This topic describes the four phases of a tile release and procedures you can follow to complete your tile release.

Phase 1: Alpha

A product begins development in the Alpha phase. The product undergoes constant churn and refactoring, and might not be feature-complete.

Your customers do not have exposure to a product during the Alpha phase, and there are no quality requirements. Developers use this stage for internal testing.

Phase 2: Closed Beta

During Closed Beta, a limited pool of users is given access and provides feedback. This feedback drives further development and uncovers bugs. A status of Closed (Private) Beta informs users that the product might be unstable and cannot be used in production.

A product can remain in Closed Beta as long as:

  • Changes might break product function or cause loss of data.
  • Users might experience major bugs.
  • Users might need to delete and reinstall tiles rather than upgrading them.

Developers make products in Closed Beta available to specific groups or individual customers on the Broadcom Support portal.

Requirements

To enter Closed Beta, a product must meet the following requirements:

  • The product must run properly on at least one IaaS so that your customers can install and try it out. Supported infrastructures are AWS, vSphere, and OpenStack.

  • Customers must be able to install the product error-free through a tile in Tanzu Operations Manager, and delete the product there without any traces remaining.

  • The product tile must target the latest released Xenial stemcell version, as listed on the Broadcom Support portal.

  • Your product release notes must make clear the following constraints:

    • Potential data loss and lack of support make the beta version of the product unsuitable for use in production.

    • Your users must delete the old tile and install a new one to move to the next version of the product. No upgrade path exists.

  • The product must fulfill its promised feature set, and perform as wanted.

A Closed Beta product can include an easy way for users to provide feedback to the product developer.

Steps to release

To create a new Closed Beta release for your product:

  1. Log on to the Broadcom Support portal.

  2. Create a new release for your product and enter the required details in all of the required text boxes.

  3. Check that the release version includes the word BETA.

  4. Clearly state in the release description that the product cannot be upgraded, and that the customer might experience data loss.

  5. Email your VMware contact to request product validation and Closed Beta release. In the email, provide basic instructions for validating the new feature set. VMware verifies that the release meets all requirements, and makes it accessible to invited customers.

Phase 3: Public Beta

Your product is available to the general public in Public Beta. The wider pool of users increases public awareness and feedback and facilitates marketing and advertising. As development continues, you might publish a series of product versions in Public (Open) Beta.

Your product is a good candidate for the Public Beta stage if:

  • You have high confidence that further development will not break the product or incur data loss for users.
  • The tile might be upgraded at a later date.
  • You still want user feedback to discover minor bugs and evaluate existing features.
  • The product does not contain the full set of features intended for the final release.
  • You feel comfortable supporting this tile for customers.

Products in Public Beta are available on the Broadcom Support portal to any user with a free VMware Broadcom Support portal account.

Requirements

Products in Public Beta must meet the following requirements:

  • The product meets all requirements for Closed Beta.

  • The tile can be upgraded to subsequent versions without requiring the customer to uninstall the previous version.

  • The product supports upgrade paths from any minor version or patch to the next minor version and any patches.

  • Tile version upgrades result in no data or configuration loss, and service capability and availability are maintained.

  • Where appropriate, VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs integrations work properly, including:

    • Registered routes
    • UAA
    • Service brokers

  • You can respond to discovery of a security flaw on the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list within a reasonable time frame. Security flaws include vulnerabilities in your stemcell or within one of the components of your tile.
    For more information about the security policy, see Tanzu Operations Manager Security Overview and Policy.

Steps to release

  1. Log on to the Broadcom Support portal.

  2. Create a new release for your product and enter the required details in all of the required text boxes.

  3. Check that the release version includes the word BETA.

  4. Email your VMware contact to request product validation and Public Beta release. In the email, provide basic instructions for validating the new feature set. VMware will also validate the upgrade scenario and data persistence. After verifying that the release meets all requirements, VMware will make it available to customers.

Phase 4: General Availability

A product qualifies for General Availability when:

  • It is production-ready.

  • You can charge money for this product and provide support guarantees to your customers.

  • The product’s full set of features meets the standards of quality that you want to uphold.

Requirements

Products must meet the following requirements for General Availability:

  • The product meets all requirements for Public Beta.

  • You consider the product production-ready, and you have adequate unit and functional tests to ensure high quality.

  • You can provide customer support.

  • Your business team is ready to “Go to market.”

  • The product can scale vertically, by increasing the amount of RAM or CPU. Vertical scaling improves performance and without resulting in data loss.

  • If appropriate, the product can scale horizontally for high availability.

    • Scaled-out nodes (application VMs) function correctly.
    • Removing a node does not result in downtime.

  • If appropriate, the product supports zero downtime deployment.

  • Product installation does not require an internet connection, after initial product download.

Steps to release

  1. Log on to the Broadcom Support portal.

  2. Create a new release for your product and enter the required details in all of the required text boxes.

  3. Email your VMware contact to request product validation and General Availability release. In the email, provide basic instructions for validating the new feature set. VMware will also validate the upgrade scenario and data persistence.
    After verifying that the release meets all requirements, VMware will make it available to customers.
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