kubernetes/kops · error

error parsing Cluster %q: %v

Error message

error parsing Cluster %q: %v

What it means

fullClusterSpecs decodes the raw bytes of cluster-completed.spec with kopscodecs.Decode; if the payload is corrupt, in an unsupported version, or not valid serialized API data, the error is wrapped as 'error parsing Cluster %q: %v'. This is a deserialization failure, distinct from a read failure.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops/get_cluster.go:297

	return nil
}

func fullClusterSpecs(ctx context.Context, vfsContext *vfs.VFSContext, clusters []*kopsapi.Cluster) ([]*kopsapi.Cluster, error) {
	var fullSpecs []*kopsapi.Cluster
	for _, cluster := range clusters {
		configBase, err := registry.ConfigBase(vfsContext, cluster)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error reading full cluster spec for %q: %v", cluster.ObjectMeta.Name, err)
		}
		configPath := configBase.Join(registry.PathClusterCompleted)
		b, err := configPath.ReadFile(ctx)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error loading Cluster %q: %v", configPath, err)
		}

		o, _, err := kopscodecs.Decode(b, nil)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error parsing Cluster %q: %v", configPath, err)
		}
		if fullSpec, ok := o.(*kopsapi.Cluster); ok {
			fullSpecs = append(fullSpecs, fullSpec)
		} else {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("unexpected object type for Cluster %q: %T", configPath, o)
		}
	}
	return fullSpecs, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Use a kops binary version compatible with the cluster's kubernetesVersion/spec (check `kops version` vs the cluster's creation version).
2. Inspect the raw object (`aws s3 cp ... -` or gsutil cat) for corruption or manual edits; restore it from backup or re-run `kops update cluster` to regenerate.
3. Compare the apiVersion/kind in the stored spec against supported kops API versions for your binary.
4. Never hand-edit state-store objects; edit via `kops edit cluster` instead.

Example fix

// before
# spec stored with unsupported apiVersion after kops downgrade
kops get cluster X --full   # kops 1.19 binary vs cluster updated by 1.25
// after
# upgrade the kops binary to match the cluster
brew upgrade kops && kops get cluster X --full

# sanity: kops binary version should match cluster creation version
kv=$(kops version | grep -o '[0-9]*\.[0-9]*' | head -1)
cv=$(kops get cluster "$CLUSTER" -o json | jq -r '.spec.kubernetesVersion')
echo "kops=$kv k8s=$cv"  # mismatched major versions can break decoding

null

if ! kops get cluster "$CLUSTER" --full 2>err.txt; then
  grep -q 'error parsing Cluster' err.txt && \
    { echo "spec corrupt or version mismatch; verify kops version vs cluster spec"; aws s3 cp ".../cluster-completed.spec" - ; }
fi

When it happens

Trigger: `kops get cluster X --full` where the stored spec was hand-edited, truncated by a failed upload, created by an incompatible kops version (codec/scheme mismatch), or otherwise not a decodable kops API object.

Common situations: Manual edits to state-store YAML introducing syntax errors; kops major-version skew between the binary and the cluster spec (e.g. old spec with retired API version); partially uploaded objects.

Related errors

• error marshaling yaml: %v
• error encoding object: %v
• error marshaling object: %v
• serializing completed cluster spec: %w
• error building annotation patch: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b05954e02e1da019. Report an issue: GitHub.