Release checklist for v1.6.0

[carlisia]

@vmware-tanzu/velero-maintainers let's all check these boxes as we get thru the steps.

Beta and prior to the first RC release

• no major bugs outstanding (current issues: Bug with the Velero uninstall cmd #3599, e2e tests not cleaning up after failures #3624)
• unit tests pass
• e2e tests passing on Kind
• e2e tests passing on vSphere
• e2e tests passing on AWS

Any RC + plugin release

Manual tests need to be run before the plugins are released. Documentation for manual testing (to be updated after merge): #3601

• manual tests with RC and upgraded plugin passing on:
  • Kind [@ashish-amarnath]
  • AWS - [@carlisia]
  • vSphere
  • GCP [@ashish-amarnath]
  • Azure
• test upgrading to RC on:
  • Kind
  • AWS - [@carlisia]
  • vSphere
  • GCP [@ashish-amarnath]
  • Azure
• test restic [@ashish-amarnath]

⚠️ e2e tests need to run against the latest k8s and earliest supported k8s for each plugin

Note: this checklist follows the (not yet merged) release criteria list: https://deploy-preview-3598--velero.netlify.app/docs/main/release-instructions/#release-criteria.

[dsu-igeek]

Please add Azure to the release checklist

[ashish-amarnath]

Please add restic as well

[carlisia]

I ran these tests and they were all successful:

AWS + Volume Snapshotter

Test 1:
Verify that a backup and restore using Volume Snapshots can be performed
https://asciinema.org/a/KB67j2jcYPNOulebx9WQyYXEO

Test 2:
Verify that an installation using the v1.6.0-rc.2 version can be used to restore from backups created with the v1.5.3 version
recording 1: backup with v1.5.3, then install v1.6.0-rc.2 / break
https://asciinema.org/a/HWPACBQKdBIS49U8TF0pmIRnq
recording 2: restore previous backup using v1.6.0-rc.2
https://asciinema.org/a/O8l7Y0AIWqrVEYyV8iZ2Bvfly

Test 3:
Ensure v1.6.0-rc.2 compatibility with plugin v1.1.0
https://asciinema.org/a/sJcNXx2Jjht4AHbX9r2uYQxZv

Test 4:
Upgrade the install from v1.5.3 to v1.6.0-rc.2
https://asciinema.org/a/HNdS0ouAT7XQeWwPBZIje0N6W

[carlisia]

@vmware-tanzu/velero-owners + @jenting: closing this as it's all been done.