feat: update e2e test config and docs changes

This updates the kubernetes versions used in the e2e tests to use k8s
versions that we AMIs for. It also marks some of the old CSI tests as
pending.

A few minor docs updates have been made as a result of review.

Signed-off-by: Richard Case <[email protected]>

Author: richardcase

docs/book/src/topics/images/built-amis.md

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ New AMIs are built on a best effort basis when a new Kubernetes version is relea
 - When there is a new k8s release series then any AMIs no longer covered by the previous point will be deleted. For example, when v1.31.0 is published then any AMIs for the v1.28 release series will be deleted.
 - Existing AMIs are not updated for security fixes and it is recommended to always use the latest patch version for the Kubernetes version you want to run.
 
-> NOTE: As the old community images where located in an AWS account that the project no longer has access to and because those AMIs have been automatically deleted we have started publishing images again from v1.29.9
+> NOTE: As the old community images were located in an AWS account that the project no longer has access to and because those AMIs have been automatically deleted, we have started publishing images again starting from Kubernetes v1.29.9.
 
 ## Finding AMIs
 
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ If you are using a version of clusterawsadm prior to v2.6.2 then you will need t
 - Ubuntu (ubuntu-22.04, ubuntu-24.04)
 - Flatcar (flatcar-stable)
 
-> Note: Centos (centos-7) and Amazon Linux 2 (amazon-2) where supported but there are some issues with the AMI build that need fixing.
+> Note: Centos (centos-7) and Amazon Linux 2 (amazon-2) where supported but there are some issues with the AMI build that need fixing. See this [issue](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-aws/issues/5142) for details.
 
 ## Supported AWS Regions
 - ap-northeast-1

test/e2e/data/e2e_conf.yaml

@@ -176,10 +176,10 @@ variables:
   # allowing the same e2e config file to be re-used in different Prow jobs e.g. each one with a K8s version permutation.
   # The following Kubernetes versions should be the latest versions with already published kindest/node images.
   # This avoids building node images in the default case which improves the test duration significantly.
-  KUBERNETES_VERSION_MANAGEMENT: "v1.30.2"
-  KUBERNETES_VERSION: "v1.26.6"
-  KUBERNETES_VERSION_UPGRADE_TO: "v1.26.6"
-  KUBERNETES_VERSION_UPGRADE_FROM: "v1.25.12"
+  KUBERNETES_VERSION_MANAGEMENT: "v1.29.9"
+  KUBERNETES_VERSION: "v1.29.9"
+  KUBERNETES_VERSION_UPGRADE_TO: "v1.29.9"
+  KUBERNETES_VERSION_UPGRADE_FROM: "v1.29.8"
   # Pre and post 1.23 Kubernetes versions are being used for CSI upgrade tests
   PRE_1_23_KUBERNETES_VERSION: "v1.22.17"
   POST_1_23_KUBERNETES_VERSION: "v1.23.15"

test/e2e/suites/unmanaged/unmanaged_functional_test.go

@@ -366,7 +366,7 @@ var _ = ginkgo.Context("[unmanaged] [functional]", func() {
 		})
 	})
 
-	ginkgo.Describe("CSI=external CCM=in-tree AWSCSIMigration=on: upgrade to v1.23", func() {
+	ginkgo.PDescribe("CSI=external CCM=in-tree AWSCSIMigration=on: upgrade to v1.23", func() {
 		ginkgo.It("should create volumes dynamically with external CSI driver and in tree cloud provider", func() {
 			specName := "only-csi-external-upgrade"
 			requiredResources = &shared.TestResource{EC2Normal: 2 * e2eCtx.Settings.InstanceVCPU, IGW: 1, NGW: 1, VPC: 1, ClassicLB: 1, EIP: 1, VolumeGP2: 4, EventBridgeRules: 50}
@@ -436,7 +436,7 @@ var _ = ginkgo.Context("[unmanaged] [functional]", func() {
 		})
 	})
 
-	ginkgo.Describe("CSI=external CCM=external AWSCSIMigration=on: upgrade to v1.23", func() {
+	ginkgo.PDescribe("CSI=external CCM=external AWSCSIMigration=on: upgrade to v1.23", func() {
 		ginkgo.It("should create volumes dynamically with external CSI driver and external cloud provider", func() {
 			specName := "csi-ccm-external-upgrade"
 			requiredResources = &shared.TestResource{EC2Normal: 2 * e2eCtx.Settings.InstanceVCPU, IGW: 1, NGW: 1, VPC: 1, ClassicLB: 1, EIP: 1, VolumeGP2: 4, EventBridgeRules: 50}