WIP: STOR-2966: Promote ExternalSnapshotMetadata feature gate to TechPreviewNoUpgrade

[RomanBednar]

Summary

• Promotes the ExternalSnapshotMetadata feature gate from DevPreviewNoUpgrade to TechPreviewNoUpgrade for OCP 5.0
• Updates contactPerson from jdobson to rbednar
• Regenerates payload featuregate manifests

Context

This is part of the STOR-2900 epic to graduate Changed Block Tracking (CBT) from Developer Preview to Tech Preview in OpenShift 5.0.

Jira: https://redhat.atlassian.net/browse/STOR-2966

The upstream KEP 3314 (Changed Block Tracking) has reached beta status in Kubernetes 1.36, making this promotion appropriate.

Changes

• features/features.go: Changed contactPerson("jdobson") to contactPerson("rbednar") and changed enable(inDevPreviewNoUpgrade()) to enable(inTechPreviewNoUpgrade(), inDevPreviewNoUpgrade())
• features.md: Regenerated (ExternalSnapshotMetadata moved to TechPreview+DevPreview table)
• payload-manifests/featuregates/*.yaml: Regenerated (ExternalSnapshotMetadata added to TechPreviewNoUpgrade enabled list)

Similar PR

Pattern follows #2879 (VSphereMultiVCenterDay2 promotion, June 2026)

[openshift-merge-bot]

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[openshift-ci-robot]

@RomanBednar: This pull request references STOR-2966 which is a valid jira issue.

Warning: The referenced jira issue has an invalid target version for the target branch this PR targets: expected the story to target the "5.0.0" version, but no target version was set.

Details

In response to this:

Summary

• Promotes the ExternalSnapshotMetadata feature gate from DevPreviewNoUpgrade to TechPreviewNoUpgrade for OCP 5.0
• Updates contactPerson from jdobson to rbednar
• Regenerates payload featuregate manifests

Context

This is part of the STOR-2900 epic to graduate Changed Block Tracking (CBT) from Developer Preview to Tech Preview in OpenShift 5.0.

Jira: https://redhat.atlassian.net/browse/STOR-2966

The upstream KEP 3314 (Changed Block Tracking) has reached beta status in Kubernetes 1.36, making this promotion appropriate.

Changes

• features/features.go: Changed contactPerson("jdobson") to contactPerson("rbednar") and changed enable(inDevPreviewNoUpgrade()) to enable(inTechPreviewNoUpgrade(), inDevPreviewNoUpgrade())
• features.md: Regenerated (ExternalSnapshotMetadata moved to TechPreview+DevPreview table)
• payload-manifests/featuregates/*.yaml: Regenerated (ExternalSnapshotMetadata added to TechPreviewNoUpgrade enabled list)

Similar PR

Pattern follows #2879 (VSphereMultiVCenterDay2 promotion, June 2026)

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[openshift-ci]

Hello @RomanBednar! Some important instructions when contributing to openshift/api:
API design plays an important part in the user experience of OpenShift and as such API PRs are subject to a high level of scrutiny to ensure they follow our best practices. If you haven't already done so, please review the OpenShift API Conventions and ensure that your proposed changes are compliant. Following these conventions will help expedite the api review process for your PR.

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This PR promotes the ExternalSnapshotMetadata feature gate to tech preview release channels. The feature gate configuration in features.go is updated to enable it in both TechPreviewNoUpgrade and DevPreviewNoUpgrade channels, with a contact person field adjustment. Two deployment manifest files for Hypershift and SelfManagedHA profiles are updated to move the feature gate from disabled to enabled lists. The features.md documentation table is reorganized to reflect the change.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 14 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Microshift Test Compatibility	⚠️ Warning	PR adds Ginkgo e2e tests (tests/suite_test.go, tests/generator.go) that create and validate FeatureGate resources (config.openshift.io/v1) via DescribeTable()/It() pattern, but FeatureGate is not a...	Add [apigroup:config.openshift.io] tag to generated test names, or guard tests with exutil.IsMicroShiftCluster() check, or add [Skipped:MicroShift] label to make them MicroShift-compatible as per test generation framework.

✅ Passed checks (14 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is well-structured and directly related to the changeset, providing clear context about the feature gate promotion, affected files, and rationale.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
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.
Stable And Deterministic Test Names	✅ Passed	No Ginkgo tests found in the PR. Changes are limited to feature gate configuration, documentation, and YAML manifests, none containing Ginkgo test patterns.
Test Structure And Quality	✅ Passed	The PR's only Ginkgo test file (tests/suite_test.go) follows quality standards: uses BeforeSuite/AfterSuite for setup/cleanup, includes meaningful assertion messages with context (e.g., "test suite...
Single Node Openshift (Sno) Test Compatibility	✅ Passed	This PR makes no changes to Ginkgo e2e tests; it only modifies feature gate configuration and regenerates manifests/docs. Check is not applicable.
Topology-Aware Scheduling Compatibility	✅ Passed	PR only modifies feature gate configuration and documentation, not deployment manifests, operator code, or controllers. No scheduling constraints are introduced.
Ote Binary Stdout Contract	✅ Passed	This PR modifies feature gate configuration (features/features.go), documentation (features.md), and YAML manifests. These are configuration files, not OTE binaries. The changes contain no process-...
Ipv6 And Disconnected Network Test Compatibility	✅ Passed	No Ginkgo e2e tests are added in this PR. Changes are limited to feature gate configuration (features/features.go), documentation (features.md), and YAML manifests—none of which contain test code.
No-Weak-Crypto	✅ Passed	PR contains no cryptographic code or weak crypto patterns; it only updates feature gate configuration (contactPerson and enable flags) and regenerates documentation/manifests.
Container-Privileges	✅ Passed	The PR modifies feature gate configuration files (features.go, features.md, and FeatureGate YAML manifests), none of which contain container/pod specs or security context definitions. No privileged...
No-Sensitive-Data-In-Logs	✅ Passed	No sensitive data logging found. The PR changes feature gate configuration (ExternalSnapshotMetadata promotion) with contactPerson value changed from "jdobson" to "rbednar". This field is only used...
Title check	✅ Passed	The title 'WIP: STOR-2966: Promote ExternalSnapshotMetadata feature gate to TechPreviewNoUpgrade' directly and clearly summarizes the main change - promoting a feature gate to a new maturity level. The WIP prefix and Jira reference add context without obscuring the core purpose.

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[openshift-ci]

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[openshift-ci]

@RomanBednar: all tests passed!

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