Release of v16.0.3

[frouioui]

This release is scheduled for Friday 28 July 2023.

Pre-Release

• Notify the community on Slack.
• Make sure the release notes summary is prepared and clean
• Add Bug Report: upgrade to v16 from v15 blocks on semi-sync #13426 to known issues @frouioui
  • Update known issues in v16.x and v17.0.0 #13618
• Make sure everyone in the release team meet the pre-requisites for the release
• Make sure all backports are complete
  • https://github.com/vitessio/vitess/milestone/32
  • [release-16.0] Fix flaky vtgate test TestInconsistentStateDetectedBuffering (#13560) #13574
  • [release-16.0] Flaky tests: Fix race in memory topo (#13559) #13576
  • [release-16.0] fix TestQueryTimeoutWithTables flaky test (#13579) #13585
  • [release-16.0] ignore all error for views in engine reload (#13590) #13593
  • [release-16.0] ignore ongoing backfill vindex from routing selection (#13523) #13607
  • [release-16.0] fix: error.as method usage to send pointer to the reference type expected (#13496) #13609
  • [release-16.0] check keyspace snapshot time if none specified for backup restores (#13557) #13634
  • [release-16.0] Optimize release notes generation to use GitHub Milestones (#13398) #13621
• Do the code freeze and pre release following the instructions.

Release

• Follow the release instructions for release: here
• Continue with the Java release following these instructions.
• Merge the 16.0.3 release notes on main.
• Make sure arewefastyet benchmarks the new release (https://benchmark.vitess.io/status)
• Release the operator, `v2.9.3.

Post-Release

• Notify the community on Slack.
• Benchmarking results
• Tweet both vitess release and operator release