Release of v16.0.0-RC1

[frouioui]

This release is scheduled for: Tuesday 7 February 2023.

Pre-Release

•  Notify the community on Slack.
• Add the Backport to: release-16.0 label
• Make sure the release notes summary is prepared and clean
  • Prepare v16.0.0 release notes summary #11746
• Clean up deprecated flags
  • Task: cleanup deprecated flags and code #5960
• PRs to verify are merged
  • Update the MySQL version used by our Docker images #12054
  • vtgate advertised mysql server version to 8.0.31 #11989
  • Remove replication manager and run VTOrc in all e2e tests #12149
  • VTGate: Ensure HealthCheck Cache Secondary Maps Stay in Sync With Authoritative Map on Tablet Delete #12178
  • Add flag to select tx throttler tablet type #12174
  • CI cleanup: remove onlineddl_declarative, onlineddl_singleton (cleanup part 2) #12182
  • Online DDL CI: consolidated revertible and revert CI tests (part 1) #12183
  • OnlineDDL CI: remove 'revertible' tests (part 2) #12192
  • Online DDL: --in-order-completion ddl strategy and logic #12113
  • OnlineDDL: avoid schema_migrations AUTO_INCREMENT gaps by pre-checking for existing migration #12169
  • vttablet sidecar schema:use schemadiff to reach desired schema on tablet init replacing the withDDL-based approach #11520
  • Use Ubuntu 20.04 for Release Builds #12202
  • Bug fix: Cache filtered out tablets in topology watcher to avoid unnecessary GetTablet calls to topo #12194
  • Update Go dependencies #12215
  • Move vtorc from go-sqlite3 to modernc.org/sqlite #12214
  • Revert changes made in #11960 #12219
  • Revert "Use ubuntu 20.04 for release builds (#12202)" #12220
• Vitess Operator PRs to verify before RC-1 of operator
  • Support upgrade of minor MySQL version planetscale/vitess-operator#361
  • Makes VTOrc mandatory planetscale/vitess-operator#368
  • Set vttablet init container resource requests and limits planetscale/vitess-operator#370
• Follow pre-release instructions from release documentation.

Release

• Follow the release instructions for release candidates: here
• On the Vitess website repository, create a v17.0 directory and update the sidebar.
• On website docs menu, change v16.0 from Development -> Release Candidate.
• Merge the 16.0.0 release notes on main.
• Release the operator, v2.9.0-rc1.

Post-RC1-Release

• Notify the community on Slack.
• Merge website PR
• Tweet both vitess release and operator release