diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9d8762
--- /dev/null
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+# rke2 defaults/main.yml
+#
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: © 2022 Open Networking Foundation <support@opennetworking.org>
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+rke2_cleanup: false