ROX-31236: Remove `ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT` flag by vikin91 · Pull Request #17236 · stackrox/stackrox

vikin91 · 2025-10-10T09:58:58Z

Human here

This has been created fully by AI. I have checked the code changes and the PR description.
The description could have been more compact, but I think the goal of this PR is clear.

Description

This PR removes the ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT feature flag that has been enabled by default since Release 4.2 (December 2023).

📋 Detailed Implementation Plan: REMOVAL_PLAN_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART.md

Why is this safe to remove?

Default enabled since: Release 4.2 (Dec 2023) - over 22 months in production
No runtime override: Flag marked as unchangeableInProd - cannot be disabled in production
Stable behavior: Connection retry mechanism has been standard operational mode for 1.5+ years
Foundation for other features: This enables subsequent removal of ROX_CAPTURE_INTERMEDIATE_EVENTS and ROX_SENSOR_RECONCILIATION
Test coverage preserved: Integration tests continue to validate reconnection scenarios

Changes made:

Removed feature flag definition from pkg/features/list.go
Simplified Sensor Start() to always use connection retry logic
Simplified Sensor Stop() to use retry-aware stop mechanism
Removed feature flag setup from 3 integration tests (runtime, reconciliation, alerts)
Removed unused communicationWithCentral function

The retry-enabled behavior is now the only operational mode. The legacy "restart-on-disconnect" code path has been completely removed.

PR Stacking Context

This is the first PR of a 4-PR feature flag cleanup sequence:

This PR: ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT (foundation layer)
Parallel with this: ROX_AUTH_MACHINE_TO_MACHINE (independent)
After this PR merges: ROX_CAPTURE_INTERMEDIATE_EVENTS (depends on this)
After ROX_CAPTURE_INTERMEDIATE_EVENTS: ROX_SENSOR_RECONCILIATION (depends on first and third PRs)

User-facing documentation

CHANGELOG.md is updated OR update is not needed - Not needed: internal cleanup, no user-facing impact
documentation PR is created and is linked above OR is not needed - Not needed: behavior unchanged

Testing and quality

the change is production ready: the change is GA, or otherwise the functionality is gated by a feature flag - Removal of an always-enabled flag
CI results are inspected

Automated testing

modified existing tests - Simplified test setup by removing flag enablement

How I validated my change

Verified that all integration tests that previously enabled this flag now run without it
Confirmed linter passes on all modified files
Tests continue to validate:
- Connection retry behavior
- Sensor reconnection without restart
- K8s event reconciliation after reconnect
- Alert transmission after connection restart
The removed code paths (non-retry mode) were already unreachable in production due to unchangeableInProd constraint

Suggested Reviewers

Sensor team members
Anyone familiar with Sensor-Central connection management

This removes the ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT feature flag that has been enabled by default since Release 4.2 (Dec 2023). The feature flag enabled Sensor to maintain connection retries with Central instead of restarting the entire Sensor process on disconnect. This behavior is now the standard and only operational mode. Changes: - Removed feature flag definition from pkg/features/list.go - Simplified sensor Start() to always use connection retry logic - Simplified sensor Stop() to use the retry-aware stop mechanism - Removed feature flag setup from 3 integration tests (runtime, reconciliation, alerts) The retry-enabled behavior is preserved as the default and only mode. Tests continue to validate reconnection scenarios without needing explicit feature flag enablement. Partially generated with AI assistance.

openshift-ci · 2025-10-10T09:59:03Z

Skipping CI for Draft Pull Request.
If you want CI signal for your change, please convert it to an actual PR.
You can still manually trigger a test run with /test all

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rhacs-bot · 2025-10-10T10:20:08Z

Images are ready for the commit at 0915659.

To use with deploy scripts, first export MAIN_IMAGE_TAG=4.9.x-1047-g09156590c7.

The communicationWithCentral function was no longer called after removing the feature flag conditional logic. This fixes the golangci-lint unused function warning.

This document provides the detailed analysis and implementation plan for removing the ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT feature flag.

This document is for reference only and should not be part of the codebase.

codecov · 2025-10-10T11:25:24Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 0% with 3 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 48.84%. Comparing base (9598e78) to head (0915659).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
sensor/common/sensor/sensor.go	0.00%	3 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master   #17236      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   48.81%   48.84%   +0.03%     
==========================================
  Files        2717     2717              
  Lines      203219   203182      -37     
==========================================
+ Hits        99200    99251      +51     
+ Misses      96196    96114      -82     
+ Partials     7823     7817       -6

Flag	Coverage Δ
go-unit-tests	`48.84% <0.00%> (+0.03%)`	⬆️

Flags with carried forward coverage won't be shown. Click here to find out more.

☔ View full report in Codecov by Sentry.
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This removes the ROX_CAPTURE_INTERMEDIATE_EVENTS feature flag that has been enabled by default since Release 4.3 (February 2024). The flag enabled offline v3 behavior where Sensor buffers events during Central disconnects. This is now the standard operational mode. Changes: - Removed feature flag definition from pkg/features/list.go - Network flow manager: Always use buffered channels and continue enrichment during offline mode - Process signal pipeline: Always use long-lived contexts that persist across disconnects - Detector: Always use buffered queues and handle pause/resume on connection events - Removed EnrichmentReasonEpFeatureDisabled (no longer returned) - Updated integration tests to remove flag setup - Removed unused features package imports from 9 files All event buffering and offline operation functionality remains fully operational. This PR is stacked on #17236 (ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT removal). Partially generated with AI assistance.

sourcery-ai

Hey there - I've reviewed your changes - here's some feedback:

Remove any remaining references to ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT in documentation, scripts, and config templates to avoid confusion.
Since the retry logic is now the only execution path, consider renaming communicationWithCentralWithRetries to a more generic name (e.g., startCentralCommunication) for clarity.
Clean up or update any stale log messages and metrics around the old restart-on-disconnect behavior so they accurately reflect the current retry‐only flow.

