Referencing this issue which was not completely solved:

https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHODS-8481

Customers with disconnected clusters are forced to be reliant on the internal image registry, users are faced with an RHOAI error message as of right now if the registry is not in use. 

Feature Refinement Document:

It's easier to find it here when you have many links in the issues links section

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TD0bZRYyU0u5WJZSNznYNxpOfQZtdEPNIp9lwgRMJjE/edit#heading=h.nk0gqur98cd3 

Next Steps:

• IDE team work on this Spike: https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHOAIENG-5264 
  • It will let us understand which are all the changes we need to do and if we need to include Platform and UXD on this discussion.

Meeting Notes:

Currently, many users might not have an internal image registry setup in their cluster, and the RHOAI workbench setup requires the internal image registry to function properly.
The goal of this epic would be to facilitate a solution such that, the user can use the features of the RHOAI workbench without an internal image registry setup.

Current process:
 - RHOAI workbench setup relies on OpenShift ImageStreams,
Currently, Dashboard when creating the CR, picks the details from the internal registry based on the status of the imagestreams. 

Solutions:
1. When the internal image registry is not available, fall back to the tagged external registry along with prompting the user about the pull. 

2. Use of ImageChangeTrigger Annotation, on imagestream, a tag it puts that information in the annotation of the tag, and then the Dashboard can pick the image URL from there.

3. Document that internal registry is mandatory, fail with an actionable error, RHOAIRFE-45

Acceptance criteria:

User is able to create workbenches with or without the Internal Image registry.

Team Coordinating: IDE and Dashboard, QA, Docs

Requirements:

• User shouldn't have to have the internal image registry.
• Changes shouldn't disrupt the Long Running workbench.

Dev:

1. [SPIKE] Explore relying on Imagestream lookup policy directly for all OpenShift version support RHOAI.
2. Make the change of imagestream info in the Dashboard.
   1. Based on the change, make necessary change to the Notebook Controller.

QA:

• Make sure no long-running workbench gets restarted.
• Test if the internal image-registry is not present, workbench runs as expected.
  • For both Disconnected and Cloud Service env.
• Extend ods-ci to check for Notebook CR for the image value.
• Extend ods-ci for instance where there is no internal image-registry.
• Extend QA operation to check for the upgrade operation.

Docs:

• Known Issues: https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHOAIENG-3378, Based on the changes and fixes, this would potentially move to Resolved Issue.
• Image registry is mentioned in the documentation, that would stay the same.

Questions:

• Do we need support from openshift ?
• Do we need an option for user to select between internal or external image registry? (maybe require UX and Platform)