kubernetes/kops · error

error querying cluster %q: %v

Error message

error querying cluster %q: %v

What it means

After reading the cluster-name label from an InstanceGroup, RunCreate calls clientset.GetCluster to fetch the parent cluster. If that backend lookup returns an error (storage/backend failure, not the not-found case), it is wrapped in this message with the cluster name and underlying error.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops/create.go:163

				_, err = clientset.CreateCluster(ctx, v)
				if err != nil {
					if apierrors.IsAlreadyExists(err) {
						return fmt.Errorf("cluster %q already exists", v.ObjectMeta.Name)
					}
					return fmt.Errorf("error creating cluster: %v", err)
				}
				fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "Created cluster/%s\n", v.ObjectMeta.Name)
				clusters = append(clusters, v)
				// cSpec = true

			case *kopsapi.InstanceGroup:
				clusterName = v.ObjectMeta.Labels[kopsapi.LabelClusterName]
				if clusterName == "" {
					return fmt.Errorf("must specify %q label with cluster name to create instanceGroup", kopsapi.LabelClusterName)
				}
				cluster, err := clientset.GetCluster(ctx, clusterName)
				if err != nil {
					return fmt.Errorf("error querying cluster %q: %v", clusterName, err)
				}

				if cluster == nil {
					return fmt.Errorf("cluster %q not found", clusterName)
				}

				_, err = clientset.InstanceGroupsFor(cluster).Create(ctx, v, metav1.CreateOptions{})
				if err != nil {
					if apierrors.IsAlreadyExists(err) {
						return fmt.Errorf("instanceGroup %q already exists", v.ObjectMeta.Name)
					}
					return fmt.Errorf("error creating instanceGroup: %v", err)
				}
				fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "Created instancegroup/%s\n", v.ObjectMeta.Name)

			case *kopsapi.SSHCredential:
				clusterName = v.ObjectMeta.Labels[kopsapi.LabelClusterName]
				if clusterName == "" {

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped %v detail to identify the backend failure
2. Verify KOPS_STATE_STORE points at the correct store (e.g. s3://<bucket>) and credentials work (`aws s3 ls $KOPS_STATE_STORE`)
3. Confirm the cluster manifest exists in the store (`kops get clusters`)
4. Retry after fixing network/permissions

if os.Getenv("KOPS_STATE_STORE") == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("KOPS_STATE_STORE must be set")
}
// pre-check backend reachability
if _, err := clientset.GetCluster(ctx, name); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("state store unreachable: %v", err)
}

if err := runCreate(); err != nil {
    var se *StateStoreError
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error querying cluster") {
        // check KOPS_STATE_STORE, credentials, network, then retry
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: `kops create -f ig.yaml` with a properly labeled InstanceGroup where GetCluster against the state store fails — e.g. unreachable/misspelled KOPS_STATE_STORE, bad credentials, malformed s3:// path, or network/permission error reading the cluster manifest.

Common situations: KOPS_STATE_STORE env var wrong or unset in CI; S3 bucket deleted or IAM permissions revoked; using a state store path for a different region; VPN/network outage on a developer machine.

Related errors

• error getting cluster: %q: %v
• adding encryptionconfig secret: %v
• updating encryptionconfig secret: %v
• no cluster found
• cluster not found %q

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/878dd63f786eac36. Report an issue: GitHub.