Cannot create cluster on Mac M1 when DOCKER_DEFAULT_PLATFORM=linux/amd64

[DaazKu]

What happened:
I tried to create a simple cluster using kind create cluster but it failed.

Output:

Creating cluster "kind" ...
 ✓ Ensuring node image (kindest/node:v1.25.2) 🖼 
 ✗ Preparing nodes 📦  

Logs:

INFO: ensuring we can execute mount/umount even with userns-remap
INFO: remounting /sys read-only
INFO: making mounts shared
INFO: detected cgroup v2
INFO: clearing and regenerating /etc/machine-id
Initializing machine ID from random generator.
INFO: setting iptables to detected mode: legacy
iptables-save v1.8.7 (legacy): Cannot initialize: iptables who? (do you need to insmod?)

What you expected to happen: I was expecting it to work :)

How to reproduce it (as minimally and precisely as possible):
On a Mac with an M1 chip:

DOCKER_DEFAULT_PLATFORM=linux/amd64 kind create cluster

Anything else we need to know?:
I have DOCKER_DEFAULT_PLATFORM=linux/amd64 exported by default for my day to day use of docker.
I have to do DOCKER_DEFAULT_PLATFORM=linux/arm64 kind create cluster for the cluster to work but the problem is that I do not want to be using the arm architecture.

Environment:

• kind version: (use kind version): 0.16.0
• Kubernetes version: (use kubectl version):

  Client Version: v1.25.0
  Kustomize Version: v4.5.7
  Server Version: v1.25.2
  

• Docker version: (use docker info):

  Client:
   Context:    default
   Debug Mode: false
   Plugins:
    buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc., v0.9.1)
    compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc., v2.10.2)
    extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc., v0.2.9)
    sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc., 0.6.0)
    scan: Docker Scan (Docker Inc., v0.19.0)
  
  Server:
   Containers: 1
    Running: 1
    Paused: 0
    Stopped: 0
   Images: 1
   Server Version: 20.10.17
   Storage Driver: overlay2
    Backing Filesystem: extfs
    Supports d_type: true
    Native Overlay Diff: true
    userxattr: false
   Logging Driver: json-file
   Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
   Cgroup Version: 2
   Plugins:
    Volume: local
    Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
    Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local logentries splunk syslog
   Swarm: inactive
   Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 io.containerd.runtime.v1.linux runc
   Default Runtime: runc
   Init Binary: docker-init
   containerd version: 9cd3357b7fd7218e4aec3eae239db1f68a5a6ec6
   runc version: v1.1.4-0-g5fd4c4d
   init version: de40ad0
   Security Options:
    seccomp
     Profile: default
    cgroupns
   Kernel Version: 5.10.124-linuxkit
   Operating System: Docker Desktop
   OSType: linux
   Architecture: aarch64
   CPUs: 4
   Total Memory: 7.667GiB
   Name: docker-desktop
   ID: 3CG6:SQV5:LHJX:WXGJ:YV5C:36IS:AVPD:WRLE:E5JN:YUWR:LJUM:7AED
   Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
   Debug Mode: false
   HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
   HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
   No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
   Registry: https://index.docker.io/v1/
   Labels:
   Experimental: false
   Insecure Registries:
    hubproxy.docker.internal:5000
    127.0.0.0/8
   Live Restore Enabled: false
  

• OS (e.g. from /etc/os-release):
  

[BenTheElder]

This is a duplicate of #2718

[BenTheElder]

I have to do DOCKER_DEFAULT_PLATFORM=linux/arm64 kind create cluster for the cluster to work but the problem is that I do not want to be using the arm architecture.

See the other issue. It is not possible to run a kind cluster with a different architecture than the host*

• you could run a VM of a different architecture and run kind inside that, but kind considers the VM the host then. whatever platform docker is running on, kind must run this way.

There's way more detail on the other issue, but basically: the way docker runs images across architectures is an incomplete emulation that is not capable of running a complex workload like a Kubernetes cluster. There's nothing we can do about that.

We should however, do something about users with this env set to an incompatible value (warning, override it, drop it, etc) but the solution is not clear yet. In the meantime, please ensure when invoking kind that this isn't set or matches the host platform, and see the existing issue for more discussion.