diff --git a/roles/container-engine/containerd/defaults/main.yml b/roles/container-engine/containerd/defaults/main.yml
index 3ef43ba26..8316b1840 100644
--- a/roles/container-engine/containerd/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/roles/container-engine/containerd/defaults/main.yml
@@ -76,3 +76,6 @@ containerd_limit_mem_lock: "infinity"
 
 # If enabled it will use config_path and disable use mirrors config
 containerd_use_config_path: false
+
+# If enabled it will allow kubespray to attempt setup even if the distribution is not supported. For unsupported distributions this can lead to unexpected failures in some cases.
+allow_unsupported_distribution_setup: false
diff --git a/roles/container-engine/containerd/tasks/main.yml b/roles/container-engine/containerd/tasks/main.yml
index 23cc283d4..b219ef758 100644
--- a/roles/container-engine/containerd/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/container-engine/containerd/tasks/main.yml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   fail:
     msg: "{{ ansible_distribution }} is not supported by containerd."
   when:
-    - ansible_distribution not in ["CentOS", "OracleLinux", "RedHat", "Ubuntu", "Debian", "Fedora", "AlmaLinux", "Rocky", "Amazon", "Flatcar", "Flatcar Container Linux by Kinvolk", "Suse", "openSUSE Leap", "openSUSE Tumbleweed", "Kylin Linux Advanced Server", "UnionTech", "openEuler"]
+    - not (allow_unsupported_distribution_setup | default(false)) and (ansible_distribution not in ["CentOS", "OracleLinux", "RedHat", "Ubuntu", "Debian", "Fedora", "AlmaLinux", "Rocky", "Amazon", "Flatcar", "Flatcar Container Linux by Kinvolk", "Suse", "openSUSE Leap", "openSUSE Tumbleweed", "Kylin Linux Advanced Server", "UnionTech", "openEuler"])
 
 - name: containerd | Remove any package manager controlled containerd package
   package: