[release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550: NE-2480: Promote GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate to Default

[gcs278]

Summary

Promote the GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate to Default (GA) on release-4.21. This is the final PR needed to activate the no-OLM path for Gateway API on 4.21 — once merged, the Sail Library installation path replaces OLM-based Istio management in the next z-stream.

This is part of an approved SBAR to backport the Sail Library (noOLM) from 4.22 to 4.19–4.21.

Backport of #2772 (originally landed in 4.22).

Background

Gateway API on OCP 4.19–4.21 uses the Cluster Ingress Operator (CIO) to install Istio via OLM (OSSM operator). This path has several critical bugs:

• OCPBUGS-88295: OSSM z-stream upgrades are blocked, preventing CVE fixes from being delivered
• OCPBUGS-82146: OLM-related install failures
• OCPBUGS-78330: Hardcoded catalog source breaks disconnected environments
• OCPBUGS-85550: Gateway API fails on clusters without Marketplace capability

In OCP 4.22, NE-2286 replaced OLM with the Sail Library — CIO now installs Istio directly via embedded Helm charts. This feature shipped as GA behind the GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate.

Rollout Plan

Phase 1 — Land code (gate OFF) ✅

• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-85149: Backport GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate as disabled #2864 — Add FG as disabled
• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-85149: Enable Gateway API tests on vSphere and baremetal origin#31139 — Backport Gateway API test prerequisites
• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550, OCPBUGS-88324, OCPBUGS-88322, OCPBUGS-88320: Backport noOLM Gateway API test coverage and upgrade tests origin#31232 — Backport noOLM test coverage and upgrade tests
• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550: Replace OLM-based Istio install with Sail Library cluster-ingress-operator#1442 — Sail Library code lands, gate OFF

Phase 2 — TechPreview soak ✅

• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550: Promote GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate to TechPreview #2873 — FG promotion to TechPreviewNoUpgrade
• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550: Remove feature-set annotations from Sail Library RBAC Manifests cluster-ingress-operator#1462 — Remove feature-set annotation from Sail Library RBAC

Phase 3 — GA promotion

• This PR — FG promotion to Default/GA, activates noOLM

Follow-up

• OCPBUGS-84834: Bump GWAPI CRDs to v1.4.1 OSSM 3.3.1 and Istio v1.28.5 cluster-ingress-operator#1444 — Bump GWAPI CRDs to v1.4.1 and Istio to v1.28.5

[openshift-merge-bot]

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[openshift-ci]

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If you want CI signal for your change, please convert it to an actual PR.
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[openshift-ci]

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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.

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[openshift-ci-robot]

@gcs278: This pull request references NE-2480 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 "4.21.z" version, but no target version was set.

Details

In response to this:

Summary

Promote the GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate to Default (enabled) on release-4.21. This activates the Sail Library installation path, replacing OLM-based Istio management for Gateway API.

This is a WIP — do not merge until the CIO noOLM backport and E2E tests are in place.

Why

See the noOLM backport doc for full context. The primary driver is OCPBUGS-86778 which blocks all OSSM z-stream upgrades via OLM on 4.19-4.21.

Merge Order

This PR is step 4 in the merge sequence:

1. [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-85149: Backport GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate as disabled #2864 — FG as disabled ✅
2. [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-85149: Enable Gateway API tests on vSphere and baremetal origin#31139 — E2E tests for noOLM
3. [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550: Replace OLM-based Istio install with Sail Library cluster-ingress-operator#1442 — CIO noOLM backport (gate OFF)
4. This PR — FG promotion to Default, activates noOLM
5. Verify CI is green
6. OCPBUGS-84834: Bump GWAPI CRDs to v1.4.1 OSSM 3.3.1 and Istio v1.28.5 cluster-ingress-operator#1444 — bump GWAPI CRDs to v1.4.1 and Istio to v1.28.5

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 openshift-eng/jira-lifecycle-plugin repository.

