Strimzi operator is not applying the changes that they pushed to their Kafka instance

[mmurphy30]

Running Strimz 0.17.0
Kafka 2.4

Operator is unable to reconcile kafka instances. Seeing below errors in operator logs:

2021-07-07 22:48:11 ERROR AbstractOperator:124 - Reconciliation #4301(timer) Kafka(sc-soh-mlab01/sc-soh-kafka-mlab01): createOrUpdate failed
java.lang.NullPointerException: null
at io.strimzi.operator.cluster.model.Ca.maybeCopyOrGenerateCerts(Ca.java:348) ~[io.strimzi.operator-common-0.17.0.jar:0.17.0]
at io.strimzi.operator.cluster.model.ClusterCa.generateZkCerts(ClusterCa.java:139) ~[io.strimzi.cluster-operator-0.17.0.jar:0.17.0]
at io.strimzi.operator.cluster.model.ZookeeperCluster.generateNodesSecret(ZookeeperCluster.java:505) ~[io.strimzi.cluster-operator-0.17.0.jar:0.17.0]
at io.strimzi.operator.cluster.operator.assembly.KafkaAssemblyOperator$ReconciliationState.zkNodesSecret(KafkaAssemblyOperator.java:1347) ~[io.strimzi.cluster-operator-0.17.0.jar:0.17.0]
at io.strimzi.operator.cluster.operator.assembly.KafkaAssemblyOperator.lambda$reconcile$15(KafkaAssemblyOperator.java:267) ~[io.strimzi.cluster-operator-0.17.0.jar:0.17.0]
at io.vertx.core.Future.lambda$compose$3(Future.java:360) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.dispatch(FutureImpl.java:107) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.tryComplete(FutureImpl.java:152) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.complete(FutureImpl.java:113) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.handle(FutureImpl.java:178) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.handle(FutureImpl.java:21) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.dispatch(FutureImpl.java:107) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.tryComplete(FutureImpl.java:152) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.complete(FutureImpl.java:113) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.Future.lambda$map$5(Future.java:429) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.dispatch(FutureImpl.java:107) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.tryComplete(FutureImpl.java:152) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.complete(FutureImpl.java:113) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.handle(FutureImpl.java:178) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.FutureImpl.handle(FutureImpl.java:21) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.ContextImpl.lambda$null$0(ContextImpl.java:330) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.ContextImpl.executeTask(ContextImpl.java:369) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.vertx.core.impl.EventLoopContext.lambda$executeAsync$0(EventLoopContext.java:38) ~[io.vertx.vertx-core-3.8.5.jar:3.8.5]
at io.netty.util.concurrent.AbstractEventExecutor.safeExecute(AbstractEventExecutor.java:164) [io.netty.netty-common-4.1.45.Final.jar:4.1.45.Final]
at io.netty.util.concurrent.SingleThreadEventExecutor.runAllTasks(SingleThreadEventExecutor.java:472) [io.netty.netty-common-4.1.45.Final.jar:4.1.45.Final]
at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.run(NioEventLoop.java:500) [io.netty.netty-transport-4.1.45.Final.jar:4.1.45.Final]
at io.netty.util.concurrent.SingleThreadEventExecutor$4.run(SingleThreadEventExecutor.java:989) [io.netty.netty-common-4.1.45.Final.jar:4.1.45.Final]
at io.netty.util.internal.ThreadExecutorMap$2.run(ThreadExecutorMap.java:74) [io.netty.netty-common-4.1.45.Final.jar:4.1.45.Final]
at io.netty.util.concurrent.FastThreadLocalRunnable.run(FastThreadLocalRunnable.java:30) [io.netty.netty-common-4.1.45.Final.jar:4.1.45.Final]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) [?:1.8.0_242]

[scholzj]

The error suggests there is some issue with the CA certificates. You should probably check the secrets for their content. IIRC the NPE it self should be fixed in newer versions (but the root cause will be in the secrets, the NPE is just an ugly exception where it shows up).