Make kubelet starting as a windows service

images/capi/ansible/windows/roles/kubernetes/defaults/main.yml

@@ -16,3 +16,4 @@ kubernetes_bins:
   - kubeadm
   - kubectl
   - kubelet
+  - kube-log-runner

images/capi/ansible/windows/roles/kubernetes/tasks/sc.yml

@@ -18,14 +18,20 @@
 - name: Install kubelet as service
   ansible.windows.win_service:
     name: kubelet
-    start_mode: manual
+    start_mode: auto
     path: >
-      {{ kubernetes_install_path }}\kubelet.exe --windows-service
+      "{{ kubernetes_install_path }}\kube-log-runner.exe" --log-file={{ systemdrive.stdout | trim }}/var/log/kubelet/kubelet.log
+      {{kubernetes_install_path }}\kubelet.exe --windows-service
       --cert-dir={{ systemdrive.stdout | trim }}/var/lib/kubelet/pki
       --config={{ systemdrive.stdout | trim }}/var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml
       --bootstrap-kubeconfig={{ systemdrive.stdout | trim }}/etc/kubernetes/bootstrap-kubelet.conf
       --kubeconfig={{ systemdrive.stdout | trim }}/etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf
-      --hostname-override=$(hostname) --pod-infra-container-image=`"{{ pause_image }}`"
-      --enable-debugging-handlers --cgroups-per-qos=false --enforce-node-allocatable=`"`"
-      --resolv-conf=`"`" --log-dir={{ systemdrive.stdout | trim }}/var/log/kubelet
-      --logtostderr=false {{ additional_kubelet_args if additional_kubelet_args is defined }}
+      --pod-infra-container-image="{{ pause_image }}"
+      --enable-debugging-handlers --cgroups-per-qos=false --enforce-node-allocatable=""
+      --container-runtime-endpoint="npipe:////./pipe/containerd-containerd"
+      --resolv-conf=""
+
+- name: Create file to restart kubelet as a windows service
+  ansible.windows.win_template:
+    src: templates/RestartKubelet.ps1
+    dest: "{{ kubernetes_install_path }}\\RestartKubelet.ps1"

images/capi/ansible/windows/roles/kubernetes/templates/RestartKubelet.ps1

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# Copyright 2025 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# Need to keep sync with StartKubelet.ps1
+$FileContent = Get-Content -Path "$env:SYSTEMDRIVE/var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env"
+$kubeAdmArgs = $FileContent.TrimStart('KUBELET_KUBEADM_ARGS=').Trim('"')
+
+$args = "--cert-dir=$env:SYSTEMDRIVE/var/lib/kubelet/pki",
+        "--config=$env:SYSTEMDRIVE/var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml",
+        "--bootstrap-kubeconfig=$env:SYSTEMDRIVE/etc/kubernetes/bootstrap-kubelet.conf",
+        "--kubeconfig=$env:SYSTEMDRIVE/etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf",
+        "--hostname-override=$(hostname)",
+        "--pod-infra-container-image=`"{{ pause_image }}`"",
+        "--enable-debugging-handlers",
+        "--cgroups-per-qos=false",
+        "--enforce-node-allocatable=`"`"",
+        "--resolv-conf=`"`"",
+        "--windows-service"
+
+$KubeletArgListStr = ($args -join " ") + " $kubeAdmArgs"
+$KubeletArgListStr = $KubeletArgListStr.Replace("`"", "\`"")
+# Used by sc.exe to create the service 
+$KubeletCommandLine =  "`"" + "\`"" + "$env:SYSTEMDRIVE\k\kube-log-runner.exe" + "\`" " + "--log-file=/var/log/kubelet/kubelet.log " + "$env:SYSTEMDRIVE\k\kubelet.exe " + $KubeletArgListStr + "`""
+
+# Write-Output $kubeletCommandLine
+$null = sc.exe stop kubelet
+$null = sc.exe delete kubelet
+for ($i = 0; $i -lt 10; $i++) {
+	$service = Get-Service -Name kubelet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
+	if ($null -eq $service) {
+		Write-Host "kubelet service deleted successfully, restarting"
+		sc.exe create kubelet binPath= $KubeletCommandLine start= auto depend= containerd
+		sc.exe start kubelet
+		return
+	}
+	else {
+		Write-Host "Waiting for service to be fully deleted... (attempt $($i + 1)/10)"
+	}
+	Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
+}
+
+
+Write-Host "kubelet service failed to restart."

images/capi/packer/config/windows/common.json

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
   "prepull": "true",
   "runtime": "containerd",
   "ssh_source_url": "",
-  "windows_service_manager": "nssm",
+  "windows_service_manager": "windows_service",
   "windows_updates_categories": "",
   "windows_updates_kbs": ""
 }