kubernetes/kops · error

Address had no IP: %v

Error message

Address had no IP: %v

What it means

After resolving the referenced Address, kOps checks that it actually carries an IP. If addr.IPAddress is empty, this error fires. A GCE Address resource should always have an address once reserved; an empty value indicates a malformed lookup result or a partially-created address.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/gcetasks/forwardingrule.go:198

			return fmt.Errorf("cannot specify both %q and %q for forwarding rule target.", o.Target, e.BackendService)
		}
		o.BackendService = e.BackendService.URL(t.Cloud)
	}

	if e.IPAddress != nil {
		o.IPAddress = fi.ValueOf(e.IPAddress.IPAddress)
		if o.IPAddress == "" {
			addr, err := e.IPAddress.find(t.Cloud)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("error finding Address %q: %v", e.IPAddress, err)
			}
			if addr == nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("Address %q was not found", e.IPAddress)
			}

			o.IPAddress = fi.ValueOf(addr.IPAddress)
			if o.IPAddress == "" {
				return fmt.Errorf("Address had no IP: %v", e.IPAddress)
			}
		}
	}
	if o.IPAddress != "" && e.RuleIPAddress != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Specified both IP Address and rule-managed IP address: %v, %v", e.IPAddress, *e.RuleIPAddress)
	}
	if e.RuleIPAddress != nil {
		o.IPAddress = *e.RuleIPAddress
	}

	if e.Network != nil {
		project := t.Cloud.Project()
		if e.Network.Project != nil {
			project = *e.Network.Project
		}
		o.Network = e.Network.URL(project)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Re-run kops update — the address may have been mid-reservation during the previous attempt.
2. Delete and recreate the GCE Address if it persistently reports no IP.
3. Set the ipAddress explicitly in the spec to bypass resolution.
4. Check gcloud compute addresses describe <name> to verify RESERVATION state.

// before applying, confirm the address reports an IP:
// gcloud compute addresses describe ADDR --region=R --format="value(address)"

err := kopsUpdate()
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "Address had no IP") {
  time.Sleep(10 * time.Second)
  // retry once; the address may have been mid-reservation
  if err := kopsUpdate(); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("address has no IP after retry: %v", err)
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: find() returned a non-nil Address whose IPAddress string is empty — e.g. a stale/partial resource state or an unexpected API response shape — while rendering a ForwardingRule whose spec gave no concrete IP.

Common situations: Rare race where the Address exists in the API listing but not yet fully reserved; corrupted cached state; version skew between kops and the API response fields.

Related errors

• error finding Address with IP=%q: %w
• error finding Address %q: %v
• Address %q was not found
• error getting ForwardingRule %q: %w
• failed to list backend services: %w

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2f3e99875ac24bec. Report an issue: GitHub.