Code change:
} func PostStartHook(hookContext genericapiserver.PostStartHookContext) error { <del> clientset, err := rbacclient.NewForConfig(hookContext.LoopbackClientConfig) if err != nil { utilruntime.HandleError(fmt.Errorf("unable to initialize clusterroles: %v", err)) return nil } existingClusterRoles, err := clientset.ClusterRoles().List(api.ListOptions{}) if err != nil { utilruntime.HandleError(fmt.Errorf("unable to initialize clusterroles: %v", err)) return nil } // if clusterroles already exist, then assume we don't have work to do because we've already // initialized or another API server has started this task if len(existingClusterRoles.Items) > 0 { return nil } for _, clusterRole := range append(bootstrappolicy.ClusterRoles(), bootstrappolicy.ControllerRoles()...) { if _, err := clientset.ClusterRoles().Create(&clusterRole); err != nil { // don't fail on failures, try to create as many as you can </del> <ins> // intializing roles is really important.  On some e2e runs, we've seen cases where etcd is down when the server // starts, the roles don't initialize, and nothing works. err := wait.Poll(1*time.Second, 30*time.Second, func() (done bool, err error) { clientset, err := rbacclient.NewForConfig(hookContext.LoopbackClientConfig) if err != nil { </ins> utilruntime.HandleError(fmt.Errorf("unable to initialize clusterroles: %v", err)) <del> continue </del> <ins> return false, nil </ins> } <del> glog.Infof("Created clusterrole.%s/%s", rbac.GroupName, clusterRole.Name) } existingClusterRoleBindings, err := clientset.ClusterRoleBindings().List(api.ListOptions{}) if err != nil { utilruntime.HandleError(fmt.Errorf("unable to initialize clusterrolebindings: %v", err)) return nil } // if clusterrolebindings already exist, then assume we don't have work to do because we've already // initialized or another API server has started this task if len(existingClusterRoleBindings.Items) > 0 { return nil } </del> <ins> existingClusterRoles, err := clientset.ClusterRoles().List(api.ListOptions{}) if err != nil { utilruntime.HandleError(fmt.Errorf("unable to initialize clusterroles: %v", err)) return false, nil } // only initialized on empty etcd if len(existingClusterRoles.Items) == 0 { for _, clusterRole := range append(bootstrappolicy.ClusterRoles(), bootstrappolicy.ControllerRoles()...) { if _, err := clientset.ClusterRoles().Create(&clusterRole); err != nil { // don't fail on failures, try to create as many as you can utilruntime.HandleError(fmt.Errorf("unable to initialize clusterroles: %v", err)) continue } glog.Infof("Created clusterrole.%s/%s", rbac.GroupName, clusterRole.Name) } } </ins> <del> for _, clusterRoleBinding := range append(bootstrappolicy.ClusterRoleBindings(), bootstrappolicy.ControllerRoleBindings()...) { if _, err := clientset.ClusterRoleBindings().Create(&clusterRoleBinding); err != nil { // don't fail on failures, try to create as many as you can </del> <ins> existingClusterRoleBindings, err := clientset.ClusterRoleBindings().List(api.ListOptions{}) if err != nil { </ins> utilruntime.HandleError(fmt.Errorf("unable to initialize clusterrolebindings: %v", err)) <del> continue </del> <ins> return false, nil } // only initialized on empty etcd if len(existingClusterRoleBindings.Items) == 0 { for _, clusterRoleBinding := range append(bootstrappolicy.ClusterRoleBindings(), bootstrappolicy.ControllerRoleBindings()...) { if _, err := clientset.ClusterRoleBindings().Create(&clusterRoleBinding); err != nil { // don't fail on failures, try to create as many as you can utilruntime.HandleError(fmt.Errorf("unable to initialize clusterrolebindings: %v", err)) continue } glog.Infof("Created clusterrolebinding.%s/%s", rbac.GroupName, clusterRoleBinding.Name) } </ins> } <del> glog.Infof("Created clusterrolebinding.%s/%s", rbac.GroupName, clusterRoleBinding.Name) </del> <ins> return true, nil }) // if we're never able to make it through intialization, kill the API server if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("unable to initialize roles: %v", err) </ins> } return nil

Related discussion:
text: From etcd3: May need to retry poststarthook a few times to avoid bootstrapping failures like this.