[NOTICE] Kubernetes v1.18.11 is delayed due to GitHub API issues

[Stephen Augustus]

Kubernetes Community,

Related to the git fetch/merge errors mentioned here, the Release Managers group encountered issues in the release process, which has ultimately led to a release delay.

There seems to have been some partial recovery earlier which allowed us to cut the v1.19.4 and v1.17.14 release.

Unfortunately, the v1.18.11 release was caught in a state where only one of the release-1.18 branch tags was pushed, which leaves completion of the build in an unrecoverable state (our tooling checks if a tag has already been pushed remotely and bails if true).

The fix for this is pushing a manual tag onto the branch in question, which triggers a new CI build for anago to use as the basis for a new stage/release.

I've pushed v1.18.12-rc.1 earlier tonight to fix that.

https://prow.k8s.io/view/gcs/kubernetes-jenkins/logs/ci-kubernetes-build-stable1/1326759364916154368/ is the corresponding CI build job.

Barring any GitHub issues, expect a Kubernetes v1.18.12 release later today.

Release Managers are tracking this release in the following thread on Kubernetes Slack: https://kubernetes.slack.com/archives/CJH2GBF7Y/p1605154320393800

Thanks for your patience!

Stephen