kubernetes/kops · error

error deleting cloud resources for InstanceGroup: %v

Error message

error deleting cloud resources for InstanceGroup: %v

What it means

For each validated cloud group, DeleteInstanceGroup calls Cloud.DeleteGroup. If the provider's delete call fails (permissions, dependency instances, API errors), the error is wrapped with this prefix. The k8s InstanceGroup object is intentionally left untouched since cloud teardown failed.

Source

Thrown at pkg/instancegroups/delete.go:58

	groups, err := d.Cloud.GetCloudGroups(d.Cluster, []*api.InstanceGroup{group}, false, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error finding CloudInstanceGroups: %v", err)
	}

	for _, g := range groups {
		if g.InstanceGroup == nil || g.InstanceGroup.Name != group.Name {
			return fmt.Errorf("found group with unexpected name: %v", g)
		}
	}

	// TODO should we drain nodes and validate the cluster?
	for _, g := range groups {
		klog.Infof("Deleting %q", group.ObjectMeta.Name)

		err = d.Cloud.DeleteGroup(g)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error deleting cloud resources for InstanceGroup: %v", err)
		}
	}

	err = d.Clientset.InstanceGroupsFor(d.Cluster).Delete(ctx, group.ObjectMeta.Name, metav1.DeleteOptions{})
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped provider error and resolve it (fix IAM permissions, disable termination protection, drain instances)
2. Verify credentials and region of the fi.Cloud client
3. Retry the delete once the underlying cloud condition is fixed

// Verify IAM permissions before attempting deletion, e.g. for AWS:
_, err := asgClient.DeleteAutoScalingGroup(&autoscaling.DeleteAutoScalingGroupInput{
	AutoScalingGroupName: aws.String(asgName),
	ForceDelete:          aws.Bool(false),
})
_ = err // surface authorization failures early

err := d.DeleteInstanceGroup(group)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error deleting cloud resources") {
	if isTransient(err) {
		time.Sleep(30 * time.Second)
		err = d.DeleteInstanceGroup(group)
	}
}

When it happens

Trigger: Cloud.DeleteGroup returns an error, e.g. IAM role lacks autoscaling:DeleteAutoScalingGroup, the ASG still has instances/attachments, or a transient cloud API failure during `kops delete ig`.

Common situations: Deleting an ASG with instances that have termination protection, insufficient cloud credentials, or region misconfiguration.

Related errors

• error finding CloudInstanceGroups: %v
• found group with unexpected name: %v
• failed to delete instance IP %s: %w
• error deleting %s: %w
• error deleting %s: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3af1043feca18b5b. Report an issue: GitHub.