Epic Goal

Many images built into ACM are themselves built externally and included in the ACM bundle. We need a graceful solution to updating ACM component versions without causing breakages.

Why is this important?

In 2.15, many images that were once built internally are now being handled and included as external images. This leads to a few problems:
1. If image references are hard-coded, then someone will need to monitor and update the references

• https://github.com/stolostron/acm-operator-bundle/pull/299/files

2. If they're not hard-coded (e.g. by :latest or :2.14, then we will potentially have repeated issues with component builds causing ACM to fail due to component changes

• https://issues.redhat.com/browse/ACM-21947
• https://redhat-internal.slack.com/archives/C06TJJ3E0MU/p1750648910078559?thread_ts=1750171889.133039&cid=C06TJJ3E0MU

3. If we decide to build a script to automate this process (similar to dependabot), there may need to be further considerations.

Acceptance Criteria

...

Dependencies (internal and external)

1. ...

Previous Work (Optional):

1. ...

Open questions:

1. …

Done Checklist

• CI - CI is running, tests are automated and merged.
• Release Enablement <link to Feature Enablement Presentation>
• DEV - Upstream code and tests merged: <link to meaningful PR or GitHub
  Issue>
• DEV - Upstream documentation merged: <link to meaningful PR or GitHub
  Issue>
• DEV - Downstream build attached to advisory: <link to errata>
• QE - Test plans in Polarion: <link or reference to Polarion>
• QE - Automated tests merged: <link or reference to automated tests>
• DOC - Doc issue opened with a completed template. Separate doc issue
  opened for any deprecation, removal, or any current known
  issue/troubleshooting removal from the doc, if applicable.
• Considerations were made for Extended Update Support (EUS)