[release-1.27] Remove CNI dependency on pilot (#57840)

* Remove pilot dependency on CNI

Signed-off-by: Jackie Elliott <[email protected]>

* Added release note

Signed-off-by: Jackie Elliott <[email protected]>

---------

Signed-off-by: Jackie Elliott <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Jackie Elliott <[email protected]>

Author: istio-testing

operator/pkg/install/install.go

@@ -292,11 +292,11 @@ func (i Installer) prune(manifests []manifest.ManifestSet) error {
 
 var componentDependencies = map[component.Name][]component.Name{
 	component.PilotComponentName: {
-		component.CNIComponentName,
 		component.IngressComponentName,
 		component.EgressComponentName,
 	},
 	component.BaseComponentName: {
+		component.CNIComponentName,
 		component.PilotComponentName,
 	},
 	component.CNIComponentName: {

releasenotes/notes/57600.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+apiVersion: release-notes/v2
+kind: feature
+area: installation
+issue: [57600]
+releaseNotes:
+  - |
+    **Removed** istioctl installation dependency between pilot and CNI. CNI installation is no longer dependent on pilot being installed first.
+    If the istio-cni configuration exists pre-installation (which may be the case when using an istio-owned CNI config), pilot installation will
+    not fail waiting for CNI readiness since the CNI installation is no longer a dependent on pilot.