diff --git a/ansible/roles/firstboot/files/ansible_payload/roles/metacluster/tasks/main.yml b/ansible/roles/firstboot/files/ansible_payload/roles/metacluster/tasks/main.yml
index 54c9205..18a94d4 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/firstboot/files/ansible_payload/roles/metacluster/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/firstboot/files/ansible_payload/roles/metacluster/tasks/main.yml
@@ -6,3 +6,14 @@
     INSTALL_K3S_SKIP_DOWNLOAD: 'true'
     INSTALL_K3S_EXEC: 'server --cluster-init'
 
+- name: Ensure API availability
+  ansible.utils.cli_parse:
+    command: curl -k https://{{ vapp['guestinfo.ipaddress'] }}:6443/livez?verbose
+    parser:
+      name: ansible.utils.json
+    set_fact: api_readycheck
+  ignore_errors: yes
+  until: api_readycheck.apiVersion is defined
+  retries: 3
+  delay: 30
+
diff --git a/ansible/vars/metacluster.yml b/ansible/vars/metacluster.yml
index ed97d98..a2413a6 100644
--- a/ansible/vars/metacluster.yml
+++ b/ansible/vars/metacluster.yml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ components:
     parse_logic: yq e '.. | select(has("repository")) | .repository + ":" + .tag'
 
   harbor:
-    version: 1.9.1	# (= Harbor v2.5.1)
+    version: 1.9.1      # (= Harbor v2.5.1)
     helm_chart: harbor/harbor
     parse_logic: yq e '.. | select(has("repository")) | .repository + ":" + .tag'