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Scenario #27
Cluster Management
K8s v1.21, on-prem, private registry

Node Bootstrap Failure Due to Unavailable Container Registry

New nodes failed to join the cluster due to container runtime timeout when pulling base images.

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What Happened

The internal Docker registry was down during node provisioning, so containerd couldn't pull pauseand CNI images. Nodes stayed in NotReady state.

Diagnosis Steps
  • 1journalctl -u containerd – repeated image pull failures.
  • 2Node conditions showed ContainerRuntimeNotReady.
Root Cause

Bootstrap process relies on image pulls from unavailable registry.

Fix/Workaround
• Brought internal registry back online.
• Pre-pulled pause/CNI images to node image templates.
Lessons Learned

Registry availability is a bootstrap dependency.

How to Avoid
  • 1Preload all essential images into AMI/base image.
  • 2Monitor registry uptime independently.
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