🐛 Route catalogd content to its leader and webhooks to all replicas

[tmshort]

Summary

• Route catalog content and metrics through the elected catalogd leader.
• Route admission requests through a new catalogd-webhook-service that selects every ready catalogd replica.
• Configure the webhook Service certificate for both cert-manager and OpenShift service CA deployments.

Why this approach

A non-leader can return 404 for catalog content while its local cache is unavailable. Sending content traffic only to the elected leader avoids presenting that transient replica-local state as an authoritative not-found result. The admission webhook must remain available throughout leader election and cache warmup, so it deliberately uses a separate all-replica Service.

Compared with treating the 404 as a retry signal

This approach provides a stable content endpoint, avoids client-visible retry latency and extra load, and works for every catalogd client rather than only callers updated to recognize the transient 404. It also keeps admission available when the content Service has no leader endpoint during a transition. The cost is an extra Service and TLS wiring; OpenShift needs a second serving certificate, and catalogd watches that certificate independently.

Retrying on 404 would require less chart and certificate plumbing, but it overloads an otherwise authoritative HTTP status with replica state. Every current and future client would need correct retry/backoff behavior, requests can still fail while retry budgets are exhausted, and it does not address webhook availability after content routing becomes leader-only.

Validation

• go test -tags containers_image_openpgp ./cmd/catalogd ./internal/catalogd/serverutil
• make manifests
• make lint-helm
• make lint
• Experimental E2E suite: 54 parallel and 9 serial scenarios passed.
• Verified on the E2E cluster: the content Service had exactly the leader endpoint; the webhook Service had both ready replicas.

Related issue

OCPBUGS-128638

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features
  • Catalog traffic is routed through the elected leader and becomes available after serving catalog content is ready.
  • Webhook traffic uses a dedicated service and can use separate TLS certificates from the catalog and metrics endpoints. If separate certificates aren’t configured, catalog certificates are used.
• Bug Fixes
  • Webhook requests now target the dedicated webhook service, separate from metrics traffic.
  • Catalogs without stored content are marked unavailable when image pulling or content storage fails.

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ℹ️ Recent review info

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Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: a5955a54-58a3-4a7b-98a9-b5164b9c0388

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between fda19c9 and b43ea8d.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• internal/catalogd/controllers/core/clustercatalog_controller.go
• internal/catalogd/controllers/core/clustercatalog_controller_test.go

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Catalogd labels the elected replica after its advertised serving catalogs have local content. Catalog traffic and webhook traffic use separate Services. The webhook server can use separate TLS certificate and key files. Catalogd also updates serving status when pull or storage errors occur and stored content is absent.

Changes

Catalogd routing and serving

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Leader labeling and service routing internal/catalogd/serverutil/*, cmd/catalogd/main.go, helm/olmv1/templates/service-olmv1-system-catalogd-*, helm/olmv1/templates/rbac/*catalogd-manager-role.yml, helm/olmv1/templates/deployment-olmv1-system-catalogd-controller-manager.yml, helm/olmv1/templates/mutatingwebhookconfiguration-*catalogd*, manifests/experimental*.yaml, manifests/standard*.yaml, test/e2e/steps/demo_steps.go	Catalogd removes the pod leader label before traffic selection, waits for election and local content for advertised serving catalogs, then applies the label. The catalog Service selects labeled pods. A separate webhook Service handles webhook traffic. The deployments provide pod identity values and pod patch permission.
Webhook TLS configuration cmd/catalogd/main.go, cmd/catalogd/main_test.go, helm/olmv1/templates/cert-manager/*catalogd*, helm/olmv1/templates/deployment-olmv1-system-catalogd-controller-manager.yml, manifests/experimental*.yaml, manifests/standard*.yaml	Catalogd validates the webhook TLS file pair and defaults both files to the catalog TLS files when unset. It uses a separate certificate watcher when webhook paths differ. Deployment resources provide webhook TLS paths and certificate DNS names.
Serving status on pull and storage errors internal/catalogd/controllers/core/clustercatalog_controller.go, internal/catalogd/controllers/core/clustercatalog_controller_test.go	After pull or storage errors, catalogd clears serving-related status if stored content is absent. It retains serving status when content remains. Tests cover both error paths with missing content.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 4 (Complex) | ~45 minutes

Change: Bug fix

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant Manager
  participant catalogdLeaderLabeler
  participant KubernetesAPI
  participant LocalStorage
  participant catalogdService
  Manager->>catalogdLeaderLabeler: Signal leader election
  catalogdLeaderLabeler->>KubernetesAPI: Remove pod leader label
  catalogdLeaderLabeler->>LocalStorage: Check content for serving catalogs
  LocalStorage-->>catalogdLeaderLabeler: Report content availability
  catalogdLeaderLabeler->>KubernetesAPI: Apply leader label after readiness
  catalogdService->>KubernetesAPI: Select pods with leader label

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Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to b43ea

The change clears the serving status of a catalog after pull or storage errors when no local content remains, so a new leader can keep serving other catalogs. It is covered by tests. No concrete merge-blocking risk was found.

