Feature Overview (aka. Goal Summary)  

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

We have multiple customers that are asking us to disable the vsphere CSI driver/operator as a day 2 operation. The goal of this epic is to provide a safe API that will remove the vSphere CSI/Operator. This will also silent the VPD alerts as we received several complaints about VPD raising to many.

IMPORTANT: As disabling a storage driver from a running environment can be risky, the use of this API will only be allowed through a RH customer support case. Support will ensure that it is safe to proceed and guide the customer through the process.

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.

Customers want to disable vSphere CSI because this requires several vsphere permissions that they don't want to allow at the OCP level, not setting these permissions ends up with constant and recurring alerting. These customers don't want to use vsphere CSI usually because they use another storage solution.

The goal is to provide an API that disables vSphere storage intergration as well as the VPD alerts which will still be present in the logs but not raise (no alerts, lower frequency of checks, lower severity).

Requirements (aka. Acceptance Criteria):

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.

vsphere CSI/Operator is disabled and no VDP alerts are raised. Logs are still present.

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.

As an admin I want to disable the vsphere CSI driver because I am using another storage solution. 

As an admin I want to disable the vsphere CSI driver because it requires too many vsphere permissions and keep raising OCP alerts.

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.

What to do if there is existing PVs?

How do we manage general alerts if VPD alert are silenced?

What do we do if customer tries to install the upstream vsphere CSI?

Out of Scope

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

Replace the Red Hat vSphere CSI with the vmware upstream driver. We can consider this use case in a second phase if there is an actual demand.

Public availability. To begin with this will be only possible through RH support.

Background

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

Several customers requests asking to disable vsphere CSI drivers.

see https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RFE-3821

Customer Considerations

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

Understand why the customer wants to disable it in the first. Be extra careful with pre-flight checks in order to make sure that it is safe to proceed with.

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.

No public doc, we need a detailed documentation for our support organisation that includes, pre-flight checks, the differents steps, confirmation that everything works as expected and basic troubleshooting guide. Likely an internal KB or whatever works best for support.

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.

Applies to vsphere only