diff --git a/pkg/daemon/ceph/client/config.go b/pkg/daemon/ceph/client/config.go
index ccc752d7d7b7..09d03b815e49 100644
--- a/pkg/daemon/ceph/client/config.go
+++ b/pkg/daemon/ceph/client/config.go
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ func generateConfigFile(context *clusterd.Context, clusterInfo *ClusterInfo, pat
 
 	// create the config directory
 	if err := os.MkdirAll(pathRoot, 0744); err != nil {
-		logger.Warningf("failed to create config directory at %q. %v", pathRoot, err)
+		return "", errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to create config directory at %q", pathRoot)
 	}
 
 	configFile, err := createGlobalConfigFileSection(context, clusterInfo, globalConfig)