fix(operator): drop Recreate override on restore-target Deployments (#8434)

Signed-off-by: Schwinn Saereesitthipitak <schwinns@nvidia.com>

deploy/operator/internal/controller/dynamocomponentdeployment_controller.go

@@ -43,7 +43,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/ai-dynamo/dynamo/deploy/operator/internal/dra"
 	"github.com/ai-dynamo/dynamo/deploy/operator/internal/dynamo"
 	"github.com/ai-dynamo/dynamo/deploy/operator/internal/observability"
-	snapshotprotocol "github.com/ai-dynamo/dynamo/deploy/snapshot/protocol"
 	networkingv1beta1 "istio.io/client-go/pkg/apis/networking/v1beta1"
 	k8serrors "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/errors"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/meta"
@@ -978,17 +977,6 @@ func (r *DynamoComponentDeploymentReconciler) generateDeployment(ctx context.Con
 		}
 	}
 
-	// Checkpoint-restore pods must avoid overlap with prior replicas.
-	// Enforce Recreate whenever the rendered template is a restore target so
-	// the old pod is terminated before the restore placeholder is started.
-	if podTemplateSpec != nil &&
-		podTemplateSpec.Labels != nil &&
-		podTemplateSpec.Labels[snapshotprotocol.RestoreTargetLabel] == commonconsts.KubeLabelValueTrue {
-		strategy = appsv1.DeploymentStrategy{
-			Type: appsv1.RecreateDeploymentStrategyType,
-		}
-	}
-
 	kubeDeployment.Spec = appsv1.DeploymentSpec{
 		Replicas: opt.dynamoComponentDeployment.Spec.Replicas,
 		Selector: &metav1.LabelSelector{

deploy/operator/internal/controller/dynamocomponentdeployment_controller_test.go

@@ -1681,7 +1681,11 @@ func TestDynamoComponentDeploymentReconciler_generateDeployment_RestoreStrategy(
 		}
 	}
 
-	t.Run("ready checkpoint forces Recreate strategy", func(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Run("ready checkpoint keeps RollingUpdate strategy", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// Restore-target pods do not need a special Recreate override. The
+		// default RollingUpdate strategy works for failure-replacement and
+		// scale-up; users who specifically want Recreate on tight-GPU nodes
+		// can still opt in via the nvidia.com/deployment-strategy annotation.
 		identity := v1alpha1.DynamoCheckpointIdentity{Model: "test-model", BackendFramework: "vllm"}
 		checkpointName, err := checkpoint.ComputeIdentityHash(identity)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -1709,8 +1713,8 @@ func TestDynamoComponentDeploymentReconciler_generateDeployment_RestoreStrategy(
 		if toDelete {
 			t.Fatalf("expected deployment to be retained")
 		}
-		if deploy.Spec.Strategy.Type != appsv1.RecreateDeploymentStrategyType {
-			t.Fatalf("expected Recreate strategy, got %s", deploy.Spec.Strategy.Type)
+		if deploy.Spec.Strategy.Type != appsv1.RollingUpdateDeploymentStrategyType {
+			t.Fatalf("expected RollingUpdate strategy, got %s", deploy.Spec.Strategy.Type)
 		}
 	})