[openshift-ci]

@gcs278: This PR was included in a payload test run from openshift/origin#31232
trigger 1 job(s) for the /payload-(with-prs|job|aggregate|job-with-prs|aggregate-with-prs) command

• periodic-ci-openshift-release-main-ci-4.21-upgrade-from-stable-4.20-e2e-gcp-ovn-rt-upgrade

See details on https://pr-payload-tests.ci.openshift.org/runs/ci/6689b0c0-603c-11f1-940d-a9e7c33d49a1-0

[openshift-ci]

@gcs278: This PR was included in a payload test run from openshift/origin#31232
trigger 1 job(s) for the /payload-(with-prs|job|aggregate|job-with-prs|aggregate-with-prs) command

• periodic-ci-openshift-release-main-ci-4.21-e2e-aws-ovn-upgrade-out-of-change

See details on https://pr-payload-tests.ci.openshift.org/runs/ci/8f447a90-603c-11f1-97f7-e6703f146ba4-0

[openshift-ci]

@gcs278: This PR was included in a payload test run from openshift/origin#31232
trigger 1 job(s) for the /payload-(with-prs|job|aggregate|job-with-prs|aggregate-with-prs) command

• periodic-ci-openshift-release-main-ci-4.21-upgrade-from-stable-4.20-e2e-gcp-ovn-rt-upgrade

See details on https://pr-payload-tests.ci.openshift.org/runs/ci/d6b82790-604c-11f1-8cfa-10e8e0b0bde5-0

[openshift-ci]

@gcs278: This PR was included in a payload test run from openshift/origin#31232
trigger 1 job(s) for the /payload-(with-prs|job|aggregate|job-with-prs|aggregate-with-prs) command

• periodic-ci-openshift-release-main-ci-4.21-upgrade-from-stable-4.20-e2e-gcp-ovn-upgrade

See details on https://pr-payload-tests.ci.openshift.org/runs/ci/9d4f79a0-6069-11f1-8253-78c971bcc8c1-0

[openshift-ci]

@gcs278: This PR was included in a payload test run from openshift/origin#31232
trigger 1 job(s) for the /payload-(with-prs|job|aggregate|job-with-prs|aggregate-with-prs) command

• periodic-ci-openshift-release-main-ci-4.21-upgrade-from-stable-4.20-e2e-aws-ovn-upgrade

See details on https://pr-payload-tests.ci.openshift.org/runs/ci/c9301480-6069-11f1-94ef-707e0daebf2d-0

[openshift-ci-robot]

@gcs278: This pull request references Jira Issue OCPBUGS-88295, which is valid.

7 validation(s) were run on this bug

• bug is open, matching expected state (open)
• bug target version (4.21.z) matches configured target version for branch (4.21.z)
• bug is in the state POST, which is one of the valid states (NEW, ASSIGNED, POST)
• release note text is set and does not match the template
• dependent bug Jira Issue OCPBUGS-86778 is in the state Closed (Done), which is one of the valid states (VERIFIED, RELEASE PENDING, CLOSED (ERRATA), CLOSED (CURRENT RELEASE), CLOSED (DONE), CLOSED (DONE-ERRATA))
• dependent Jira Issue OCPBUGS-86778 targets the "4.22.0" version, which is one of the valid target versions: 4.22.0
• bug has dependents

Requesting review from QA contact:
/cc @melvinjoseph86

The bug has been updated to refer to the pull request using the external bug tracker.

This pull request references Jira Issue OCPBUGS-88297, which is valid.

