kubernetes/kops · error

error querying DigitalOcean droplet ID: %w

Error message

error querying DigitalOcean droplet ID: %w

What it means

Wraps a failure of the DigitalOcean metadata query during kubelet builder setup on a DO droplet: the node's provider ID cannot be determined because the droplet metadata service did not answer correctly.

Source

Thrown at nodeup/pkg/model/kubelet.go:140

			}
			metadata := imds.NewFromConfig(config)
			instanceIdentity, err := metadata.GetInstanceIdentityDocument(ctx, &imds.GetInstanceIdentityDocumentInput{})
			if err != nil {
				return err
			}
			providerID = fmt.Sprintf("aws:///%s/%s", instanceIdentity.AvailabilityZone, instanceIdentity.InstanceID)
		} else if b.CloudProvider() == kops.CloudProviderAzure {
			metadata, err := azuremetadata.QueryComputeInstanceMetadata(ctx)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("error querying Azure instance metadata: %v", err)
			}
			providerID = "azure://" + metadata.ResourceID
		} else if b.CloudProvider() == kops.CloudProviderDO {
			// The DO CCM resolves nodes by provider ID; its name-based fallback does not match
			// our IP-based node names.
			dropletID, err := dometadata.GetDropletID()
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("error querying DigitalOcean droplet ID: %w", err)
			}
			providerID = "digitalocean://" + dropletID
		}

		t, err := b.buildKubeletComponentConfig(kubeletConfig, providerID)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}

		c.AddTask(t)
	}

	{
		t, err := b.buildSystemdEnvironmentFile(c.Context(), kubeletConfig)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		c.AddTask(t)

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Ensure the node can reach the DO metadata service at 169.254.169.254.
2. Run nodeup on an actual droplet; it cannot resolve droplet ID elsewhere.
3. Retry after transient metadata failures.
4. Check the wrapped error (uses %w) with errors.Is/As for network vs parse cause.

// before nodeup on a droplet: probe DO metadata
body, err := fetch("http://169.254.169.254/metadata/v1/id")
if err != nil || body == "" {
    return errors.New("droplet metadata unavailable")
}

err := runNodeup(ctx)
if err != nil {
    var doErr error
    if errors.As(err, &doErr) && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "droplet ID") {
        // error is wrapped with %w; inspect cause and retry on timeouts
        return retryAfter(30*time.Second, err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: GetDropletID fails — the DigitalOcean metadata endpoint (169.254.169.254/metadata) is unreachable, times out, or returns a response without a droplet id.

Common situations: Metadata service blocked by firewall, running nodeup outside a real droplet (e.g. in a container/Packer build), transient DO metadata outage.

Related errors

• error loading AWS config: %v
• error querying Azure instance metadata: %v
• failed to load AWS config: %w
• failed to get local-ipv4 address from ec2 metadata: %w
• getting local IP from metadata is not supported for cloud pr

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ad59a2221dd630c0. Report an issue: GitHub.