Unable to delete any Projects in Rancher >= 2.9 if the Legacy Feature Flag was active when the project was created in Rancher < 2.9
This document (000021871) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.
Environment
- Rancher 2.9+
- Rancher projects created for the local or Downstream cluster, on a previous version of Rancher
- The "Legacy feature flag" is enabled under Global Settings in Rancher.
Situation
- A project with the finalizer "clusterscoped.controller.cattle.io/project-precan-alert-controller" cannot be removed, either from Rancher UI or executing this kubectl conmand in the Rancher local cluster: '
kubectl delete projects.management.cattle.io p-xxxx' and it remains in "terminating" status due to the finalizer. - This project has been created on a Rancher version <2.9, with the "legacy" feature flag enabled under Global Settings=> Feature Flags => Legacy
Resolution
- You can manually edit the project hanging in Terminating status, and remove the finalizer clusterscoped.controller.cattle.io/project-precan-alert-controller.
- There is a sample script that can help locating projects with the finalizer clusterscoped.controller.cattle.io/project-precan-alert-controller, and delete them (to be executed in the Rancher local cluster), but please use it with caution:
namespaces=$(kubectl get ns --no-headers -o custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name | grep "c-" | grep -v cluster-fleet) for n in $namespaces; do echo "Namespace: $n" projects=$(kubectl get project -n $n --no-headers -o name) for p in $projects; do echo "Project: $p" finalizers=$(kubectl get $p -n $n -o json | jq -r '.metadata.finalizers[]') for i in $finalizers; do if [[ $i == clusterscoped.controller.cattle.io/project-precan-alert-controller* ]]; then echo "Removing finalizer from $p: $i" index=$(kubectl get $p -n $n -o json | jq -r ".metadata.finalizers | index(\"$i\")") kubectl patch $p -n $n --type='json' -p="[{\"op\": \"remove\", \"path\": \"/metadata/finalizers/$index\"}]" fi done done done
Cause
- The "legacy" feature flag is a remanent from Rancher 2.5.x and per the docs: https://ranchermanager.docs.rancher.com/getting-started/installation-and-upgrade/installation-references/feature-flags , this flag is disabled by default on new Rancher installations.
- It is meant for backwards compatibility of clusters that started in the 2.5 era and needed time to remove usage of those features.
- The finalizer "clusterscoped.controller.cattle.io/project-precan-alert-controller" is from the deprecated and removed Monitoring/Logging/Alerting V1.
- In Rancher 2.9 and later, none of the legacy code related to this exists. It is advisable not to enable "Legacy feature flag", unless strictly required.
Disclaimer
This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
- Document ID:000021871
- Creation Date: 11-Jun-2025
- Modified Date:18-Jun-2025
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- SUSE Rancher
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