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Managing Releases with the Vendor Portal

This topic describes how to use the Replicated vendor portal to create and promote versions of your application, edit releases, edit release properties, and archive releases.

note

Replicated recommends using a git-based workflow. For more information about repository workflows and tagging, see Repository Workflow and Tagging Releases. For examples of CI/CD integration, see Tutorial: Integrating with an Existing CI/CD PLatform.

Create a Release​

You can use standard manifest files or Helm charts to create a release.

If you are using Helm charts, make sure that you first create the Helm chart package. For more information, see Creating a Helm Chart Package.

To create and promote a release in the vendor portal:

  1. From the Applications dropdown list, select Create an app or select an existing application to update.

  2. Click Releases > Create release.

    Create Release

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  3. Drag and drop your application files to the file directory in the YAML editor.

    You can click the plus icon to add a new, untitled YAML file.

  4. Edit the YAML files as needed, and click Save release. This saves a draft that you can continue to edit until you promote it.

  5. Click Promote. In the Promote Release dialog that opens, edit the fields:

    FieldDescription
    ChannelSelect the channel where you want to promote the release. The defaults are Stable, Beta, and Unstable. If you created custom channels, they are listed here also.
    Version label

    Enter a version label.

    If semantic versioning is enabled for the channel, you must use a valid semantic version using the X.Y.Z format, where X is the major version, Y is the minor version, and Z is the patch version. These must be non-negative integers and cannot contain leading zeroes. Each element must increase numerically.

    For more information, see Enable Semantic Versioning in About Releases and Semantic Versioning on the Semantic Versioning website.

    Requirements

    Select Prevent this release from being skipped during upgrades to mark the release as required. When a release is required, Replicated KOTS requires users to upgrade to that version before they can upgrade to a later version.

    For example, if you select Prevent this release from being skipped during upgrades for release v2.0.0, users with v1.0.0 deployed must upgrade to v2.0.0 before they can upgrade to a version later than v2.0.0, such as v2.1.0.

    Required releases are supported in KOTS v1.68.0 and later.

    After users deploy a required version, they can no longer redeploy (roll back to) versions earlier than the required version, even if allowRollback is true in the Application custom resource manifest. See allowRollback in the Application custom resource topic.

    Release notesAdd detailed release notes. The release notes support markdown and are shown to your customer.

  6. Click Promote.

    The release appears in an Active state on the Releases page.

Edit a Draft Release​

To edit a draft release:

  1. From the Applications dropdown list, select an existing application to update.

  2. On the Releases page, find the draft release you want to edit and click Edit YAML.

    Edit YAML button for a draft release in the vendor portal

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  3. Click Save to save your updated draft.

  4. (Optional) Click Promote.

Edit Release Properties​

  1. Go to Channels.

  2. In the channel where the release was promoted, click Release History.

  3. For the release sequence that you want to edit, click Edit Release.

  4. Edit the properties as needed.

    Release Properties dialog in the vendor portal

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  5. Click Update Release.

Archiving Releases​

You can archive releases to remove them from view on the Releases page.

Archiving a release that has been promoted does not remove the release from the channel's Release History page or prevent KOTS from downloading the archived release.

To archive one or more releases:

  1. From the Releases page, click the trash can icon in the upper right corner.
  2. Select one or more releases.
  3. Click Archive Releases.
  4. Confirm the archive action when prompted. Alternatively, click Cancel to cancel the archiving action.