What causes "error building DNS provider: %w" in kubernetes/kops?

Check the wrapped error to see whether it is 'provider not found' vs a constructor error.

error building DNS provider: %w

Error message

error building DNS provider: %w

What it means

scwCloudImplementation.DNS calls dnsprovider.GetDnsProvider with the configured dns.ProviderName and nil config. This error means the kops dnsprovider registry could not build the requested DNS provider — typically because the provider name is not registered or its constructor requires configuration that was not supplied (nil here). It is kOps plumbing around DNS, not a Scaleway API call.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/scaleway/cloud.go:181

		lbAPI:          lb.NewZonedAPI(scwClient),
		marketplaceAPI: marketplace.NewAPI(scwClient),
	}, nil
}

func (s *scwCloudImplementation) ClusterName(tags []string) string {
	if tags != nil {
		return ClusterNameFromTags(tags)
	}
	if clusterName, ok := s.tags[TagClusterName]; ok {
		return clusterName
	}
	return ""
}

func (s *scwCloudImplementation) DNS() (dnsprovider.Interface, error) {
	provider, err := dnsprovider.GetDnsProvider(dns.ProviderName, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error building DNS provider: %w", err)
	}
	return provider, nil
}

func (s *scwCloudImplementation) ProviderID() kops.CloudProviderID {
	return kops.CloudProviderScaleway
}

func (s *scwCloudImplementation) Region() string {
	return string(s.region)
}

func (s *scwCloudImplementation) Zone() string {
	return string(s.zone)
}

func (s *scwCloudImplementation) DomainService() *domain.API {
	return s.domainAPI

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

Check the wrapped error to see whether it is 'provider not found' vs a constructor error.
Ensure dns.ProviderName is a supported value (e.g. 'route53', 'google-clouddns', 'scaleway') and set via KOPS_DNS_PROVIDER correctly.
Verify the kops binary includes the provider: keep the dnsprovider import (blank-import registry) in the build.
If the provider needs env vars, export them (e.g. SCW_ACCESS_KEY/SCW_SECRET_KEY) even though config is passed as nil.

Example fix

// before
export KOPS_DNS_PROVIDER=""           # unknown provider
// after
export KOPS_DNS_PROVIDER="scaleway"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if dns.ProviderName == "" {
  return fmt.Errorf("KOPS_DNS_PROVIDER is not set; set it to a registered provider")
}

Try / catch

provider, err := s.DNS()
if err != nil {
  var notFound *dnsprovider.ProviderNotFoundError
  if errors.As(err, &notFound) {
    klog.Errorf("DNS provider %q not registered in this kops build; check KOPS_DNS_PROVIDER and build tags", dns.ProviderName)
  }
  return fmt.Errorf("cluster update aborted, DNS unusable: %w", err)
}

Prevention

Always set KOPS_DNS_PROVIDER explicitly in CI and shell profiles.
Use an official kops release build that registers all DNS providers.
Smoke-test DNS provider construction early in provisioning pipelines.

When it happens

Trigger: dnsprovider.GetDnsProvider("scaleway", nil) fails: the provider string is empty/unknown, no DNS provider factory was registered via init() in the built binary, or the provider's constructor returns an error because it cannot read required config (e.g. missing DNS_* env vars).

Common situations: Building kOps with build tags or package imports that exclude the Scaleway DNS provider; KOPS_DNS_PROVIDER unset or misspelled; running a stripped-down kops build that dropped the dnsprovider plugin.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fc9906dcf42484a3. Report an issue: GitHub.