kubernetes/kops · error

error finding matching instance types: %w

Error message

error finding matching instance types: %w

What it means

instanceSelector.Filter(ctx, mutatedFilters) failed while matching the cluster's constraints (vCPU/memory ratio, flexible count, usage class, zones) against available EC2 instance types. The wrapped AWS or computation error is chained with %w. It occurs per instance group inside the creation loop.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops/toolbox_instance-selector.go:297

	filters := getFilters(commandline, region, zones)
	mutatedFilters := filters
	if commandline.Flags[instanceGroupCount] != nil || filters.Flexible != nil {
		if filters.VCpusToMemoryRatio == nil {
			defaultStartRatio := float64(2.0)
			mutatedFilters.VCpusToMemoryRatio = &defaultStartRatio
		}
	}

	newInstanceGroups := []*kops.InstanceGroup{}

	for i := 0; i < igCount; i++ {
		igNameForRun := options.InstanceGroupName
		if igCount != 1 {
			igNameForRun = fmt.Sprintf("%s%d", options.InstanceGroupName, i+1)
		}
		selectedInstanceTypes, err := instanceSelector.Filter(ctx, mutatedFilters)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error finding matching instance types: %w", err)
		}
		if len(selectedInstanceTypes) == 0 {
			return fmt.Errorf("no instance types were returned because the criteria specified was too narrow")
		}
		usageClass := *filters.UsageClass

		ig := createInstanceGroup(igNameForRun, options.ClusterName, igSubnets)
		ig = decorateWithInstanceGroupSpecs(ig, options)
		ig, err = decorateWithMixedInstancesPolicy(ig, usageClass, selectedInstanceTypes)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		if options.ClusterAutoscaler {
			ig = decorateWithClusterAutoscalerLabels(ig, options.ClusterName)
		}
		ig, err = cloudup.PopulateInstanceGroupSpec(cluster, ig, cloud, channel)
		if err != nil {
			return err

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped (%w) cause to identify whether it is an AWS API error or a bad filter value.
2. Relax the filter flags (e.g. drop --flexible or widen the vcpu:memory ratio).
3. Verify the usage class flag is exactly 'spot' or 'regular'.
4. Retry if the cause was transient AWS throttling.

Example fix

// before
kops toolbox instance-selector --vcpus 0 --memory 0 ...
// after
kops toolbox instance-selector --vcpus 2 --memory 8 --flexible 2 ...

func validateFilters(f selector.Filters) error {
	if f.VCpusToMemoryRatio != nil && (*f.VCpusToMemoryRatio <= 0) {
		return fmt.Errorf("vcpus-to-memory-ratio must be positive")
	}
	if f.UsageClass == nil || (*f.UsageClass != "spot" && *f.UsageClass != "regular") {
		return fmt.Errorf("usageClass must be spot or regular")
	}
	return nil
}

selected, err := instanceSelector.Filter(ctx, mutatedFilters)
if err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("filtering failed (check flags & AWS API): %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Filter() returns an error for a given set of Filters — e.g. invalid vcpus-to-memory ratio values, an unsupported usage class, or an AWS API error while listing instance types during filtering.

Common situations: Passing nonsensical --vcpus-to-memory-ratio values; combining Spot usage class with constraints no spot capacity meets; filters computed from unusual subnet/zones inputs.

Related errors

• cannot select instance types from non-aws cluster
• error initializing instance selector: %v
• no instance types were returned because the criteria specifi
• DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN is required
• the image for the hook exec action not set

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0caa4009bc9b82ab. Report an issue: GitHub.