Security Architecture Review

Security architecture risk: 🟡 Moderate · up to b43ea

Separating catalog and webhook traffic addresses a real availability problem, but the change also broadens pod-patching authority and creates rollout and serving-state transitions that warrant review. No direct remote exploit is established.

Retained concerns

• Medium · security · inferred: The new namespace Role allows catalogd credentials to patch any Pod, rather than only the Pod whose leader label the runtime intends to manage. Credential compromise could therefore alter other Pods’ metadata, including labels used for service selection; no direct credential-compromise path is established by this PR.
• Medium · reliability · observed: Content availability is checked before the elected Pod receives the routing label, but is not rechecked afterward. Storage deletion or a failed store that removes content can clear Serving status while the Pod remains selected for catalog traffic. Startup label removal and shutdown cleanup do not address content loss during normal operation.
• Medium · reliability · inferred: During a partial rollout or rollback, the new all-replica webhook Service can select ready replicas while their serving certificates or webhook configuration are not yet compatible with its DNS name. Because ClusterCatalog admission fails closed, such a mismatch would block matching creates and updates. The repository evidence does not establish the installation sequence or demonstrate that this outage occurs.

Security review details

Security Blast Radius

• inferred — If catalogd’s service-account credentials are compromised, the new Pod patch grant increases the attacker’s metadata-modification reach to Pods throughout the catalogd namespace. The shown Role does not grant cluster-wide Pod patching.

Security Findings and Attack Paths

• inferred — A holder of catalogd credentials could patch Pod labels that influence Service membership; this is a conditional post-compromise path, not a demonstrated route from an unauthenticated catalog or webhook request to Pod patching.

Trust Boundaries and Controls

• observed — Webhook serving retains TLS: cert-manager supplies the new Service DNS names, while OpenShift supplies a separate serving-certificate mount. Startup validates paired webhook TLS paths and registers a watcher for a distinct certificate.

Resilience and Maintainability Implications

• inferred — The one-time readiness check and independent status and label updates can leave a selected content endpoint serving after its local content becomes unavailable, weakening failure containment even when Serving status is corrected.

Hardening Proposals

• proposed — Constrain Pod metadata patches to the intended catalogd Pod and leader label through an enforceable policy, and withdraw or continuously validate the routing label when required local content disappears.
• proposed — Verify staged upgrade and rollback with old and new ready replicas, including webhook certificate rotation, Service creation, CA injection, and fail-closed admission behavior.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 18.75% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 16 functions across 7 files.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main change: catalog content routes to the elected leader, while webhooks route to all replicas. It uses the required bug-fix icon and remains concise.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is complete and relevant. It includes the change summary, motivation, design comparison, validation results, and related issue. It does not include the repository's Reviewer Checklist …

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[tmshort]

This really only applies when there are more than 1 replicas; with only one replica, the HA guarantees are lessened, but it makes this problem easier.

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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
Review comments at @internal/catalogd/serverutil/serverutil.go:
- Around line 241-252: Update the error paths in
ClusterCatalogReconciler.reconcile for ImagePuller.Pull and Storage.Store
failures to clear Serving status with updateStatusNotServing when local content
is absent, while preserving the existing Progressing update and error return.

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ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: d7049844-5302-4bf1-8cf3-295df30a2cde

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between c36515b and fda19c9.

📒 Files selected for processing (15)

• cmd/catalogd/main.go
• cmd/catalogd/main_test.go
• helm/olmv1/templates/cert-manager/certificate-olmv1-system-catalogd-service-cert.yml
• helm/olmv1/templates/deployment-olmv1-system-catalogd-controller-manager.yml
• helm/olmv1/templates/mutatingwebhookconfiguration-catalogd-mutating-webhook-configuration.yml
• helm/olmv1/templates/rbac/role-olmv1-system-catalogd-manager-role.yml
• helm/olmv1/templates/service-olmv1-system-catalogd-service.yml
• helm/olmv1/templates/service-olmv1-system-catalogd-webhook-service.yml
• internal/catalogd/serverutil/serverutil.go
• internal/catalogd/serverutil/serverutil_test.go
• manifests/experimental-e2e.yaml
• manifests/experimental.yaml
• manifests/standard-e2e.yaml
• manifests/standard.yaml
• test/e2e/steps/demo_steps.go

Included review availability: This review used your included allowance. Your plan provides up to 2 included reviews per hour; 1 remain after this review.

[tmshort]

The bug in question is reporting on explicitly defined behavior. So, although this would fix the problem, it adds a unnecessary level of complexity.