kubernetes/kops · error

error deleting autoscaling group %q: %v

Error message

error deleting autoscaling group %q: %v

What it means

Thrown when the Auto Scaling DeleteAutoScalingGroup API fails for reasons other than a dependency violation (which is returned unwrapped so callers can retry). Wraps the ASG name and the underlying error during cluster teardown.

Source

Thrown at pkg/resources/aws/aws.go:1247

func DeleteAutoScalingGroup(cloud fi.Cloud, r *resources.Resource) error {
	ctx := context.TODO()

	c := cloud.(awsup.AWSCloud)

	id := r.ID

	klog.V(2).Infof("Deleting autoscaling group %q", id)
	request := &autoscaling.DeleteAutoScalingGroupInput{
		AutoScalingGroupName: &id,
		ForceDelete:          aws.Bool(true),
	}
	_, err := c.Autoscaling().DeleteAutoScalingGroup(ctx, request)
	if err != nil {
		if IsDependencyViolation(err) {
			return err
		}
		return fmt.Errorf("error deleting autoscaling group %q: %v", id, err)
	}
	return nil
}

func ListAutoScalingGroups(cloud fi.Cloud, vpcID, clusterName string) ([]*resources.Resource, error) {
	c := cloud.(awsup.AWSCloud)

	tags := c.Tags()

	asgs, err := awsup.FindAutoscalingGroups(c, tags)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	var resourceTrackers []*resources.Resource

	for _, asg := range asgs {
		resourceTracker := &resources.Resource{

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Confirm the ASG exists in the correct region: `aws autoscaling describe-auto-scaling-groups --auto-scaling-group-names <id>`.
2. If it doesn't exist, it's already deleted — re-run kops delete cluster; check for stale state.
3. Fix IAM permissions (autoscaling:DeleteAutoScalingGroup).
4. Retry on throttling after backoff.

groups, err := asgClient.DescribeAutoScalingGroups(ctx, &autoscaling.DescribeAutoScalingGroupsInput{AutoScalingGroupNames: []string{id}}); if err != nil || len(groups.AutoScalingGroups) == 0 { /* already deleted, skip */ }

func isNotFound(err error) bool { return strings.Contains(err.Error(), "does not exist") || strings.Contains(err.Error(), "not found") }

err := DeleteAutoScalingGroup(cloud, r)
if err != nil {
	if isNotFound(err) { return nil } // already deleted
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: DeleteAutoScalingGroup with ForceDelete on an ASG name that doesn't exist (ValidationError: AutoScalingGroup name not found), insufficient iam:DeleteAutoScalingGroup permission, or throttling.

Common situations: ASG already deleted by a concurrent/previous run but state cache is stale; IAM role missing autoscaling:DeleteAutoScalingGroup; ASG in a different region than the kops cloud client.

Related errors

• error terminating instances: %v
• error deleting ec2 LaunchTemplate %q: %v
• error listing AutoScalingGroups: %v
• error creating AutoScalingGroup: %s
• failed to detach target groups from autoscaling group: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e13cda6996b25dab. Report an issue: GitHub.