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Conformance validation

Run bounded Sonobuoy evidence workflows without confusing conformance with ClusterPilot health or production approval.

AudienceQA, release engineering, platform operatorsReading time16 minCommands in context2 guided stepsReviewed source9552586 · 1 August 2026

Purpose and boundary

Independent Kubernetes Validation is a user-started ClusterPilot OperationRun on a selected target cluster managed by ClusterPilot. The lifecycle agent assigned to that cluster executes the pinned Sonobuoy workload and returns the evidence. A passing result does not approve the provider, deployment, security posture, backup, or application release.

Sonobuoy v0.57.5 release

Validation modes

ModePurposeGuardrail
QuickBounded reachability and smoke evidence.Lowest operational impact; still uses an admitted run.
Non-disruptive conformanceBroader conformance evidence designed to avoid disruptive tests.Requires compatibility, capacity, and artifact/cleanup checks.
Certified conformanceCertification-oriented suite.Explicit confirmation and production-impact override required.

Admission before execution

  • ✓
    Cluster exists, is reachable, and has no conflicting conformance run.
  • ✓
    Selected Kubernetes version and Sonobuoy catalog entry are eligible.
  • ✓
    Signed runtime bundle and digest-pinned images/tools are available online, through Harbor, or in the air-gap bundle.
  • ✓
    Artifact storage capacity, retention, timeout, and maximum output are acceptable.
  • ✓
    The operation-scoped cluster-admin-equivalent credential can be created and later removed.
  • ✓
    Certified mode has explicit operator confirmation and the required impact override.

Run and interpret

  1. 01

    Preview admission

    Review mode, versions, distribution source, privilege, expected artifacts, timeout, and cleanup plan.

  2. 02

    Start with idempotency

    Use the approved role and idempotency key; store the run and correlation IDs.

  3. 03

    Observe bounded progress

    Follow Sonobuoy setup, execution, result collection, analysis, and cleanup as explicit steps.

  4. 04

    Verify artifacts

    Download through the authenticated API, verify integrity, and review the immutable result snapshot.

  5. 05

    Confirm cleanup

    Ensure temporary cluster resources and operation-scoped credentials are removed or produce a recovery task.

Result semantics and retention

OutcomeInterpretation
PassedThe selected Sonobuoy mode passed for the recorded cluster/release snapshot.
FailedOne or more tests failed; inspect plugin results and run evidence.
IncompleteExecution, collection, analysis, or cleanup did not produce a complete result.
CancelledThe operator requested cancellation and cleanup reached a terminal state.

Purge is a separate, authorized lifecycle action. Retain the immutable result metadata, audit decision, and any evidence required by policy before deleting large raw artifacts.