diff --git a/cluster/gce/cloud-init/node.yaml b/cluster/gce/cloud-init/node.yaml
index 0d62cdb71..6eabddc41 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/cloud-init/node.yaml
+++ b/cluster/gce/cloud-init/node.yaml
@@ -14,9 +14,6 @@ write_files:
       [Service]
       Type=oneshot
       RemainAfterExit=yes
-      # cri-containerd requires the existence of cni config directory.
-      # TODO(random-liu): Eliminate the requirement in ocicni.
-      ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /etc/cni/net.d
       ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /home/cri-containerd
       ExecStartPre=/bin/mount --bind /home/cri-containerd /home/cri-containerd
       ExecStartPre=/bin/mount -o remount,exec /home/cri-containerd
diff --git a/docs/installation.md b/docs/installation.md
index 251f88974..520de17fa 100644
--- a/docs/installation.md
+++ b/docs/installation.md
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/cri-containerd-release/cri-containerd-${VERS
 ```
 ## Step 2: Install CRI-Containerd
 If you are using systemd, just simply unpack the tarball to the root directory:
+<!-- TODO(random-liu): Remove cni directory operations after we deprecate v1.0.0-beta.1 -->
 ```bash
 sudo tar -C / -xzf cri-containerd-${VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz
 sudo mkdir -p /opt/cni/bin/
diff --git a/vendor.conf b/vendor.conf
index 1f936c0da..df6d606a3 100644
--- a/vendor.conf
+++ b/vendor.conf
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ github.com/containerd/typeurl f6943554a7e7e88b3c14aad190bf05932da84788
 github.com/containernetworking/cni v0.6.0
 github.com/containernetworking/plugins v0.6.0
 github.com/coreos/go-systemd 48702e0da86bd25e76cfef347e2adeb434a0d0a6
-github.com/cri-o/ocicni 6164672aa473f2a5ac279adf79eb722e29f11838 https://github.com/Random-Liu/ocicni.git
+github.com/cri-o/ocicni 9b451e26eb7c694d564991fbf44f77d0afb9b03c
 github.com/davecgh/go-spew v1.1.0
 github.com/docker/distribution b38e5838b7b2f2ad48e06ec4b500011976080621
 github.com/docker/docker 86f080cff0914e9694068ed78d503701667c4c00
diff --git a/vendor/github.com/cri-o/ocicni/pkg/ocicni/ocicni.go b/vendor/github.com/cri-o/ocicni/pkg/ocicni/ocicni.go
index 3cc225ca7..c2ba9e4f2 100644
--- a/vendor/github.com/cri-o/ocicni/pkg/ocicni/ocicni.go
+++ b/vendor/github.com/cri-o/ocicni/pkg/ocicni/ocicni.go
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import (
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
-	"time"
 
 	"github.com/containernetworking/cni/libcni"
 	cnitypes "github.com/containernetworking/cni/pkg/types"
@@ -16,8 +15,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 )
 
-const monitorNetDirPeriod = 1 * time.Second
-
 type cniNetworkPlugin struct {
 	loNetwork *cniNetwork
 
@@ -103,13 +100,6 @@ func (plugin *cniNetworkPlugin) podUnlock(podNetwork PodNetwork) {
 }
 
 func (plugin *cniNetworkPlugin) monitorNetDir() {
-	if _, err := os.Stat(plugin.pluginDir); err != nil {
-		if !os.IsNotExist(err) {
-			logrus.Errorf("failed to stat %q: %v", plugin.pluginDir, err)
-		}
-		return
-	}
-	logrus.Infof("Found CNI config directory %q", plugin.pluginDir)
 	watcher, err := fsnotify.NewWatcher()
 	if err != nil {
 		logrus.Errorf("could not create new watcher %v", err)
@@ -183,10 +173,13 @@ func InitCNI(pluginDir string, cniDirs ...string) (CNIPlugin, error) {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	go func() {
-		plugin.monitorNetDir()
-		time.Sleep(monitorNetDirPeriod)
-	}()
+	// Ensure plugin directory exists, because the following monitoring logic
+	// relies on that.
+	if err := os.MkdirAll(pluginDir, 0755); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	go plugin.monitorNetDir()
 
 	return plugin, nil
 }