kubernetes/kops · error

error from ec2 DescribeInstances request: %v

Error message

error from ec2 DescribeInstances request: %v

What it means

The raw EC2 DescribeInstances API call for the node's instance ID returned an error (auth, throttling, network). This is a transient/service-level failure wrapper around the AWS SDK response, not a not-found condition.

Source

Thrown at pkg/nodeidentity/aws/identify.go:169

	// If caching is enabled add the nodeidentity.Info to cache.
	if i.cacheEnabled {
		err = i.cache.Add(info)
		if err != nil {
			klog.Warningf("Failed to add node identity info to cache: %v", err)
		}
	}

	return info, nil
}

// getInstance queries EC2 for the instance with the specified ID, returning an error if not found
func (i *nodeIdentifier) getInstance(ctx context.Context, instanceID string) (*ec2types.Instance, error) {
	// Based on node-authorizer code
	resp, err := i.ec2Client.DescribeInstances(ctx, &ec2.DescribeInstancesInput{
		InstanceIds: []string{instanceID},
	})
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error from ec2 DescribeInstances request: %v", err)
	}

	// @check we found some instances
	if len(resp.Reservations) == 0 || len(resp.Reservations[0].Instances) == 0 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("missing instance id: %s", instanceID)
	}
	if len(resp.Reservations[0].Instances) > 1 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("found multiple instances with instance id: %s", instanceID)
	}

	instance := resp.Reservations[0].Instances[0]
	return &instance, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Retry; throttling and transient API errors usually resolve
2. Verify the node's IAM role permits ec2:DescribeInstances
3. Check network connectivity from the node to the EC2 endpoint

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at pkg/nodeidentity/aws/identify.go:169 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cc861507a42761fa. Report an issue: GitHub.