[RELEASE] Release version 2.18.1

[github-actions]

Release OpenSearch and OpenSearch Dashboards 2.18.1

I noticed that a manifest was automatically created in manifests/2.18.1. Please follow the following checklist to make a release.

How to use this issue

This Release Issue

This issue captures the state of the OpenSearch release, its assignee (Release Manager) is responsible for driving the release. Please contact them or @mention them on this issue for help. There are linked issues on components of the release where individual components can be tracked. For more information check the the Release Process OpenSearch Guide.

Please refer to the following link for the release version dates: Release Schedule and Maintenance Policy.

Entrance Criteria

Criteria	Status	Description	Comments
Each component release issue has an assigned owner	🔴
Documentation draft PRs are up and in tech review for all component changes	🔴
Sanity testing is done for all components	🔴
Code coverage has not decreased (all new code has tests)	🔴
Release notes are ready and available for all components	🔴
Roadmap is up-to-date (information is available to create release highlights)	🔴
Release ticket is cut, and there's a forum post announcing the start of the window	🔴
Any necessary security reviews are complete	🔴

OpenSearch 2.18.1 exit criteria status:

Criteria	Status	Description	Comments
Performance tests are run, results are posted to the release ticket and there no unexpected regressions	🔴
No unpatched vulnerabilities of medium or higher severity that have been publicly known for more than 60 days	🔴
Documentation has been fully reviewed and signed off by the documentation community.	🔴
All integration tests are passing	🔴
Release blog is ready	🔴

OpenSearch-Dashboards 2.18.1 exit criteria status:

Criteria	Status	Description	Comments
Documentation has been fully reviewed and signed off by the documentation community	🔴
No unpatched vulnerabilities of medium or higher severity that have been publicly known for more than 60 days	🔴
All integration tests are passing	🔴
Release blog is ready	🔴

Preparation

• Release manager assigned.
• Update release page on the website with release manager and release issue details. Sample PR
• Existence of label in each component repo. For more information check the release-label section.
• Increase the build frequency.
• Release Issue.

Campaigns

• Component Release Issue.
• Release Campaigns.

Version Increment - _Ends REPLACE_RELEASE-minus-10-days

• Core Version Increment.
• Components Version Increment.

Feature Freeze - _Ends REPLACE_RELEASE-minus-12-days

• OpenSearch / OpenSearch-Dashboards core and components teams finalize their features.

Code Complete - Ends REPLACE_RELEASE-minus-10-days

• Mark this as done once the Code Complete is reviewed.
• Create/Verify pull requests to add each component to relase input manifests/2.18.1/opensearch-2.18.1.yml and manifests/2.18.1/opensearch-dashboards-2.18.1.yml.

Release Branch, Release Candidate Creation and Testing - Ends REPLACE_RELEASE-minus-6-days

• Core Release Branch.
• Components Release Branch.
• Generate Release Candidate.
• Integ Test TAR.
• Integ Test RPM.
• Docker Build and Scan.
• Backwards Compatibility Tests.
• Windows Integration Test.
• Broadcast and Communication.
• Release Candidate Lock.
• Stop Release Candidate periodic auto builds

Performance testing validation - Ends REPLACE_RELEASE-minus-6-days

• Post the benchmark-tests
• Longevity tests do not show any issues.

Pre Release - Ends REPLACE_RELEASE-minus-1-days

• Release Labeled Issues.
• Go or No-Go.
• Release Notes.

Release - _Ends {_REPLACE_RELEASE-day}

• Central Promotion Workflow.
• Collaboration with the Project Management Team.

Release Checklist.

Release Checklist

Pre-Release activities

• Promote Repos.
  • • OS
  • • OSD
• Promote Artifacts.
  • • Windows
  • • Linux Debian
  • • Linux RPM
  • • Linux TAR
• Consolidated Release Notes.

Release activities

• Docker Promotion.
• Release Validation part 1.
  • • OpenSearch and OpenSearch Dashboard Validation.
  • • Validate the native plugin installation.
• Merge consolidated release notes PR.
• Website and Documentation Changes.
  • • Merge staging website PR.
  • • Promote the website changes to prod.
  • • Add website alert.
• Release Validation part 2.
  • • Validate the artifact download URL's and signatures.
• Release Validation part 3.
  • • Trigger the validation build (Search for Completed validation for <> in the logs).
• Maven Promotion.
• Publish blog posts.
• Advertise on Social Media.
• Post on public slack and Github Release issue.

Post Release

• Release Tags.
• Input Manifest Update.
• OpenSearch Build Release notes.
• Decrease the Build Frequency.
• Retrospective Issue.
• Helm and Ansible Playbook release.
• Upcoming Release Preparation.

Components

Replace with links to all component tracking issues.

Component	On track	Release Notes
{COMPONENT_ISSUE_LINK}	{INDICATOR}	{STATUS}

Legend

Symbol	Meaning
🟢	On track with overall release
🟡	Missed last milestone
🔴	Missed multiple milestones