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:

• Prepare main branch for development of the new release: 🌱 Prepare main branch for v1.12 development #3159
• Remove previously deprecated code

Release-specific tasks:

• Bump VM operator to the next release #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 Kubernetes to v1.32 and add new OVA's #3294
    • ✨ [release-1.12] Bump Kubernetes to v1.32 and add new OVA's #3297
  • 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
    • ✨ Bump Kubernetes to v1.32 and add new OVA's #3294
    • ✨ [release-1.12] Bump Kubernetes to v1.32 and add new OVA's #3297
  • Update ProwJob configuration accordingly
    • CAPV: bump versions for k8s v1.32 release kubernetes/test-infra#33945

Late in the cycle:

• Bump dependencies

• Create the new release branch

• [opt] Cut beta/rc releases

  • ✨ Bump to CAPI v1.9.0-beta.0 #3249
  • 🌱 Bump sigs.k8s.io/cluster-api to v1.9.0-beta.1 #3259
  • 🌱 CI: Bump Kubernetes version to v1.32.0-rc.0 #3264
  • 🌱 Bump sigs.k8s.io/cluster-api to v1.9.0-rc.0 #3263
  • [release-1.12] 🌱 Bump CPI to v1.32.0-rc.0 #3271
  • 🌱 Bump CPI to v1.32.0-rc.0 #3269
  • 🌱 Bump kubernetes release to v1.32.0-rc.1 #3284
  • 🌱 e2e: add NodeDrain e2e test #3277

• Cut the minor release

Continuously:

• Reduce the amount of flaky tests

Probably for the next cycle:

• Adopt CAPI v1beta2 conditions #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)

[sbueringer]

@chrischdi @fabriziopandini (no rush) seems like we're done? (So we can create a new issue for 1.13 and move over open sub-tasks?)

[sbueringer]

Created a v1.13 issue and moved over the open sub-tasks from above: #3307

/close

[k8s-ci-robot]

@sbueringer: Closing this issue.

In response to this:

Created a v1.13 issue and moved over the open sub-tasks from above: #3307

/close

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