linuxptp-daemon CI Optimization

[yaronh12]

Jira: CNF-22511
Related: CNF-17167 (cloud-event-proxy CI optimization)

Problem

The e2e-aws presubmit job for openshift/linuxptp-daemon takes almost ~3 hours to complete. From job history.

Time Breakdown (from build #2033906116655583232)

Phase	Duration	% of Total
Image build + release creation	~14 min	8%
IPI cluster install (ipi-install-install)	43m58s	26%
Other pre-install steps	~4 min	3%
OpenShift e2e conformance suite (openshift-e2e-test)	1h29m45s	53%
Post (gather artifacts + IPI teardown)	16m49s	10%
Total	2h49m05s	100%

Root Cause

The e2e-aws test runs the full OpenShift parallel conformance suite (openshift-e2e-test) — the same generic platform test suite that core components like apiserver and kubelet use. This test:

• Does NOT deploy or test linuxptp-daemon in any PTP-specific way
• Does NOT exercise PTP functionality (clock synchronization, ptp4l, phc2sys)
• Tests generic platform behavior (networking, storage, APIs, scheduling, etc.)
• Requires provisioning a brand new AWS cluster via IPI for every job run

The built ptp container image is included in the release payload, but linuxptp-daemon is an optional component — it is never deployed on a standard cluster unless the ptp-operator explicitly installs it. The conformance suite does not interact with the ptp image at all. (example build log)

Solution

Remove the e2e-aws test entirely from all linuxptp-daemon CI configurations (main + all release branches).

Why Removal Instead of ClusterClaim Optimization

I initially considered switching from IPI cluster provisioning to Hive ClusterClaim (pre-provisioned clusters), as was done for cloud-event-proxy in PR #74797. However, the situations are different:

Aspect	cloud-event-proxy	linuxptp-daemon
Custom test step	Yes — make functests (~2.5 min)	None — runs generic conformance (~1h30m)
Tests own component	Yes — deploys and tests cloud-event-proxy	No — tests the entire OCP platform
ClusterClaim savings	95% (1-2h → ~15 min)	Only ~38% (3h → ~1h45m)

Switching to ClusterClaim would save ~1 hour (eliminating IPI install/teardown), but the conformance suite itself would still take 1.5 hours — and it's not testing anything relevant to linuxptp-daemon.

Comparable Repos With No Cluster-Based Tests At All

Several CNF/networking/hardware component repos — including ones from the same PTP ecosystem — run only container-based tests (unit tests, image builds, formatting checks) with no cluster provisioning whatsoever:

Repository	Domain	Presubmit Tests
openshift/pf-status-relay	PTP/SRIOV relay	unit, verify-deps
redhat-cne/hw-event-proxy	Hardware event proxy (PTP/CNF)	image build only
openshift/sriov-network-metrics-exporter	SRIOV networking	unit, security, verify-deps
openshift/node-feature-discovery	Hardware discovery	unit, verify, verify-deps
openshift/rdma-cni	RDMA CNI	security, verify-deps

pf-status-relay and hw-event-proxy are from the same PTP/CNF ecosystem as linuxptp-daemon and follow the same pattern this PR adopts: container-based presubmit tests only, with integration testing delegated to the operator-level CI and periodic telco5g pipelines.

What Tests Remain

After this change, linuxptp-daemon PRs still run these presubmit tests:

Test	What It Does	Duration
unit-test	make test — Go unit tests with coverage	~minutes
gofmt	make fmt — code formatting validation	~seconds
images	Builds the ptp container image from Dockerfile	~minutes
verify-deps	Validates Go module dependencies	~minutes
security	Snyk vulnerability scan (optional)	~minutes

Estimated total presubmit time: ~5-10 minutes (down from ~3 hours).

Integration Testing Continues Elsewhere

The removal of the generic conformance suite does not leave linuxptp-daemon untested in a cluster context:

1. ptp-operator operator-e2e — On ptp-operator PRs, the operator-e2e test deploys the ptp-operator (which includes linuxptp-daemon as a DaemonSet) via OLM and runs validation tests. The ptp-operator CI config pulls linuxptp-daemon as a base_image and substitutes the built image into the operator bundle.

