Before 4.10, customers would configure a link to a CoreOS image in the cloud format (qcow2) in their install-config. Ironic would write this image to the target root disk, and Ignition configuration would be supplied as a separate configdrive partition.

In 4.10, Metal platform moved to using a CoreOS ISO image from the payload, removing the need for a link to the qcow2 image and unifying the installation process with UPI, as well as future ZTP and ABI. However, clusters upgrade from before 4.10 still use the same configuration, including potentially very outdated qcow2 images.

Even new customers keep stumbling upon the configuration options and install-config and populating them unnecessarily, sometimes triggering issues in their deployment.

We need to deprecate and remove the old method. But before that, we need to provide either automated (better) or at least clearly documented and properly tested manual migration process. The scope of this RFE would be to decide on this process and start the deprecation.