kubernetes/kops · error

error adding asset %q: %v

Error message

error adding asset %q: %v

What it means

nodeup populates an AssetStore (backed by c.CacheDir) with the assets listed in nodeupConfig.Assets[architecture] — the kubectl/kubelet/cni binaries and container images required on the node. Each asset is fetched (download from HTTP URL or loaded from the config store) and hash-verified. This error means one asset could not be added: the download failed, the expected hash didn't match, or the cached/remote source was unreadable.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/nodeup/command.go:187

		return err
	}

	architecture, err := architectures.FindArchitecture()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error determining OS architecture: %v", err)
	}

	distribution, err := distributions.FindDistribution("/")
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error determining OS distribution: %v", err)
	}

	configAssets := nodeupConfig.Assets[architecture]
	assetStore := fi.NewAssetStore(c.CacheDir)
	for _, asset := range configAssets {
		err := assetStore.Add(ctx, asset)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error adding asset %q: %v", asset, err)
		}
	}

	// cloud holds the AWS clients, on AWS only.
	var cloud *awsup.Cloud

	if bootConfig.CloudProvider == api.CloudProviderAWS {
		cloud, err = awsup.NewCloud(ctx, region)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
	}

	modelContext := &model.NodeupModelContext{
		Cloud:        cloud,
		Architecture: architecture,
		Assets:       assetStore,
		ConfigBase:   configBase,

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Check network egress from the node to the asset URL in the error message; for private clusters, mirror assets into the cluster's state store/asset mirror and reference them in the cluster spec.
2. Clear the nodeup asset cache directory (c.CacheDir, e.g. /var/cache/nodeup) to remove corrupted cached files and re-run nodeup.
3. Verify the asset hash in the cluster spec matches the published artifact (sha256) — re-run 'kops update cluster' to regenerate nodeupconfig.yaml if kOps was upgraded.
4. Confirm the Assets map has entries for the node's detected architecture (amd64/arm64); fix the instance group image/architecture if assets are missing for it.

Example fix

// before: cluster spec asset URL unreachable from private subnet
// after: mirror assets locally and re-apply
kops set cluster cluster.spec.assets.containerRegistry=mirror.example.com/kops
kops update cluster --yes

// Pre-flight: check the asset URL is reachable and hash matches before running nodeup
resp, err := http.Head(assetURL)
if err != nil || resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
    return fmt.Errorf("asset unreachable: %s", assetURL)
}

err := cmd.Run(out)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error adding asset") {
    // clear the cache dir and retry with backoff; verify egress/mirror
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running NodeUpCommand.Run() where an entry in nodeupConfig.Assets for the detected architecture fails in assetStore.Add — unreachable download URL (restricted egress, wrong region), corrupted cache file in c.CacheDir, or SHA mismatch between the downloaded blob and the hash embedded in the asset string.

Common situations: Private clusters with no internet egress and no mirrored assets in the state store; object-store or CDN serving truncated/corrupted artifacts; kOps upgrade changing asset URLs/hashes while a proxy caches the old content; wrong architecture assets listed for the node.

Related errors

• unable to find any containerd binaries in assets
• error finding runc asset
• unable to locate asset %q
• trying to locate asset %q: %v
• unable to locate asset %q

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/77c56694582a730a. Report an issue: GitHub.