# Error when testing Windows proxy

**URL:** <https://linkerd.buoyant.io/t/error-when-testing-windows-proxy/823>\
**Category:** Linkerd General Discussion\
**Tags:** proxy\
**Created:** [November 3, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/t/error-when-testing-windows-proxy/823 "2025-11-03T16:26:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jan](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/linkerd.buoyant.io/jan/32/67_2.png) [@Jan](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/u/Jan)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/t/error-when-testing-windows-proxy/823/1 "2025-11-03T16:26:34Z")

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Hi,

We have upgraded one cluster to enterprise-2.19. The cluster in an AKS cluster.

I tested to add the annotations to some Windows pods. But the init container fails with an error.

```auto
     annotations:
        linkerd.io/inject: windows
        config.linkerd.io/proxy-image: ghcr.io/buoyantio/proxy-win

```

```auto
ERROR linkerd_network_validator: Failed to validate networking configuration. Please ensure traffic redirection rules are rewriting traffic as expected. timeout=10s

```

What more information do you need to help me troubleshoot this?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jan](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/linkerd.buoyant.io/jan/32/67_2.png) [@Jan](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/u/Jan)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 5:29pm UTC](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/t/error-when-testing-windows-proxy/823/2 "2025-11-04T17:29:45Z")

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I can’t find any documentation on this other than the email you are sending out. And it is not working. Surprising that there is no response or follow up for customers that are trying to use new features that you are advertising

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jan](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/linkerd.buoyant.io/jan/32/67_2.png) [@Jan](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/u/Jan)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/t/error-when-testing-windows-proxy/823/3 "2025-11-04T17:48:28Z")

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I found some documentation. It is probably the issue

> **[Support for Windows containers](https://docs.buoyant.io/buoyant-enterprise-linkerd/latest/features/windows-containers/#cni-mode-for-windows-nodes)**
>
> Linkerd supports meshing workloads that run on Windows nodes. This means that a user is capable of running a hybrid cluster that has both …

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![william](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/linkerd.buoyant.io/william/32/5_2.png) [@william](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/u/william)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/t/error-when-testing-windows-proxy/823/4 "2025-11-04T17:48:51Z")

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Jan, this issue is likely that you need the Windows CNI plugin. Please see [Support for Windows containers | Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd](https://docs.buoyant.io/buoyant-enterprise-linkerd/latest/features/windows-containers/) and [Meshing Windows workloads | Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd](https://docs.buoyant.io/buoyant-enterprise-linkerd/latest/guides/meshing-windows-workloads/)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jan](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/linkerd.buoyant.io/jan/32/67_2.png) [@Jan](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/u/Jan)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 7:09am UTC](https://linkerd.buoyant.io/t/error-when-testing-windows-proxy/823/5 "2025-11-05T07:09:36Z")

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Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. For some reason I could not find the documentation