Release of v18.0.3

[systay]

This release is scheduled for Wed 13 Mar 2024

Prerequisites for Release

• Notify the community on Slack.
• Make sure the release notes summary is prepared and clean.
• Make sure backport Pull Requests are merged, list below.
  • [release-18.0] bugfix: wrong field type returned for SUM (#15192) #15205
  • Fix docs for unmanaged tablets #15437
  • [release-18.0] VtctldClient Reshard: add e2e tests to confirm CLI options and fix discovered issues. (#15353) #15363
  • [release-18.0] Fix docs for unmanaged tablets (#15437) #15473
  • [release-18.0] VtctldClient Reshard: add e2e tests to confirm CLI options and fix discovered issues. (#15353) #15471
  • bugfix: Normalizing literals in SELECT is broken #15043
  • [release-18.0] Release of v18.0.3 #15483
• Make sure release blocker Issues are closed, list below.

Pre-Release

• Code Freeze.
  • [release-18.0] Code Freeze for v18.0.3 #15480
• Create Release PR.
  • [release-18.0] Release of v18.0.3 #15483
• Create new GitHub Milestone.
  • https://github.com/vitessio/vitess/milestone/56

Release

• Merge the Release PR.
  • [release-18.0] Release of v18.0.3 #15483
• Tag the release.
  • https://github.com/vitessio/vitess/releases/tag/v18.0.3
• Update release notes on main.
  • Copy v18.0.3 release notes on main #15488
• Go back to dev mode on the release branch.
  • [release-18.0] Bump to v18.0.4-SNAPSHOT after the v18.0.3 release #15489
• Update the website documentation.
• Make sure the release is benchmarked by arewefastyet.
• Docker Images available on DockerHub.
• Close current GitHub Milestone.
  • https://github.com/vitessio/vitess/milestone/49

Post-Release

• Notify the community on Slack for the new release.
• Twitter announcement.
• Close this Issue.

[systay]

Release completed.