Multi-node Kind cluster fails to start on Ubuntu with Docker cgroup v2

[gauravhalnawar1011]

When trying to create a multi-node Kind cluster on Ubuntu (Docker using cgroup v2, systemd driver), the control-plane node fails to initialize. The logs indicate:

ERROR: failed to create cluster: failed to init node with kubeadm: command "docker exec --privileged kubeadm init ..." failed with error: exit status 1
[...]
your configuration file uses a deprecated API spec: "kubeadm.k8s.io/v1beta3"

Environment:

Ubuntu 22.04 (or 20.04 with Docker cgroup v2)

Docker 24+

Kind v0.30.0

Kubernetes node image: kindest/node:v1.33.4

Multi-node config: 1 control-plane + 2 workers

containerd inside Kind nodes uses default configuration

Steps to reproduce:

Create a Kind config with multiple nodes (1 control-plane + 2 workers).

Run:

kind create cluster --name test-cluster --image kindest/node:v1.33.4 --config config.yaml

Observed behavior:

Control-plane container fails to initialize.

kubeadm logs show deprecated API warnings and kubelet never becomes healthy.

All nodes are deleted automatically.

Expected behavior:

Control-plane node should start successfully.

All worker nodes should join the cluster.

Additional notes:

Single-node clusters work fine.

Adding containerdConfigPatches with SystemdCgroup = true resolves the issue.

[dims]

Did you try this one?
https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/docs/user/known-issues/#pod-errors-due-to-too-many-open-files

[BenTheElder]

Adding containerdConfigPatches with SystemdCgroup = true resolves the issue.

this should be automatically set ....

kind/images/base/files/etc/containerd/config.toml

Line 24 in 84d3e10

SystemdCgroup = true

kind create cluster --name test-cluster --image kindest/node:v1.33.4 --config config.yaml

You should ideally be pinning the image digest, please see either the docs or the release notes.

That said, AFAIK 1.33.4 should be a recently built image compatible with v0.30.0, and it should already have this containerd option set .......

[BenTheElder]

What exact configuration did you use?

Can you please code-format logs etc so they retain indentation etc? Thanks!
https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax#quoting-code

[BenTheElder]

@gauravhalnawar1011 can you confirm what exact config and node image you used (was it the default, or can we get the digest? can we check the on-disk default containerd config)?