7 validation(s) were run on this bug

• bug is open, matching expected state (open)
• bug target version (4.21.z) matches configured target version for branch (4.21.z)
• bug is in the state POST, which is one of the valid states (NEW, ASSIGNED, POST)
• release note text is set and does not match the template
• dependent bug Jira Issue OCPBUGS-79467 is in the state Closed (Done), which is one of the valid states (VERIFIED, RELEASE PENDING, CLOSED (ERRATA), CLOSED (CURRENT RELEASE), CLOSED (DONE), CLOSED (DONE-ERRATA))
• dependent Jira Issue OCPBUGS-79467 targets the "4.22.0" version, which is one of the valid target versions: 4.22.0
• bug has dependents

No GitHub users were found matching the public email listed for the QA contact in Jira (iamin@redhat.com), skipping review request.

The bug has been updated to refer to the pull request using the external bug tracker.

This pull request references Jira Issue OCPBUGS-82146, which is valid.

7 validation(s) were run on this bug

• bug is open, matching expected state (open)
• bug target version (4.21.z) matches configured target version for branch (4.21.z)
• bug is in the state POST, which is one of the valid states (NEW, ASSIGNED, POST)
• release note text is set and does not match the template
• dependent bug Jira Issue OCPBUGS-76609 is in the state Closed (Done), which is one of the valid states (VERIFIED, RELEASE PENDING, CLOSED (ERRATA), CLOSED (CURRENT RELEASE), CLOSED (DONE), CLOSED (DONE-ERRATA))
• dependent Jira Issue OCPBUGS-76609 targets the "4.22.0" version, which is one of the valid target versions: 4.22.0
• bug has dependents

No GitHub users were found matching the public email listed for the QA contact in Jira (iamin@redhat.com), skipping review request.

The bug has been updated to refer to the pull request using the external bug tracker.

This pull request references Jira Issue OCPBUGS-78330, which is valid.

7 validation(s) were run on this bug

• bug is open, matching expected state (open)
• bug target version (4.21.z) matches configured target version for branch (4.21.z)
• bug is in the state POST, which is one of the valid states (NEW, ASSIGNED, POST)
• release note text is set and does not match the template
• dependent bug Jira Issue OCPBUGS-88300 is in the state Closed (Done), which is one of the valid states (VERIFIED, RELEASE PENDING, CLOSED (ERRATA), CLOSED (CURRENT RELEASE), CLOSED (DONE), CLOSED (DONE-ERRATA))
• dependent Jira Issue OCPBUGS-88300 targets the "4.22.0" version, which is one of the valid target versions: 4.22.0
• bug has dependents

No GitHub users were found matching the public email listed for the QA contact in Jira (iamin@redhat.com), skipping review request.

The bug has been updated to refer to the pull request using the external bug tracker.

This pull request references Jira Issue OCPBUGS-85550, which is invalid:

• expected the bug to target the "4.21.z" version, but no target version was set

Comment /jira refresh to re-evaluate validity if changes to the Jira bug are made, or edit the title of this pull request to link to a different bug.

The bug has been updated to refer to the pull request using the external bug tracker.

Details

In response to this:

Summary

Promote the GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate to Default (enabled) on release-4.21. This activates the Sail Library installation path, replacing OLM-based Istio management for Gateway API.

This is a WIP — do not merge until the CIO noOLM backport and E2E tests are in place.

Implementation: openshift/cluster-ingress-operator#1442

Why

See the noOLM backport doc for full context. The primary driver is OCPBUGS-86778 which blocks all OSSM z-stream upgrades via OLM on 4.19-4.21.

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 openshift-eng/jira-lifecycle-plugin repository.

[gcs278]

/jira refresh

[gcs278]

The verify-feature-promotion will never past because we do not support Gateway API on IPV6 or dual - same on 4.22 GA #2772. Will need override as @JoelSpeed did on #2772 (comment)

[JoelSpeed]

/lgtm
/label backport-risk-assessed

SBAR was approved for this backport, CI requirements are also met for supported platforms

/override ci/prow/verify-feature-promotion

[openshift-ci]

@JoelSpeed: Overrode contexts on behalf of JoelSpeed: ci/prow/verify-feature-promotion

Details

In response to this:

/lgtm
/label backport-risk-assessed

SBAR was approved for this backport, CI requirements are also met for supported platforms

/override ci/prow/verify-feature-promotion

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.

