diff --git a/roles/kubernetes/master/handlers/main.yml b/roles/kubernetes/master/handlers/main.yml
index 38edeeb1f..1eb5a4886 100644
--- a/roles/kubernetes/master/handlers/main.yml
+++ b/roles/kubernetes/master/handlers/main.yml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
     url: http://localhost:10251/healthz
   register: scheduler_result
   until: scheduler_result.status == 200
-  retries: 15
+  retries: 60
   delay: 5
 
 - name: Master | wait for kube-controller-manager
diff --git a/roles/kubernetes/master/tasks/pre-upgrade.yml b/roles/kubernetes/master/tasks/pre-upgrade.yml
index 12b270421..35d573e97 100644
--- a/roles/kubernetes/master/tasks/pre-upgrade.yml
+++ b/roles/kubernetes/master/tasks/pre-upgrade.yml
@@ -55,11 +55,10 @@
   set_fact:
     needs_etcd_migration: "{{ kube_apiserver_storage_backend == 'etcd3' and data_migrated.stdout_lines|length == 0 and old_data_exists.rc == 0 }}"
 
-- name: "Pre-upgrade | Write invalid image to master manifests on all kube-masters"
-  replace:
-    dest: "/etc/kubernetes/manifests/{{item[1]}}.manifest"
-    regexp: '(\s+)image:\s+.*?$'
-    replace: '\1image: kill.apiserver.using.fake.image.in:manifest'
+- name: "Pre-upgrade | Delete master manifests on all kube-masters"
+  file:
+    path: "/etc/kubernetes/manifests/{{item[1]}}.manifest"
+    state: absent
   delegate_to: "{{item[0]}}"
   with_nested:
     - "{{groups['kube-master']}}"
@@ -67,11 +66,14 @@
   register: kube_apiserver_manifest_replaced
   when: (secret_changed|default(false) or etcd_secret_changed|default(false) or needs_etcd_migration|bool) and kube_apiserver_manifest.stat.exists
 
-- name: "Pre-upgrade | Pause while waiting for kubelet to delete kube-apiserver pod"
-  pause:
-    seconds: 20
-  when: kube_apiserver_manifest_replaced.changed
-  tags: kube-apiserver
+- name: "Pre-upgrade | Delete master containers forcefully on all kube-masters"
+  shell: "docker ps -f name=k8s-{{item}}* -q | xargs --no-run-if-empty docker rm -f"
+  delegate_to: "{{item[0]}}"
+  with_nested:
+    - "{{groups['kube-master']}}"
+    - ["kube-apiserver", "kube-controller-manager", "kube-scheduler"]
+  register: kube_apiserver_manifest_replaced
+  when: (secret_changed|default(false) or etcd_secret_changed|default(false) or needs_etcd_migration|bool) and kube_apiserver_manifest.stat.exists
 
 - name: "Pre-upgrade | etcd3 upgrade | stop etcd"
   service:
diff --git a/tests/templates/inventory-gce.j2 b/tests/templates/inventory-gce.j2
index d58f6896c..c77556f0b 100644
--- a/tests/templates/inventory-gce.j2
+++ b/tests/templates/inventory-gce.j2
@@ -27,10 +27,12 @@
 {{node3}}
 
 [etcd]
+{{node1}}
 {{node2}}
 {{node3}}
 
 [vault]
+{{node1}}
 {{node2}}
 {{node3}}
 {% else %}