it in the current milestone, you can change the default state of the feature flag to be enabled.
To do so, follow these steps:
- [ ] Create a merge request with the following changes. Ask for review and merge it.
-[ ] Set the `default_enabled` attribute in [the feature flag definition](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/#feature-flag-definition-and-validation) to `true`.
- [ ] Ensure that the above MR has been deployed to both production and canary.
If the merge request was deployed before [the code cutoff](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/releases/#self-managed-releases-1),
the feature can be officially announced in a release blog post.
- [ ] `/chatops run auto_deploy status <merge-commit>`
-[ ] Close [the feature issue](ISSUE LINK) to indicate the feature has been released.
**WARNING:** This approach has the downside that it makes it difficult for us to
[clean up](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/controls.html#cleaning-up) the flag.
For example, on-premise users could disable the feature on their GitLab instance. But when you
remove the flag at some point, they suddenly see the feature as enabled and they can't roll it back
to the previous behavior. To avoid this potential breaking change, use this approach only for urgent
matters.
### Release the feature
After the feature has been [deemed stable](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product-development-flow/feature-flag-lifecycle/#including-a-feature-behind-feature-flag-in-the-final-release),
the [clean up](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/controls.html#cleaning-up)
should be done as soon as possible to permanently enable the feature and reduce complexity in the
codebase.
<!-- The checklist here is to help stakeholders keep track of the feature flag status -->
- [ ] Create a merge request to remove `<feature-flag-name>` feature flag. Ask for review and merge it.
- [ ] Remove all references to the feature flag from the codebase.
- [ ] Remove the YAML definitions for the feature from the repository.