[openshift-merge-bot]

Scheduling tests matching the pipeline_run_if_changed or not excluded by pipeline_skip_if_only_changed parameters:
/test e2e-aws-ovn
/test e2e-aws-ovn-hypershift
/test e2e-aws-ovn-hypershift-conformance
/test e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview
/test e2e-aws-serial-1of2
/test e2e-aws-serial-2of2
/test e2e-aws-serial-techpreview-1of2
/test e2e-aws-serial-techpreview-2of2
/test e2e-azure
/test e2e-gcp
/test e2e-upgrade
/test e2e-upgrade-out-of-change

[openshift-ci]

[APPROVALNOTIFIER] This PR is APPROVED

This pull-request has been approved by: JoelSpeed

The full list of commands accepted by this bot can be found here.

The pull request process is described here

Details

Needs approval from an approver in each of these files:

• OWNERS [JoelSpeed]

Approvers can indicate their approval by writing /approve in a comment
Approvers can cancel approval by writing /approve cancel in a comment

[gcs278]

Unrelated failure
/test e2e-azure

[gcs278]

Created a bug for e2e-upgrade-out-of-change failure: https://redhat.atlassian.net/browse/OCPBUGS-91956

It's a simple fix (openshift/origin#31329) and test-only bug that I'll pre-test with /testwith. I'm not too concerned - I don't think downgrading from OLM to NO-OLM (removing the FG) is a possible scenario anyways.

[gcs278]

/testwith openshift/api/release-4.21/e2e-upgrade-out-of-change openshift/origin#31331

[gcs278]

I don't know if e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview and e2e-upgrade-out-of-change will block merging (it says required: true), but:

• e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview is permafailing with a variety of unrelated failures related to disruption
• e2e-upgrade-out-of-change is failing on my new Gateway API upgrade test
  • This is being fixed by OCPBUGS-91956: Fix isNoOLMFeatureGateEnabled to check only the current cluster version origin#31329, however it needs to be backported back to 4.21 - that might take some time
  • I used /testwith to confirm that this test passes with the test bug fixed
  • This is an unsupported scenario of downgrading back to OLM, that is still proven to work - the test failure doesn't raise any concerns for me.

My goal was to merge before the next 4.21 z-stream cutoff tomorrow (6/24). The test failure doesn't reflect a code quality issue: the CIO behavior is correct, and I have a proven fix incoming for the test itself.

@JoelSpeed would it be a bad idea to override these? It'd be nice to merge, but I can understand waiting for the fix.

[JoelSpeed]

/override ci/prow/e2e-upgrade-out-of-change

Out of change tests help us check for downgrade issues, though we don't support downgrades, this occassionally catches issues that might bite us. There's no release blocking jobs that match this so merging this PR without it passing should not affect our nightly builds

/test e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview

Want to run this one once more

[openshift-ci]

@JoelSpeed: Overrode contexts on behalf of JoelSpeed: ci/prow/e2e-upgrade-out-of-change

Details

In response to this:

/override ci/prow/e2e-upgrade-out-of-change

Out of change tests help us check for downgrade issues, though we don't support downgrades, this occassionally catches issues that might bite us. There's no release blocking jobs that match this so merging this PR without it passing should not affect our nightly builds

/test e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview

Want to run this one once more

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.

