Manta v4.0.0-alpha1 Release checklist

[ghzlatarev]

Lean checklist due to pre-release

Release Checklist

Most of the following checks should be completed before officially publishing the new release
of the Calamari/Manta runtime or client. Some need to be completed after the new code is deployed.

Runtime Releases

These checks should be performed on the codebase prior to freezing our release candidate:

• Verify spec_version has been incremented since the
  last release for any native runtimes from any existing use on public
  (non-private/test) networks. If the runtime was published (release or pre-release), either
  the spec_version or impl must be bumped.
• Verify pallet and extrinsic ordering has stayed
  the same. Bump transaction_version if not.
• Verify new extrinsics have been correctly whitelisted/blacklisted
• Verify benchmarks have been updated for any modified
  runtime logic.
• Check for any upstream storage migrations and perform tests with try-runtime, if any.
• Update hard-coded URLs to polkadot/manta binaries/runtimes in publish_draft_releases.yml CI workflow.

The following checks can be performed after we have frozen our release candidate:

• Code freeze should typically happen one week prior to release, to ensure we have enough time for related testing.
• Notify everyone, especially people with merge rights to manta (stechu, Dengjianping) that a release is ongoing and no more merges to manta should happen until told otherwise
• Complete the manual QA workflow.
• Verify Polkadot JS API are up to date with the latest
  runtime changes.
• Execute runtime upgrade to Baikal relay and verify network stability.
• Execute runtime upgrade to Calamari @ Baikal and verify network stability.
• Execute runtime upgrade to Calamari @ Moonbase-Relay and verify network stability.
• Execute runtime upgrade to Dolphin @ Baikal and verify network stability.
• Check network health metrics like average block times, block authors, etc with this tool https://parachain-utilities.vercel.app/

Note: Usually update client first then runtime.

Client Releases

• Verify that each crate's version has been bumped from previous release.
• Update client of Baikal relay nodes.
• Update client of Calamari-Testnet @ Baikal nodes.
• Update client of Calamari-Testnet @ Moonbase-Relay nodes.
• Update client of Dolphin @ Baikal nodes.
• Update client of Calamari Parachain Staging network nodes

All Releases

• Check that a draft release has been created at
  https://github.com/Manta-Network/Manta/releases with relevant release
  notes
• Check that build artifacts have been added to the
  draft-release
• Coordinate with marketing team for documentation updates and other relevant tasks.
• Update changelog.
• If the release contains any changes that break/change functionality used in https://github.com/Manta-Network/sdk (e.g. RPC changes, see also extrinsic ordering), raise a PR there and block this release until your PR has been merged and incorporated in a new SDK release.
• Check that the new client and/or runtime versions have burned-in without issue for at least 3 days.
• Before declaring a successful burn-in make sure to check for anomalies in our nodes' memory, cpu, disk and network usage via the Grafana Node Explorer. These would include but are not limited to: memory leaks, cpu spikes, spike in tcp sockets waiting to close, etc. Make sure to take a look at all of the available graphs, because some problems might only show up in the collapsed views.
• Keep an eye out on the manta status dashboard for additional metrics like outages.

Note: Do not publish draft releases from PR branches, because those branches will be deleted when the PR is merged.

Notes

Spec Version

A runtime upgrade must bump the spec number. This may follow a pattern with the
client release

Extrinsic Ordering

Offline signing libraries depend on a consistent ordering of call indices and
functions. Compare the metadata of the current and new runtimes and ensure that
the module index, call index tuples map to the same set of functions. To generate a diff report you can do the following:

• Go to the metadata diff tool page.
• Open Run workflow drop-down menu.
• Choose the branch you want to test and other inputs if the defaults are not applicable.
• Run the workflow.
• Wait for the job to complete and inspect the output. The things to look for in the output.txt are lines like:
  • [Identity] idx 28 -> 25 (calls 15) - indicates the index for Identity has changed
  • [+] Society, Recovery - indicates the new version includes 2 additional modules/pallets.
  • If no indices have changed, every modules line should look something like [Identity] idx 25 (calls 15)

In case of a breaking change, bump the transaction_version.

Note: Adding new functions to the runtime does not constitute a breaking change
as long as the indexes did not change.