Failed to start Initial cloud-init job (pre-networking)

We have imported rocky8 on aws, we see this error

[   16.642292] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 570, in _build_master
[   16.645237] cloud-init[724]:     ws.require(__requires__)
[   16.647274] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 888, in require
[   16.649151] cloud-init[724]:     needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
[   16.650567] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 779, in resolve
[   16.653031] cloud-init[724]:     raise VersionConflict(dist, req).with_context(dependent_req)
[   16.656049] cloud-init[724]: pkg_resources.ContextualVersionConflict: (urllib3 1.26.18 (/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages), Requirement.parse('urllib3<1.25,>=1.21.1'), {'requests'})
[   16.659229] cloud-init[724]: During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
[   16.660862] cloud-init[724]: Traceback (most recent call last):
[   16.665564] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/bin/cloud-init", line 6, in <module>
[   16.667821] cloud-init[724]:     from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
[   16.673463] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3095, in <module>
[   16.677316] cloud-init[724]:     @_call_aside
[   16.678894] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3079, in _call_aside
[   16.683049] cloud-init[724]:     f(*args, **kwargs)
[   16.684127] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3108, in _initialize_master_working_set
[   16.686286] cloud-init[724]:     working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
[   16.695643] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 572, in _build_master
[   16.697642] cloud-init[724]:     return cls._build_from_requirements(__requires__)
[   16.699715] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 585, in _build_from_requirements
[   16.702285] cloud-init[724]:     dists = ws.resolve(reqs, Environment())
[   16.704341] cloud-init[724]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 774, in resolve
[   16.706220] cloud-init[724]:     raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers)
[   16.707616] cloud-init[724]: pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'urllib3<1.25,>=1.21.1' distribution was not found and is required by requests
[e[0;1;31mFAILEDe[0m] Failed to start Initial cloud-init job (pre-networking).
See 'systemctl status cloud-init-local.service' for details.
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Reached target Network (Pre).
         Starting Network Manager...
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Started Network Manager.
         Starting Network Manager Wait Online...
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Reached target Network.
         Starting GSSAPI Proxy Daemon...
         Starting Dynamic System Tuning Daemon...
         Starting Hostname Service...
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Started GSSAPI Proxy Daemon.
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Reached target NFS client services.
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Reached target Remote File Systems (Pre).
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Reached target Remote File Systems.
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Started Hostname Service.
         Starting Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service...
[   17.263328] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service.
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Started Network Manager Wait Online.
         Starting Initial cloud-init job (metadata service crawler)...
         Starting Authorization Manager...
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Started Dynamic System Tuning Daemon.
[e[0;32m  OK  e[0m] Started Authorization Manager.
[   18.350849] cloud-init[768]: Traceback (most recent call last):
[   18.374211] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 570, in _build_master
[   18.386196] cloud-init[768]:     ws.require(__requires__)
[   18.398187] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 888, in require
[   18.415197] cloud-init[768]:     needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
[   18.428192] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 779, in resolve
[   18.430368] cloud-init[768]:     raise VersionConflict(dist, req).with_context(dependent_req)
[   18.442179] cloud-init[768]: pkg_resources.ContextualVersionConflict: (urllib3 1.26.18 (/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages), Requirement.parse('urllib3<1.25,>=1.21.1'), {'requests'})
[   18.449103] cloud-init[768]: During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
[   18.460185] cloud-init[768]: Traceback (most recent call last):
[   18.471171] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/bin/cloud-init", line 6, in <module>
[   18.482176] cloud-init[768]:     from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
[   18.510173] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3095, in <module>
[   18.563202] cloud-init[768]:     @_call_aside
[   18.606211] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3079, in _call_aside
[   18.645785] cloud-init[768]:     f(*args, **kwargs)
[   18.690472] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3108, in _initialize_master_working_set
[   18.717264] cloud-init[768]:     working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
[   18.741324] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 572, in _build_master
[   18.766230] cloud-init[768]:     return cls._build_from_requirements(__requires__)
[   18.767582] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 585, in _build_from_requirements
[   18.779223] cloud-init[768]:     dists = ws.resolve(reqs, Environment())
[   18.791189] cloud-init[768]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 774, in resolve
[   18.802178] cloud-init[768]:     raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers)
[   18.813211] cloud-init[768]: pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'urllib3<1.25,>=1.21.1' distribution was not found and is required by requests
[e[0;1;31mFAILEDe[0m] Failed to start Initial cloud-init job (metadata service crawler).

any specifc urllib3 version is needed for rocky8?

We Don’t see any issues on Redhat8

It worked after pinning urllib3==1.21.1

It appears you are configuring your systems in a way that is not supported (e.g. you are using pip and upgrading modules directly as root). There should never be a reason to do any pinning to make a system package work.