Prompt for AI Agents

Please address the comments from this code review:

## Overall Comments
- Remove any remaining references to ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT in documentation, scripts, and config templates to avoid confusion.
- Since the retry logic is now the only execution path, consider renaming communicationWithCentralWithRetries to a more generic name (e.g., startCentralCommunication) for clarity.
- Clean up or update any stale log messages and metrics around the old restart-on-disconnect behavior so they accurately reflect the current retry‐only flow.

Sourcery is free for open source - if you like our reviews please consider sharing them ✨

_{Help me be more useful! Please click 👍 or 👎 on each comment and I'll use the feedback to improve your reviews.}

vikin91 · 2025-10-10T14:39:06Z

@sourcery-ai

Remove any remaining references to ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT in documentation, scripts, and config templates to avoid confusion.

I checked for that and it should be done.

Since the retry logic is now the only execution path, consider renaming communicationWithCentralWithRetries to a more generic name (e.g., startCentralCommunication) for clarity.

I would like to keep the changes minimal and don't do the refactoring when only removal of FF was planned. I think the name is still fine.

Clean up or update any stale log messages and metrics around the old restart-on-disconnect behavior so they accurately reflect the current retry‐only flow.

I didn't see any. If there is something to clean up, let me know.

openshift-ci · 2025-10-10T15:52:18Z

@vikin91: The following test failed, say /retest to rerun all failed tests or /retest-required to rerun all mandatory failed tests:

Test name	Commit	Details	Required	Rerun command
ci/prow/ocp-4-19-ui-e2e-tests	`0915659`	link	false	`/test ocp-4-19-ui-e2e-tests`

Full PR test history. Your PR dashboard.

Details

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.

This removes the ROX_CAPTURE_INTERMEDIATE_EVENTS feature flag that has been enabled by default since Release 4.3 (February 2024). The flag enabled offline v3 behavior where Sensor buffers events during Central disconnects. This is now the standard operational mode. Changes: - Removed feature flag definition from pkg/features/list.go - Network flow manager: Always use buffered channels and continue enrichment during offline mode - Process signal pipeline: Always use long-lived contexts that persist across disconnects - Detector: Always use buffered queues and handle pause/resume on connection events - Removed EnrichmentReasonEpFeatureDisabled (no longer returned) - Updated integration tests to remove flag setup - Removed unused features package imports from 9 files All event buffering and offline operation functionality remains fully operational. This PR is stacked on #17236 (ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT removal). Partially generated with AI assistance.

openshift-ci bot added the do-not-merge/work-in-progress label Oct 10, 2025

github-actions bot added area/sensor ai-review labels Oct 10, 2025

sourcery-ai bot reviewed Oct 10, 2025

View reviewed changes

Remove unused communicationWithCentral function

94aaefc

The communicationWithCentral function was no longer called after removing the feature flag conditional logic. This fixes the golangci-lint unused function warning.

vikin91 added ai-assisted 99 papercuts labels Oct 10, 2025

vikin91 added 2 commits October 10, 2025 12:36

docs: Add removal plan for ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT

f69436f

This document provides the detailed analysis and implementation plan for removing the ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT feature flag.

Remove removal plan from code - should not be committed

ad42365

This document is for reference only and should not be part of the codebase.

vikin91 changed the title ~~ROX-31236: Remove ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT flag~~ ROX-31236: Remove ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT flag Oct 10, 2025

vikin91 mentioned this pull request Oct 10, 2025

ROX-31236: Remove ROX_AUTH_MACHINE_TO_MACHINE feature flag #17239

Closed

9 tasks

vikin91 added 99papercuts and removed 99 papercuts labels Oct 10, 2025

vikin91 mentioned this pull request Oct 10, 2025

ROX-31236: Remove ROX_CAPTURE_INTERMEDIATE_EVENTS flag #17240

Merged

11 tasks

Update comment to reflect feature is now always enabled

0915659

vikin91 mentioned this pull request Oct 10, 2025

ROX-31236: Remove ROX_SENSOR_RECONCILIATION feature flag #17242

Merged

10 tasks

vikin91 marked this pull request as ready for review October 10, 2025 14:24

vikin91 requested a review from a team as a code owner October 10, 2025 14:24

openshift-ci bot removed the do-not-merge/work-in-progress label Oct 10, 2025

sourcery-ai bot reviewed Oct 10, 2025

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vikin91 requested a review from lvalerom October 10, 2025 14:39

janisz approved these changes Oct 13, 2025

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vikin91 merged commit ba34cfc into master Oct 13, 2025
97 of 99 checks passed

vikin91 deleted the piotr/ROX-31236-remove-prevent-sensor-restart-flag branch October 13, 2025 15:27

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ROX-31236: Remove `ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT` flag#17236

ROX-31236: Remove `ROX_PREVENT_SENSOR_RESTART_ON_DISCONNECT` flag#17236
vikin91 merged 5 commits intomasterfrom
piotr/ROX-31236-remove-prevent-sensor-restart-flag

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Human here

Description

Why is this safe to remove?

Changes made:

PR Stacking Context

User-facing documentation

Testing and quality

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How I validated my change

Suggested Reviewers

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