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docs: document machine-id workaround for containerd-based Kubernetes clusters #392

@markphelps

Description

@markphelps

Problem

Users deploying Flipt Pro on containerd-based Kubernetes clusters (GKE, modern EKS) encounter a license validation error because the container cannot determine a machine ID:

license is invalid; additional features are disabled. {"error": "machineid: machineid: no machine-id found"}

This happens because the machineid library relies on /etc/machine-id, dbus, or Docker-specific cgroup/mountinfo paths — none of which exist in containerd-based environments.

Proposed Documentation

Add a troubleshooting section to the licensing docs (v2/configuration/licensing.mdx) and/or the Kubernetes deployment guide (v2/guides/operations/deployment/deploy-to-kubernetes.mdx) covering:

1. Workaround: Mount host machine-id

# In Helm values.yaml
extraVolumeMounts:
  - name: machine-id
    mountPath: /etc/machine-id
    readOnly: true

extraVolumes:
  - name: machine-id
    hostPath:
      path: /etc/machine-id

2. When the code fix lands (flipt-io/flipt#5426)

Document the FLIPT_MACHINE_ID environment variable / license.machine_id config option as the preferred approach for container environments.

Affected Environments

  • GKE (containerd)
  • EKS with containerd
  • Any Kubernetes cluster not using Docker as the container runtime
  • Rootless containers
  • Serverless container runtimes (Fargate, Cloud Run)

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