[Feature flag] Rollout of `group_level_dependencies`
Summary
This issue is to rollout the feature on production,
that is currently behind the group_level_dependencies
feature flag.
Owners
- Team: Threat Insights
- Most appropriate slack channel to reach out to:
#g_govern_threat_insights_tangerine
- Best individual to reach out to: @zmartins
- PM: @abellucci
Stakeholders
Testing
It was identified that the Namespace Projects Finder is at risk of performance issues when interacting with namespaces with significant child and project counts inside. We need to carefully test the possible impact of rolling out this feature flag to GitLab and monitor performance carefully to ensure that we do not negatively impact the platform stability.
Kibana dashboard or additional sisense metrics should be implemented and ready to monitor the execution times of the finder before rollout of the FF is begun.
Aspects that should be improved or mitigated to not over-consume database query buffers:
Feature description | Status | Related issues/MRs | Related files |
---|---|---|---|
Project search with sbom_component_id
|
workflowcomplete | !125593 (merged), https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/417483#note_1465951762 | https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/5fde763a8a3af99fa100f35b68bdf3f1d201bf2f/ee/app/models/ee/project.rb#L319, https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/5fde763a8a3af99fa100f35b68bdf3f1d201bf2f/ee/app/finders/ee/namespaces/projects_finder.rb#L27 |
Sorting and Filtering with sbom_source_id
|
workflowcomplete | #415665 (closed) | https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/c43f11624d4456506831d6f93534ce98fbe4bb37/ee/app/models/sbom/occurrence.rb#L29-35 |
Location search based on sbom_source.source->'input_file'->>'path'
|
workflowcomplete | !126541 (merged) | https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/c43f11624d4456506831d6f93534ce98fbe4bb37/ee/app/models/sbom/occurrence.rb#L41-46 |
Testing groups for the performance related issues
Using the highest namespace id will potentially stress test more as other nest groups and projects will also be included in comparison to the original namespace id.
Sorted by the number of sbom_occurrences
select namespaces.traversal_ids[1] as highest_namespace_id, tt.original_namespace_id, tt.project_count, tt.occurrence_count
from namespaces
inner join (
select projects.namespace_id as original_namespace_id, count(t.project_id) as project_count, SUM(t.occurrence_count) as occurrence_count
from projects
inner join (
select project_id, count(id) as occurrence_count
from sbom_occurrences
group by project_id
) t on t.project_id = projects.id
group by projects.namespace_id
) tt on tt.original_namespace_id = namespaces.id
where namespaces.type = 'Group'
order by occurrence_count desc
limit 10;
highest_namespace_id | original_namespace_id | project_count | occurrence_count
----------------------+-----------------------+---------------+------------------
5778500 | 33604909 | 580 | 140272
6086725 | 8665615 | 88 | 115650
4635105 | 12906062 | 52 | 103950
2369324 | 2369324 | 48 | 103722
9758595 | 10219432 | 55 | 92534
14150259 | 52604711 | 59 | 84728
5669232 | 5940393 | 110 | 79709
2138622 | 3696834 | 51 | 69198
10433603 | 65488185 | 26 | 60760
12732159 | 13465281 | 41 | 59488
(10 rows)
Sorted by the number of projects
> select namespaces.traversal_ids[1] as highest_namespace_id, tt.original_namespace_id, tt.project_count, tt.occurrence_count
from namespaces
inner join (
select projects.namespace_id as original_namespace_id, count(t.project_id) as project_count, SUM(t.occurrence_count) as occurrence_count
from projects
inner join (
select project_id, count(id) as occurrence_count
from sbom_occurrences
group by project_id
) t on t.project_id = projects.id
group by projects.namespace_id
) tt on tt.original_namespace_id = namespaces.id
where namespaces.type = 'Group'
order by project_count desc
limit 10;
highest_namespace_id | original_namespace_id | project_count | occurrence_count
----------------------+-----------------------+---------------+------------------
5778500 | 33604909 | 580 | 140272
478651 | 62067373 | 201 | 46827
12854557 | 60191330 | 151 | 960
5000222 | 11210029 | 128 | 9480
5669232 | 5940393 | 110 | 79709
9758595 | 13389416 | 104 | 4262
5942816 | 6186706 | 102 | 27833
6086725 | 8665615 | 88 | 115650
7308774 | 13222172 | 82 | 19373
60682937 | 63077381 | 72 | 13682
(10 rows)
Complexity within the traversal_ids
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{6543}');
count
-------
1683
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{12854557}');
count
-------
1439
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{5778500}');
count
-------
1139
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{7308774}');
count
-------
1129
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{5000222}');
count
-------
782
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{9758595}');
count
-------
778
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{5942816}');
count
-------
300
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{5669232}');
count
-------
281
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{6086725}');
count
-------
124
SELECT count(namespaces.traversal_ids) FROM "namespaces" WHERE "namespaces"."type" = 'Group' AND traversal_ids @> ('{60682937}');
count
-------
109
Once ready:
-
A database maintainer should review that all possible mitigations and remediations have been appropriately applied.
Expectations
What are we expecting to happen?
Dependency list will be available on group level.
When is the feature viable?
N/A
What might happen if this goes wrong?
Turning off the feature flag should be all that is required.
What can we monitor to detect problems with this?
Consider mentioning checks for 5xx errors or other anomalies like an increase in redirects (302 HTTP response status)
What can we check for monitoring production after rollouts?
Consider adding links to check for Sentry errors, Production logs for 5xx, 302s, etc.
