Hello
Trying to modify the protectKernelDefaults to false via performance profile but this does not work.
Apprently the issue seams to be due to this PR here : https://github.com/openshift/machine-config-operator/pull/4273/files.
 
the file helper.go in line 38, seams to assume that there is not space

protectKernelDefaultsStr      = "\"protectKernelDefaults\":false"

    always

    1. OCP 4.14.13 in installed.
    2. apply this PP (check CPUs or maybe remove that)
apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
kind: PerformanceProfile
metadata:
  name: master-test-protectkerneldefaults
  annotations:
    kubeletconfig.experimental: |
      { "protectKernelDefaults": false,
        "allowedUnsafeSysctls":[
          "net.ipv6.conf.default.autoconf",
          "net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_ra",
          "net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding",
          "net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding"
        ]
      }
spec:
  additionalKernelArgs:
    - rcupdate.rcu_normal_after_boot=0
    - efi=runtime
    - vfio_pci.enable_sriov=1
    - vfio_pci.disable_idle_d3=1
    - module_blacklist=irdma
    - intel_idle.max_cstate=0
  cpu:
    isolated: 3-17,36-53,21-35,54-71
    reserved: 0-2,18-20
    balanceIsolated: true
  hugepages:
    defaultHugepagesSize: 1G
    pages:
      - count: 2
        size: 1G
        node: 0
  realTimeKernel:
    enabled: true
  numa:
    topologyPolicy: "single-numa-node"
  workloadHints:
    highPowerConsumption: false
    perPodPowerManagement: true
    realTime: true
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/master: ""
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/master: ""     

3. check on the node(s) : the value always stays true

core@master-0 ~]$ grep protectKernelDefaults /etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf
  "protectKernelDefaults": true,

    

    core@master-0 ~]$ grep protectKernelDefaults /etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf
  "protectKernelDefaults": true,

    core@master-0 ~]$ grep protectKernelDefaults /etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf
  "protectKernelDefaults": false,