[release-1.28] Enable external registry support for OCP e2e tests in CI

tests/e2e/README.md

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ This end-to-end test suite utilizes Ginkgo, a testing framework known for its ex
     1. [Pre-requisites](#pre-requisites)
     1. [How to Run the test](#how-to-run-the-test)
     1. [Running the test locally](#running-the-test-locally)
+    1. [Test Run scenarios while running on OCP](#test-run-scenarios-while-running-on-ocp)
     1. [Settings for end-to-end test execution](#settings-for-end-to-end-test-execution)
     1. [Customizing the test run](#customizing-the-test-run)    
     1. [Get test definitions for the end-to-end test](#get-test-definitions-for-the-end-to-end-test)
@@ -248,6 +249,35 @@ Note: if you are running the test against a cluster that has a different archite
 TARGET_ARCH=arm64 make test.e2e.ocp
 ```
 
+#### Test Run scenarios while running on OCP
+When running the E2E test on OpenShift clusters, the framework supports three different registry scenarios:
+
+**Scenario 1: Test run with Internal Registry (Default behaviour)**
+For test run on OpenShift with the default settings, no additional configuration is needed. The test scripts will automatically configure and use the OpenShift internal registry:
+
+```sh
+# No HUB setting needed - uses internal registry by default
+make test.e2e.ocp
+```
+
+**Scenario 2: Test run with CI Mode with External Registry**
+In CI environments, set `CI=true` to use external registries with proper tagging:
+
+```sh
+export CI=true
+# Uses default HUB=quay.io/sail-dev with auto-generated tags if no PR_NUMBER var is being set 
+make test.e2e.ocp
+```
+
+**Scenario 3: Test run with custom External Registry**
+For custom external registries, specify your own HUB value:
+
+```sh
+export HUB=your-registry.com/your-namespace
+export TAG=your-tag
+make test.e2e.ocp
+```
+
 ### Settings for end-to-end test execution
 
 The following environment variables define the behavior of the test run:

tests/e2e/common-operator-integ-suite.sh

@@ -123,12 +123,39 @@ initialize_variables() {
   OPERATOR_SDK=${LOCALBIN}/operator-sdk
   IP_FAMILY=${IP_FAMILY:-ipv4}
   ISTIO_MANIFEST="chart/samples/istio-sample.yaml"
+  CI=${CI:-"false"}
 
   # export to be sure that the variables are available in the subshell
   export IMAGE_BASE="${IMAGE_BASE:-sail-operator}"
   export TAG="${TAG:-latest}"
   export HUB="${HUB:-localhost:5000}"
 
+  # Handle OCP registry scenarios
+  # Note: Makefile.core.mk sets HUB=quay.io/sail-dev and TAG=1.29-latest by default
+  if [ "${OCP}" == "true" ]; then
+    if [ "${CI}" == "true" ] && [ "${HUB}" == "quay.io/sail-dev" ]; then
+      # Scenario 2: CI mode with default HUB -> use external registry with proper CI tag
+      echo "CI mode detected for OCP, using external registry ${HUB}"
+
+      # Use PR_NUMBER if available, otherwise generate timestamp tag
+      if [ -n "${PR_NUMBER:-}" ]; then
+        export TAG="pr-${PR_NUMBER}"
+        echo "Using PR-based tag: ${TAG}"
+      else
+        TAG="ci-test-$(date +%s)"
+        export TAG
+        echo "Using timestamp-based tag: ${TAG}"
+      fi
+    elif [ "${HUB}" != "quay.io/sail-dev" ]; then
+      # Scenario 3: Custom registry provided by user
+      echo "Using custom registry: ${HUB}"
+    else
+      # Scenario 1: Local development -> use internal OCP registry
+      echo "Local development mode, will use OCP internal registry"
+      export USE_INTERNAL_REGISTRY="true"
+    fi
+  fi
+
   echo "Setting Istio manifest file: ${ISTIO_MANIFEST}"
   ISTIO_NAME=$(yq eval '.metadata.name' "${WD}/../../$ISTIO_MANIFEST")
 
@@ -215,7 +242,7 @@ parse_flags "$@"
 initialize_variables
 
 # Export necessary vars
-export COMMAND OCP HUB IMAGE_BASE TAG NAMESPACE
+export COMMAND OCP HUB IMAGE_BASE TAG NAMESPACE USE_INTERNAL_REGISTRY
 
 if [ "${SKIP_BUILD}" == "false" ]; then
   "${WD}/setup/build-and-push-operator.sh"
@@ -224,9 +251,13 @@ if [ "${SKIP_BUILD}" == "false" ]; then
     # This is a workaround when pulling the image from internal registry
     # To avoid errors of certificates meanwhile we are pulling the operator image from the internal registry
     # We need to set image $HUB to a fixed known value after the push
-    # This value always will be equal to the svc url of the internal registry
-    HUB="image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000/istio-images"
-    echo "Using internal registry: ${HUB}"
+    # Convert from route URL to service URL format for image pulling
+    if [[ "${HUB}" == *"/istio-images" ]]; then
+      HUB="image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000/istio-images"
+      echo "Using internal registry service URL: ${HUB}"
+    else
+      echo "Using external registry: ${HUB}"
+    fi
 
     # Workaround for OCP helm operator installation issues:
     # To avoid any cleanup issues, after we build and push the image we check if the namespace exists and delete it if it does.

tests/e2e/setup/build-and-push-operator.sh

@@ -85,8 +85,12 @@ build_and_push_operator_image() {
 }
 
 # Main logic
-if [ "${OCP}" == "true" ]; then
+# Only use internal registry for OCP local development (when USE_INTERNAL_REGISTRY is set)
+if [ "${OCP}" == "true" ] && [ "${USE_INTERNAL_REGISTRY:-false}" == "true" ]; then
+  echo "Setting up OCP internal registry for local development..."
   get_internal_registry
 fi
 
+echo "Registry: ${HUB}"
+
 build_and_push_operator_image