Rollout Steps
Note: Please make sure to run the chatops commands in the slack channel that gets impacted by the command.
Rollout on non-production environments
-
Verify the MR with the feature flag is merged to master. - Verify that the feature MRs have been deployed to non-production environments with:
-
/chatops run auto_deploy status https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/129260
-
-
Enable the feature globally on non-production environments. -
/chatops run feature set group_level_dependencies true --dev --staging --staging-ref
- If the feature flag causes QA end-to-end tests to fail:
-
Disable the feature flag on staging to avoid blocking deployments.
-
-
-
Verify that the feature works as expected. Posting the QA result in this issue is preferable. The best environment to validate the feature in is staging-canary as this is the first environment deployed to. Note you will need to make sure you are configured to use canary as outlined here when accessing the staging environment in order to make sure you are testing appropriately.
For assistance with QA end-to-end test failures, please reach out via the #quality
Slack channel. Note that QA test failures on staging-ref don't block deployments.
Specific rollout on production
For visibility, all /chatops
commands that target production should be executed in the #production
slack channel and cross-posted (with the command results) to the responsible team's slack channel (#g_TEAM_NAME
).
- Ensure that the feature MRs have been deployed to both production and canary.
-
/chatops run auto_deploy status https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/129260
-
- Depending on the type of actor you are using, pick one of these options:
- If you're using project-actor, you must enable the feature on these entries:
-
/chatops run feature set --project=gitlab-org/gitlab,gitlab-org/gitlab-foss,gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com group_level_dependencies true
-
- If you're using group-actor, you must enable the feature on these entries:
-
/chatops run feature set --group=gitlab-org,gitlab-com <feature-flag-name> true
-
- If you're using user-actor, you must enable the feature on these entries:
-
/chatops run feature set --user=<your-username> group_level_dependencies true
-
- If you're using project-actor, you must enable the feature on these entries:
-
Verify that the feature works on the specific entries. Posting the QA result in this issue is preferable.
Preparation before global rollout
-
Set a milestone to the rollout issue to signal for enabling and removing the feature flag when it is stable. -
Check if the feature flag change needs to be accompanied with a change management issue. Cross link the issue here if it does. -
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). -
Leave a comment on the feature issue announcing estimated time when this feature flag will be enabled on GitLab.com. -
Ensure that any breaking changes have been announced following the release post process to ensure GitLab customers are aware. -
Notify #support_gitlab-com
and your team channel (more guidance when this is necessary in the dev docs). -
Ensure that the feature flag rollout plan is reviewed by another developer familiar with the domain.
Global rollout on production
For visibility, all /chatops
commands that target production should be executed in the #production
slack channel and cross-posted (with the command results) to the responsible team's slack channel (#g_TEAM_NAME
).
-
Incrementally roll out the feature. -
Between every step wait for at least 15 minutes and monitor the appropriate graphs on https://dashboards.gitlab.net. - If the feature flag in code has an actor, perform actor-based rollout.
-
/chatops run feature set group_level_dependencies <rollout-percentage> --actors
-
- If the feature flag in code does NOT have an actor, perform time-based rollout (random rollout).
-
/chatops run feature set group_level_dependencies <rollout-percentage> --random
-
- Enable the feature globally on production environment.
-
/chatops run feature set group_level_dependencies true
-
-
-
Observe appropriate graphs on https://dashboards.gitlab.net and verify that services are not affected. -
Leave a comment on the feature issue announcing that the feature has been globally enabled. -
Wait for at least one day for the verification term.
(Optional) Release the feature with the feature flag
If you're still unsure whether the feature is deemed stable 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 totrue
. -
Review what warrants a changelog entry and decide if a changelog entry is needed.
-
-
Ensure that the default-enabling MR has been included in the release package. If the merge request was deployed before the monthly release was tagged, the feature can be officially announced in a release blog post. -
/chatops run release check <merge-request-url> <milestone>
-
-
Consider cleaning up the feature flag from all environments by running these chatops command in #production
channel. Otherwise these settings may override the default enabled.-
/chatops run feature delete group_level_dependencies --dev --staging --staging-ref --production
-
-
Close the feature issue to indicate the feature will be released in the current milestone. -
Set the next milestone to this rollout issue for scheduling the flag removal. -
(Optional) You can create a separate issue for scheduling the steps below to Release the feature. -
Set the title to "[Feature flag] Cleanup group_level_dependencies
". -
Execute the /copy_metadata <this-rollout-issue-link>
quick action to copy the labels from this rollout issue. -
Link this rollout issue as a related issue. -
Close this rollout issue.
-
WARNING: This approach has the downside that it makes it difficult for us to clean 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, the clean up should be done as soon as possible to permanently enable the feature and reduce complexity in the codebase.
You can either create a follow-up issue for Feature Flag Cleanup or use the checklist below in this same issue.
-
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. -
Create a changelog entry.
-
-
Ensure that the cleanup MR has been included in the release package. If the merge request was deployed before the monthly release was tagged, the feature can be officially announced in a release blog post. -
/chatops run release check <merge-request-url> <milestone>
-
-
Close the feature issue to indicate the feature will be released in the current milestone. -
Clean up the feature flag from all environments by running these chatops command in #production
channel:-
/chatops run feature delete group_level_dependencies --dev --staging --staging-ref --production
-
-
Close this rollout issue.
Rollback Steps
-
This feature can be disabled by running the following Chatops command:
/chatops run feature set group_level_dependencies false