diff --git a/roles/kubernetes/kubeadm/defaults/main.yml b/roles/kubernetes/kubeadm/defaults/main.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d9ed537c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/roles/kubernetes/kubeadm/defaults/main.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+---
+# discovery_timeout modifies the discovery timeout
+discovery_timeout: 5m0s
diff --git a/roles/kubernetes/kubeadm/templates/kubeadm-client.conf.v1alpha2.j2 b/roles/kubernetes/kubeadm/templates/kubeadm-client.conf.v1alpha2.j2
index d53909940..62105fbde 100644
--- a/roles/kubernetes/kubeadm/templates/kubeadm-client.conf.v1alpha2.j2
+++ b/roles/kubernetes/kubeadm/templates/kubeadm-client.conf.v1alpha2.j2
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ kind: NodeConfiguration
 clusterName: {{ cluster_name }}
 discoveryFile: ""
 caCertPath: {{ kube_config_dir }}/ssl/ca.crt
+discoveryTimeout: {{ discovery_timeout }}
 discoveryToken: {{ kubeadm_token }}
 tlsBootstrapToken: {{ kubeadm_token }}
 token: {{ kubeadm_token }}