Feature Overview (aka. Goal Summary)  

An elevator pitch (value statement) that describes the Feature in a clear, concise way.  Complete during New status.

Enable General Availability (GA) support for running Confidential Containers on all Azure confidential VM types (Intel TDX, AMD SEV-SNP) in self-managed OpenShift clusters. This allows OpenShift sandboxed containers (Kata-based pods) to run in hardware-isolated CVMs with memory encryption, verified through remote attestation using the Red Hat build of Trustee, with support for sealed secrets provisioning inside the CVM after successful attestation.

Goals (aka. expected user outcomes)

The observable functionality that the user now has as a result of receiving this feature. Include the anticipated primary user type/persona and which existing features, if any, will be expanded. Complete during New status.

• Cluster admins can run confidential workloads on Azure CVM instances
• Confidential Containers integrate with the Red Hat build of Trustee for attestation
• Upon successful attestation, sealed secrets are released to the workload inside the CVM
• Application developers can run sensitive workloads without changing deployment methods
• Both Intel TDX and AMD SEV-SNP CVMs are supported

A list of specific needs or objectives that a feature must deliver in order to be considered complete.  Be sure to include nonfunctional requirements such as security, reliability, performance, maintainability, scalability, usability, etc.  Initial completion during Refinement status.

• Pods run as Confidential Containers inside CVMs on supported Azure confidential VMs (e.g., DCasv5, DCesv5).
• Only available for self-managed OpenShift clusters on Azure
• Attestation is performed via the Red Hat build of Trustee; Azure attestation is not used
• CVM root disks for CoCo peer pods are integrity-protected using dm-verity, ensuring the guest filesystem cannot be tampered with at boot.
• Trustee logs can be used to document successful attestation, and metrics exported by Trustee components can be used for telemetry and alerts (e.g., via Prometheus)
• Sealed secrets (e.g., credentials, keys) are only delivered into the CVM after successful attestation
• Pods must fail to start if attestation fails, dm-verity check fails, or secrets cannot be securely delivered
• Integration with the OpenShift sandboxed containers operator (confidential support enabled)
• No regressions to existing non-confidential Kata workloads
• All required user-facing and operator-level documentation is available at GA

Anyone reviewing this Feature needs to know which deployment configurations that the Feature will apply to (or not) once it's been completed.  Describe specific needs (or indicate N/A) for each of the following deployment scenarios. For specific configurations that are out-of-scope for a given release, ensure you provide the OCPSTRAT (for the future to be supported configuration) as well.

Use Cases (Optional):

Include use case diagrams, main success scenarios, alternative flow scenarios.  Initial completion during Refinement status.

Questions to Answer (Optional):

Include a list of refinement / architectural questions that may need to be answered before coding can begin.  Initial completion during Refinement status.

<your text here>

Out of Scope

High-level list of items that are out of scope.  Initial completion during Refinement status.

<your text here>

Background

Provide any additional context is needed to frame the feature.  Initial completion during Refinement status.

<your text here>

Customer Considerations

Provide any additional customer-specific considerations that must be made when designing and delivering the Feature.  Initial completion during Refinement status.

Customers must plan for higher VM resource overhead and slower pod startup, adjust logging/monitoring to handle CVM isolation, and decide on secret-management patterns (sealed secrets via Trustee vs. Kubernetes Secrets). On restricted (e.g. air-gapped) clusters need special steps 

Documentation Considerations

Provide information that needs to be considered and planned so that documentation will meet customer needs.  If the feature extends existing functionality, provide a link to its current documentation. Initial completion during Refinement status.

We may want to consider publishing a KB article with most common setup mistakes and errors. 

Interoperability Considerations

Which other projects, including ROSA/OSD/ARO, and versions in our portfolio does this feature impact?  What interoperability test scenarios should be factored by the layered products?  Initial completion during Refinement status.

This GA applies only to self-managed Azure clusters. Workload specs (RuntimeClass, annotations) remain portable to ARO when it later GA’s. Other clouds (AWS, GCP) and managed services are not yet supported; integrations with monitoring or compliance tools must account for CVM isolation and exec/log limitations.