[Feature flag] Rollout of `require_organization`

Summary

This issue is to roll out the feature on production, that is currently behind the require_organization feature flag.

This will be enabled after the hard PCL is lifted (2025-01-07)

Owners

Most appropriate Slack channel to reach out to: #g_organizations
Best individual to reach out to: @rutgerwessels

Expectations

What are we expecting to happen?

We expect no changes.

This feature flag, when enabled, removes default value for namespaces.organization_id. Creation of Groups, Users and Projects is dependent on this. The application should now assign an Organization.

What can go wrong and how would we detect it?

Errors while creating Groups, Projects, Users. These will result in http error 500

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 and have been deployed to non-production environments with /chatops run auto_deploy status <merge-commit-of-your-feature>

Deploy the feature flag at a percentage (recommended percentage: 50%) with /chatops run feature set require_organization <rollout-percentage> --actors --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref
Monitor that the error rates did not increase (repeat with a different percentage as necessary).

Enable the feature globally on non-production environments with /chatops run feature set require_organization true --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref
Verify that the feature works as expected. The best environment to validate the feature in is staging-canary as this is the first environment deployed to. Make sure you are configured to use canary.
If the feature flag causes end-to-end tests to fail, disable the feature flag on staging to avoid blocking deployments.
- See #qa-staging Slack channel and look for the following messages:
  - test kicked off: Feature flag require_organization has been set to true on **gstg**
  - test result: This pipeline was triggered due to toggling of require_organization feature flag

For assistance with end-to-end test failures, please reach out via the #test-platform Slack channel. Note that end-to-end test failures on staging-ref don't block deployments.

Preparation before global rollout

Set a milestone to this 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 exists for the feature, and the version history text has been updated.
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 the #support_gitlab-com Slack channel 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_tenant-scale).

(Optional) Incrementally roll out the feature on production environment.
- Between every step wait for at least 15 minutes and monitor the appropriate graphs on https://dashboards.gitlab.net.
- /chatops run feature set require_organization 5 --actors
- /chatops run feature set require_organization 10 --actors
- /chatops run feature set require_organization 50 --actors
Enable the feature globally on production environment: /chatops run feature set require_organization true
Observe appropriate graphs on https://dashboards.gitlab.net and verify that services are not affected.
Leave a comment on [the feature issue][#466141 (closed)] announcing that the feature has been globally enabled.
Wait for at least one day for the verification term.

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 the require_organization feature flag. Ask for review/approval/merge as usual. The MR should include the following changes:
- 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 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/155732 17.2
Close [the feature issue][main-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 require_organization --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production
Close this rollout issue.

Rollback Steps

This feature can be disabled on production by running the following Chatops command:

/chatops run feature set require_organization false

Disable the feature flag on non-production environments:

/chatops run feature set require_organization false --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref

Delete feature flag from all environments:

/chatops run feature delete require_organization --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production

Edited Jan 09, 2025 by Rutger Wessels