2. Release gating — The OpenShift release controller runs the full conformance suite as part of release acceptance. If a linuxptp-daemon image in the release payload somehow broke the platform, it would be caught at the release gate level.

3. telco5g periodic CI — The full PTP conformance tests (make functests from openshift/ptp-operator) run periodically on bare-metal clusters with PTP-capable hardware. These tests exercise actual clock synchronization and are the only tests that meaningfully validate PTP daemon behavior.

Changes Made

• Removed the e2e-aws test definition from all 23 CI config files across every branch (main, release-4.3 through release-5.0) in ci-operator/config/openshift/linuxptp-daemon/
• Regenerated Prow job files in ci-operator/jobs/openshift/linuxptp-daemon/ via make ci-operator-prowgen
• All other presubmit tests (unit-test, gofmt, images, security, verify-deps) remain unchanged

Pros and Cons

Pros

• ~3 hours saved per PR — presubmit drops from ~3h to ~5-10 min
• Reduces CI resource consumption — eliminates AWS cluster provisioning (IPI) and 1.5 hours of e2e test compute per job run, across 23 branches
• Aligns with community practice — comparable optional operator repos do not run the generic conformance suite
• No loss of meaningful test coverage — the conformance suite was not testing PTP functionality; actual PTP testing happens in ptp-operator and telco5g CI
• No risk of PTP regressions going undetected — unit tests, image builds, ptp-operator integration tests, and release gating all continue

Cons

• Loses generic platform conformance signal — if a linuxptp-daemon change somehow broke the broader OpenShift platform (extremely unlikely for a userspace PTP daemon), it would not be caught at presubmit time. It would instead be caught by the release controller's gating jobs.
• Relies on ptp-operator CI for integration testing — if ptp-operator's operator-e2e test is broken or disabled, there is no presubmit cluster-level test for linuxptp-daemon. This is a reasonable tradeoff since the ptp-operator test is actively maintained and tests the actual component deployment.

Alternative: Keep the Conformance Suite on ClusterClaim

If reviewers prefer to keep the full OpenShift conformance suite running for linuxptp-daemon, it can be switched from IPI to ClusterClaim instead of being removed. This would use a pre-provisioned cluster from a Hive pool, eliminating the ~48 min IPI install and ~17 min teardown while still running the same openshift-e2e-test step.
This would reduce job time from ~3 hours to ~1h45m — a meaningful improvement.

[openshift-ci-robot]

[REHEARSALNOTIFIER]
@yaronh12: no rehearsable tests are affected by this change

Note: If this PR includes changes to step registry files (ci-operator/step-registry/) and you expected jobs to be found, try rebasing your PR onto the base branch. This helps pj-rehearse accurately detect changes when the base branch has moved forward.

[openshift-ci]

Hi @yaronh12. Thanks for your PR.

I'm waiting for a openshift member to verify that this patch is reasonable to test. If it is, they should reply with /ok-to-test on its own line. Until that is done, I will not automatically test new commits in this PR, but the usual testing commands by org members will still work.

Regular contributors should join the org to skip this step.

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[openshift-ci]

[APPROVALNOTIFIER] This PR is NOT APPROVED

This pull-request has been approved by: yaronh12
Once this PR has been reviewed and has the lgtm label, please assign jzding for approval. For more information see the Code Review Process.

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Details

Needs approval from an approver in each of these files:

• ci-operator/config/openshift/linuxptp-daemon/OWNERS
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Approvers can indicate their approval by writing /approve in a comment
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[openshift-ci]

@yaronh12: Cannot trigger testing until a trusted user reviews the PR and leaves an /ok-to-test message.

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In response to this:

/ok-to-test

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[shirmoran]

/ok-to-test

[yaronh12]

/cc edcdavid

[openshift-ci]

@yaronh12: all tests passed!

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Instructions for interacting with me using PR comments are available here. If you have questions or suggestions related to my behavior, please file an issue against the kubernetes-sigs/prow repository. I understand the commands that are listed here.