Thinking back on some of the most challenging engineering projects I've been close to, the multi-stage migration of Firefox's automation is high on the list.

It started with a crucial first step: moving our process from shell scripts and wiki pages into Buildbot. That was a huge leap forward in professionalizing our CI/CD (and one I was deeply involved in).

But that was just the warm-up. The true "jumbo jet in flight" moment was the later, heroic, multi-year effort to move everything again, from Buildbot to Mozilla's own bespoke, cloud-native CI platform, TaskCluster.

I'm still in awe of the work done by the TaskCluster and Release Engineering teams at Mozilla to pull off that massive migration. It’s a powerful reminder that the most critical engineering work is often the infrastructure you’re not even supposed to notice.

https://www.rhelmer.org/blog/tag/releng/

#DevOps #CICD #Mozilla #ReleaseEngineering #TaskCluster #Automation

🚀 Meet OSCAR: The AI Chat Assistant That Makes OpenSearch Releases Easier for Everyone

OSCAR (OpenSearch Conversational Automation for Releases) helps streamline complex workflows, reduce manual effort, and keep OpenSearch releases on track.

👉 Read the blog to see learn more about OSCAR: https://opensearch.org/blog/meet-oscar-the-ai-chat-assistant-that-makes-opensearch-releases-easier-for-everyone/?ajs_aid=d47608d2-1716-4230-91b0-66101998e898

#OpenSearch #AI #ReleaseEngineering #OpenSource #ML #OSCAR

TIL more about git rebase after discussing some design for a backport pattern for one of our work projects. Since we’re a pretty isolated infra team we’re mostly led to our own means for this type of thing.

I think I’m still confused as to when rebase would be preferred to cherry-pick. Pretty sure it would be if you want the entirety of the target vs a specific change in a given commit.

Probably more clear once I make some drawings or a contrived git example.

#git #releaseEngineering

Whatever you do in your #opensource project, when you do a release:

1. Don't just push a tag
2. Package up a proper release with user-friendly tarballs, ChangeLog with relevant information, not just git logs
3. Remember to always do an -rc1 tag

Some like to do -beta and -alpha tags as well, but *at least* do an -rc1 tag and test the resulting artifacts from your project. It's far worse having users report back to you that your stuff doesn't work.

#releaseengineering #AccountabilityMatters

Every single day ... and not simply once per day...

"Was XX made this way specfically as terrible as possible so that I'll eventually give up and buy a YY?"

"Why does XX get worse with every single system update? Do they know anything about regression testing at all?"

"Do they only operate on the idiotic notion of 'Move Fast, Break Everything?' as if we were still in 2009 web2.0 and testing in production? Also, only lazy unimaginative chuds think that everything needs to be tested in production!"

"Do they really think everyone is an A or a B in their poorly conceived deployment process? 'well, some percentage of our users can suffer as long as we remain profitable by ZZ% so we definitely A/B test in production!'"

#software #hardware #engineering #CiCd #stopTestingInProduction #yourCorpIsNotFAANG #yourCorpIsNotMAANG #yourCorpIsNotHyperscalerScale #getOffMyLawn #itsAllJustAssholesAndElbows #failureModeEverywhere #releaseEngineering #softwareTesting #testingEthics #testing #testingMyPatience #tediousHashTagExpressionism #evaOnAnotherRant

Join us tomorrow for You Choose!

We’ll be exploring and comparing three "one-shot action" tools: GitHub Actions, Argo Workflows, and Tekton. Experts from each project will give a 5-minute presentation, followed by a discussion and Q&A from the chat.

At the end, YOU get to vote on which tool we implement in our ongoing demo!

Come for the tech, stay for the humor! ♫
Watch here: https://youtu.be/6gQjnvzS5Bc

#GitHubActions #Tekton #ArgoWorkflows #ReleaseEngineering

#ReleaseEngineering, #Microsoft style #MSFS2024

https://youtu.be/xbJ_X05ioAk?si=L24EnfgxfXttnIIY

Is there a Release Engineering meetup in London that anyone is aware of?

If not, would you be interested in attending one of there was?

#ReleaseEngineering #RelEng #London #Meetup

OK, really, I guess a conventional #introduction post is in order.

I just moved from the soon-to-be defunct sanjuans.life to the groovy and happening beige.party!

Hi, I'm Eric! I'm one of "those" people that spent most of his life in #SiliconValley and escaped in later life to the #PacificNorthwest. I spent some halcyon times that then turned tumultuous in #Portland before landing, through all sorts of weird life changes, in #OrcasIsland, Washington.

Still an active, if somewhat grizzled, #techie, I got to do a bunch of stuff (mostly involving #ReleaseEngineering) in places like Sierra Online, The Santa Cruz Operation, Frame Technology, Xerox PARC, DreamWorks Animation, Yahoo!, and Puppet.

I've been an erratic participant at #BurningMan. Originally, hanging (but not officially) with Spock Mountain Research Labs and Lamplighters, taking long breaks then coming back and doing stuff with #BLD

I have been an avid traveler. I love scuba diving, amusement parks, especially #rollercoasters. Back in the day, I was co-contributor of The World of Coasters and had some fun contributions to NPR, CNN, American Heritage.

After Covid set in things changed. I don't get out much and managed to stay free of it. I plan on keeping it that way. If one is to be stuck at home, San Juan County is a damn fine place to do it.