OCPBUGS-121959: Make NIC persistence unconditional instead of version-specific

[dkhater-redhat]

Simplify NIC persistence logic by removing version-specific conditionals and making it run unconditionally for all RHEL-like systems.

Previously, the code treated each RHEL version transition (8→9, 9→10) as a special case, requiring code updates for each new RHEL release. This meant we would need to keep adding conditions like || hostos.IsEL10(), || hostos.IsEL11(), etc.

Colin Walters correctly identified that what we're really doing is "freezing NIC names by default effectively" and suggested making this behavior unconditional rather than continually extending the conditional for each new RHEL release.

Changes:

• Remove version-specific persisting and cleanup logic
• Persist NIC names unconditionally for all RHEL-like systems
• Remove cleanup mode (RHEL10+) - persistence is now the default behavior
• Simplify code by removing switch statements and special cases
• Update documentation to reflect the new unconditional approach

Benefits:

• No code changes needed for future RHEL versions (11, 12, etc.)
• Simpler, more maintainable code
• Consistent behavior across all RHEL versions
• Future-proof solution

Addresses feedback from cgwalters on PR #5406:
#5406 (comment)

Related:

• OCPBUGS-10787: RHEL 8→9 NIC naming transition
• OCPBUGS-63593: RHEL 9→10 NIC naming transition

- What I did

- How to verify it

- Description for the changelog

[openshift-merge-bot]

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[openshift-ci-robot]

@dkhater-redhat: This pull request references Jira Issue OCPBUGS-121959, which is invalid:

• expected the bug to target either version "5.1.0." or "openshift-5.1.0.", but it targets "4.21.0" instead

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:

Simplify NIC persistence logic by removing version-specific conditionals and making it run unconditionally for all RHEL-like systems.

Previously, the code treated each RHEL version transition (8→9, 9→10) as a special case, requiring code updates for each new RHEL release. This meant we would need to keep adding conditions like || hostos.IsEL10(), || hostos.IsEL11(), etc.

Colin Walters correctly identified that what we're really doing is "freezing NIC names by default effectively" and suggested making this behavior unconditional rather than continually extending the conditional for each new RHEL release.

Changes:

• Remove version-specific persisting and cleanup logic
• Persist NIC names unconditionally for all RHEL-like systems
• Remove cleanup mode (RHEL10+) - persistence is now the default behavior
• Simplify code by removing switch statements and special cases
• Update documentation to reflect the new unconditional approach

Benefits:

• No code changes needed for future RHEL versions (11, 12, etc.)
• Simpler, more maintainable code
• Consistent behavior across all RHEL versions
• Future-proof solution

Addresses feedback from cgwalters on PR #5406:
#5406 (comment)

Related:

• OCPBUGS-10787: RHEL 8→9 NIC naming transition
• OCPBUGS-63593: RHEL 9→10 NIC naming transition

- What I did

- How to verify it

- Description for the changelog

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[isabella-janssen]

/lgtm

[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-upgrade
/test e2e-gcp-op-ocl-part1
/test e2e-gcp-op-ocl-part2
/test e2e-gcp-op-part1
/test e2e-gcp-op-part2
/test e2e-gcp-op-single-node
/test e2e-hypershift
/test tls-pqc-readiness

[openshift-ci]

[APPROVALNOTIFIER] This PR is APPROVED

This pull-request has been approved by: dkhater-redhat, isabella-janssen

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[openshift-ci]

@dkhater-redhat: 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/perfscale-control-plane-6nodes	c911422	link	false	/test perfscale-control-plane-6nodes
ci/prow/e2e-aws-ovn	c911422	link	true	/test e2e-aws-ovn
ci/prow/e2e-hypershift	c911422	link	true	/test e2e-hypershift

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