cmd/k8s-operator: don't error for transient failures

Every so often, the ProxyGroup controller loses an optimistic locking race
with other controllers that update the objects it creates. Stop treating
this as an error event, and instead just log an info level log line for it.

Fixes #14072

Signed-off-by: Tom Proctor <tomhjp@users.noreply.github.com>

cmd/k8s-operator/proxygroup.go

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
 	"slices"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
@@ -45,6 +46,9 @@
 	reasonProxyGroupReady          = "ProxyGroupReady"
 	reasonProxyGroupCreating       = "ProxyGroupCreating"
 	reasonProxyGroupInvalid        = "ProxyGroupInvalid"
+
+	// Copied from k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/registry/generic/registry/store.go@cccad306d649184bf2a0e319ba830c53f65c445c
+	optimisticLockErrorMsg = "the object has been modified; please apply your changes to the latest version and try again"
 )
 
 var gaugeProxyGroupResources = clientmetric.NewGauge(kubetypes.MetricProxyGroupEgressCount)
@@ -166,9 +170,17 @@ func (r *ProxyGroupReconciler) Reconcile(ctx context.Context, req reconcile.Requ
 	}
 
 	if err = r.maybeProvision(ctx, pg, proxyClass); err != nil {
-		err = fmt.Errorf("error provisioning ProxyGroup resources: %w", err)
+		reason := reasonProxyGroupCreationFailed
-		r.recorder.Eventf(pg, corev1.EventTypeWarning, reasonProxyGroupCreationFailed, err.Error())
+		msg := fmt.Sprintf("error provisioning ProxyGroup resources: %s", err)
-		return setStatusReady(pg, metav1.ConditionFalse, reasonProxyGroupCreationFailed, err.Error())
+		if strings.Contains(err.Error(), optimisticLockErrorMsg) {
+			reason = reasonProxyGroupCreating
+			msg = fmt.Sprintf("optimistic lock error, retrying: %s", err)
+			err = nil
+			logger.Info(msg)
+		} else {
+			r.recorder.Eventf(pg, corev1.EventTypeWarning, reason, msg)
+		}
+		return setStatusReady(pg, metav1.ConditionFalse, reason, msg)
 	}
 
 	desiredReplicas := int(pgReplicas(pg))