kubernetes/kops · critical

error parsing NodeupConfig %q: %v

Error message

error parsing NodeupConfig %q: %v

What it means

nodeup reads the cluster's NodeupConfig YAML from the state store (configBase/igconfig/<role>/<instancegroup>/nodeupconfig.yaml) and unmarshals it into nodeup.Config. This error means the file was fetched successfully but utils.YamlUnmarshal could not parse it into the Config struct — the YAML is malformed or its fields don't match the expected schema. It is thrown during NodeUpCommand.Run, before any provisioning work happens.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/nodeup/command.go:154

	case nodeConfig != nil:
		if err := utils.YamlUnmarshal([]byte(nodeConfig.NodeupConfig), &nodeupConfig); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error parsing BootConfig config response: %v", err)
		}
		nodeupConfigHash = sha256.Sum256([]byte(nodeConfig.NodeupConfig))
		if nodeupConfig.CAs == nil {
			nodeupConfig.CAs = make(map[string]string)
		}
		nodeupConfig.CAs[fi.CertificateIDCA] = bootConfig.ConfigServer.CACertificates
	case bootConfig.InstanceGroupName != "":
		nodeupConfigLocation := configBase.Join("igconfig", bootConfig.InstanceGroupRole.ToLowerString(), bootConfig.InstanceGroupName, "nodeupconfig.yaml")

		b, err := nodeupConfigLocation.ReadFile(ctx)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error loading NodeupConfig %q: %v", nodeupConfigLocation, err)
		}

		if err = utils.YamlUnmarshal(b, &nodeupConfig); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error parsing NodeupConfig %q: %v", nodeupConfigLocation, err)
		}
		nodeupConfigHash = sha256.Sum256(b)
	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("no instance group defined in nodeup config")
	}

	if bootConfig.NodeupConfigHash != "" {
		if want, got := bootConfig.NodeupConfigHash, base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(nodeupConfigHash[:]); got != want {
			return fmt.Errorf("nodeup config hash mismatch (was %q, expected %q)", got, want)
		}
	}

	err = evaluateSpec(&nodeupConfig, bootConfig.CloudProvider, region)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	architecture, err := architectures.FindArchitecture()

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Fetch the exact file shown in the error and validate it: kops toolbox dump won't help — instead download it (e.g. aws s3 cp s3://<statestore>/cluster/igconfig/<role>/<ig>/nodeupconfig.yaml -) and run it through a YAML linter / yaml.Unmarshal to spot syntax or type problems.
2. Check the kOps version that wrote the state store versus the nodeup binary version; mismatched schemas cause unmarshal failures. Upgrade nodeup/kops so both use the same Config schema, or re-run 'kops update cluster' to regenerate the config.
3. Regenerate and push the cluster configuration with 'kops update cluster' (then 'kops rolling-update cluster' as needed) so a known-good nodeupconfig.yaml is written to the state store.
4. As a last resort, restore the file from the state store backup or re-create the instance group ('kops replace -f ig.yaml') to rewrite nodeupconfig.yaml.

Example fix

// before: hand-edited nodeupconfig.yaml with a tab character
	configStore:
		secrets: s3://bucket/secrets
// after: use spaces only and valid types
configStore:
  secrets: s3://bucket/secrets

// Validate nodeupconfig.yaml parses before invoking nodeup
b, err := os.ReadFile("nodeupconfig.yaml")
if err != nil { return err }
var cfg nodeup.Config
if err := yaml.Unmarshal(b, &cfg); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("nodeupconfig.yaml is invalid: %w", err)
}

err := cmd.Run(out)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error parsing NodeupConfig") {
    // inspect the yaml file at the reported path and fix syntax/schema
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling NodeUpCommand.Run() with bootConfig.InstanceGroupName set (VFS path, not config-server path) where the nodeupconfig.yaml at the joined VFS path contains invalid YAML (bad indentation, tabs, duplicate keys) or fields with wrong types (e.g. a string where nodeup.Config expects a bool/int/map), or the file was written by an incompatible kOps version.

Common situations: Hand-edited nodeupconfig.yaml in the state store; partial/truncated upload to S3/GCS/object storage; state store produced by a newer or older kOps version whose Config schema differs; corruption in the object store serving the file.

Related errors

• error converting nodeup config to yaml: %v
• building nodeConfig for instanceGroup: %w
• unsupported cloud provider for authenticator %q
• parsing kops-channels manifest: %w
• no keypairID for %q

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/68da56d1a8c46780. Report an issue: GitHub.