Che proxy settings configmaps are ignored on OpenShift if cluster-wide proxy is enabled.

[amisevsk]

Is your enhancement related to a problem? Please describe

When running in an OpenShift cluster, proxy environment variables provisioned by the Che Operator in user namespaces are ignored due to the DevWorkspace Operator explicitly setting the HTTP_PROXY, etc. environment variables in workspace containers.

The Che Operator provisions a che-proxy-settings configmap (see reconcileProxySettings()) that is intended to be automounted as environment variables to all workspaces in the namespace. However, since the DevWorkspace Operator has its own logic for detecting cluster-wide proxy settings and sets environment variables within workspaces according to its own configuration, these env vars are ignored.

Describe the solution you'd like

There are multiple ways we can resolve this issue:

1. Configure the Che-owned DevWorkspaceOperatorConfig to not set any proxy values, and take full responsibility for proxy configuration in workspace containers (see prerequisite PR Allow cluster-detected proxy settings to be ignored in OpenShift devfile/devworkspace-operator#1147)
2. Configure the Che-owned DevWorkspaceOperatorConfig to set values rather than reconciling the proxy-settings configmap to user namespaces (might be tricky to handle noProxy)
3. Stop provisioning the proxy settings configmap, as it is having no effect and nobody has complained about a broken configuration (unconfirmed?)

Describe alternatives you've considered

I think 1) above is likely the best solution here, but multiple choices would work (including ignoring the issue, potentially)

Additional context

Related, old DevWorkspace Operator issue: devfile/devworkspace-operator#841

[l0rd]

We had a downstream use case requiring the setup of a proxy for Che workspaces on a cluster with no cluster-wide proxy. But I don't remember any requests to have a specific Che proxy on a cluster with a cluster-wide proxy. Setting P2 for now.

[l0rd]

Also the title should probably be Eclipse "Che proxy settings configmaps..."

[amisevsk]

We had a downstream use case requiring the setup of a proxy for Che workspaces on a cluster with no cluster-wide proxy.

This should still be fine, as the DWO-overriding-Che effect only occurs when a cluster-wide proxy is enabled. To my knowledge, it hasn't been an issue yet, but it might lead to some confusion in documentation (e.g. if you have a cluster-wide proxy enabled, and follow docs to configure additional domains in the CheCluster, those settings would be silently ignored for workspaces). I agree it's a P2 though.