[melvinjoseph86]

Checked the PR with clusterbot

➜  oc get clusterversion
NAME      VERSION                                                AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   SINCE   STATUS
version   4.21.0-0-2026-06-24-083337-test-ci-ln-jjv8lkk-latest   True        False         134m    Cluster version is 4.21.0-0-2026-06-24-083337-test-ci-ln-jjv8lkk-latest

➜   oc get featuregate cluster -o yaml
apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: FeatureGate
metadata:
  annotations:
    include.release.openshift.io/self-managed-high-availability: "true"
  creationTimestamp: "2026-06-24T08:47:33Z"
  generation: 1
  name: cluster
  resourceVersion: "694"
  uid: 02fffb5d-aca0-439e-9b01-1c87a8fea9cb
spec: {}
status:
  featureGates:
<----snip--->
    enabled:
    - name: AdditionalRoutingCapabilities
    - name: AdminNetworkPolicy
    - name: AlibabaPlatform
    - name: AzureWorkloadIdentity
    - name: BuildCSIVolumes
    - name: CPMSMachineNamePrefix
    - name: ConsolePluginContentSecurityPolicy
    - name: EventTTL
    - name: ExternalOIDC
    - name: ExternalOIDCWithUIDAndExtraClaimMappings
    - name: GCPClusterHostedDNSInstall
    - name: GatewayAPI
    - name: GatewayAPIController
    - name: GatewayAPIWithoutOLM
<----snip--->

/verified by @mjoseph

[openshift-ci-robot]

@melvinjoseph86: This PR has been marked as verified by @mjoseph.

Details

In response to this:

Checked the PR with clusterbot

➜  oc get clusterversion
NAME      VERSION                                                AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   SINCE   STATUS
version   4.21.0-0-2026-06-24-083337-test-ci-ln-jjv8lkk-latest   True        False         134m    Cluster version is 4.21.0-0-2026-06-24-083337-test-ci-ln-jjv8lkk-latest

➜   oc get featuregate cluster -o yaml
apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: FeatureGate
metadata:
 annotations:
   include.release.openshift.io/self-managed-high-availability: "true"
 creationTimestamp: "2026-06-24T08:47:33Z"
 generation: 1
 name: cluster
 resourceVersion: "694"
 uid: 02fffb5d-aca0-439e-9b01-1c87a8fea9cb
spec: {}
status:
 featureGates:
<----snip--->
   enabled:
   - name: AdditionalRoutingCapabilities
   - name: AdminNetworkPolicy
   - name: AlibabaPlatform
   - name: AzureWorkloadIdentity
   - name: BuildCSIVolumes
   - name: CPMSMachineNamePrefix
   - name: ConsolePluginContentSecurityPolicy
   - name: EventTTL
   - name: ExternalOIDC
   - name: ExternalOIDCWithUIDAndExtraClaimMappings
   - name: GCPClusterHostedDNSInstall
   - name: GatewayAPI
   - name: GatewayAPIController
   - name: GatewayAPIWithoutOLM
<----snip--->

/verified by @mjoseph

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 openshift-eng/jira-lifecycle-plugin repository.

[openshift-merge-bot]

/retest-required

Remaining retests: 0 against base HEAD 253fff2 and 2 for PR HEAD f6cb118 in total

[JoelSpeed]

/override ci/prow/e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview

[openshift-ci]

@JoelSpeed: Overrode contexts on behalf of JoelSpeed: ci/prow/e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview

Details

In response to this:

/override ci/prow/e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview

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.

[openshift-ci]

@gcs278: The following tests 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/e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview	f6cb118	link	true	/test e2e-aws-ovn-techpreview
ci/prow/e2e-upgrade-out-of-change	f6cb118	link	true	/test e2e-upgrade-out-of-change

Full PR test history. Your PR dashboard.

Details

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[openshift-ci-robot]

@gcs278: Jira Issue Verification Checks: Jira Issue OCPBUGS-88295
✔️ This pull request was pre-merge verified.
✔️ All associated pull requests have merged.
✔️ All associated, merged pull requests were pre-merge verified.

Jira Issue OCPBUGS-88295 has been moved to the MODIFIED state and will move to the VERIFIED state when the change is available in an accepted nightly payload. 🕓

Jira Issue Verification Checks: Jira Issue OCPBUGS-88297
✔️ This pull request was pre-merge verified.
✔️ All associated pull requests have merged.
✔️ All associated, merged pull requests were pre-merge verified.

Jira Issue OCPBUGS-88297 has been moved to the MODIFIED state and will move to the VERIFIED state when the change is available in an accepted nightly payload. 🕓

Jira Issue Verification Checks: Jira Issue OCPBUGS-82146
✔️ This pull request was pre-merge verified.
✔️ All associated pull requests have merged.
✔️ All associated, merged pull requests were pre-merge verified.

Jira Issue OCPBUGS-82146 has been moved to the MODIFIED state and will move to the VERIFIED state when the change is available in an accepted nightly payload. 🕓

Jira Issue Verification Checks: Jira Issue OCPBUGS-78330
✔️ This pull request was pre-merge verified.
✔️ All associated pull requests have merged.
✔️ All associated, merged pull requests were pre-merge verified.

Jira Issue OCPBUGS-78330 has been moved to the MODIFIED state and will move to the VERIFIED state when the change is available in an accepted nightly payload. 🕓

Jira Issue Verification Checks: Jira Issue OCPBUGS-85550
✔️ This pull request was pre-merge verified.
✔️ All associated pull requests have merged.
✔️ All associated, merged pull requests were pre-merge verified.

Jira Issue OCPBUGS-85550 has been moved to the MODIFIED state and will move to the VERIFIED state when the change is available in an accepted nightly payload. 🕓

Details

In response to this:

Summary

Promote the GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate to Default (GA) on release-4.21. This is the final PR needed to activate the no-OLM path for Gateway API on 4.21 — once merged, the Sail Library installation path replaces OLM-based Istio management in the next z-stream.

This is part of an approved SBAR to backport the Sail Library (noOLM) from 4.22 to 4.19–4.21.

Backport of #2772 (originally landed in 4.22).

Background

Gateway API on OCP 4.19–4.21 uses the Cluster Ingress Operator (CIO) to install Istio via OLM (OSSM operator). This path has several critical bugs:

• OCPBUGS-88295: OSSM z-stream upgrades are blocked, preventing CVE fixes from being delivered
• OCPBUGS-82146: OLM-related install failures
• OCPBUGS-78330: Hardcoded catalog source breaks disconnected environments
• OCPBUGS-85550: Gateway API fails on clusters without Marketplace capability

In OCP 4.22, NE-2286 replaced OLM with the Sail Library — CIO now installs Istio directly via embedded Helm charts. This feature shipped as GA behind the GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate.

Rollout Plan

Phase 1 — Land code (gate OFF) ✅

• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-85149: Backport GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate as disabled #2864 — Add FG as disabled
• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-85149: Enable Gateway API tests on vSphere and baremetal origin#31139 — Backport Gateway API test prerequisites
• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550, OCPBUGS-88324, OCPBUGS-88322, OCPBUGS-88320: Backport noOLM Gateway API test coverage and upgrade tests origin#31232 — Backport noOLM test coverage and upgrade tests
• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550: Replace OLM-based Istio install with Sail Library cluster-ingress-operator#1442 — Sail Library code lands, gate OFF

Phase 2 — TechPreview soak ✅

• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550: Promote GatewayAPIWithoutOLM feature gate to TechPreview #2873 — FG promotion to TechPreviewNoUpgrade
• [release-4.21] OCPBUGS-88295, OCPBUGS-88297, OCPBUGS-82146, OCPBUGS-78330, OCPBUGS-85550: Remove feature-set annotations from Sail Library RBAC Manifests cluster-ingress-operator#1462 — Remove feature-set annotation from Sail Library RBAC

Phase 3 — GA promotion

• This PR — FG promotion to Default/GA, activates noOLM

Follow-up

• OCPBUGS-84834: Bump GWAPI CRDs to v1.4.1 OSSM 3.3.1 and Istio v1.28.5 cluster-ingress-operator#1444 — Bump GWAPI CRDs to v1.4.1 and Istio to v1.28.5

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Fix included in release 4.21.0-0.nightly-2026-06-24-210838