kubernetes/kops · critical

error running tasks: %w

Error message

error running tasks: %w

What it means

Run() executes the built task map via context.RunTasks(options). Any task failure (package install, file write, service start, kubelet config, etc.) propagates here wrapped as "error running tasks". The comment in the source stresses why the function returns rather than exiting: kops-configuration.service is Type=oneshot, so an exiting bootstrap is never retried and the node never joins — the retry loop in cmd/nodeup relies on Run returning an error.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/nodeup/command.go:390

		target = fi.NewNodeupDryRunTarget(assetBuilder, out)
	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("unsupported target type %q", c.Target)
	}

	context, err := fi.NewNodeupContext(ctx, target, keyStore, &bootConfig, &nodeupConfig, taskMap)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error building context: %w", err)
	}

	var options fi.RunTasksOptions
	options.InitDefaults()

	// Return rather than exit, so that the retry loop in cmd/nodeup gets to run:
	// kops-configuration.service is Type=oneshot, so a bootstrap that exits here is never
	// retried and the node never joins the cluster.
	err = context.RunTasks(options)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error running tasks: %w", err)
	}

	err = target.Finish(taskMap)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error closing target: %w", err)
	}

	if nodeupConfig.EnableLifecycleHook {
		if bootConfig.CloudProvider == api.CloudProviderAWS {
			err := completeWarmingLifecycleAction(ctx, cloud, modelContext)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("failed to complete lifecylce action: %w", err)
			}
		}
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Check the wrapped inner error and systemd journal (`journalctl -u kops-configuration.service`) for the failing task
2. Verify node egress: package mirrors, container registries (registry.k8s.io), and reachability of kops-controller/kube-apiserver
3. Fix the underlying task issue (disk space, DNS, proxy, TLS trust) and restart kops-configuration.service to retry
4. If a task repeatedly fails, run nodeup with --target dryrun to inspect the planned task set, then fix the cluster spec

Example fix

// before: node has no egress to registry.k8s.io, LoadImageTask times out
// after: add NAT/egress rule or VPC endpoint
//   security group egress: 0.0.0.0/0 443 (or S3/ECR endpoints), then:
systemctl restart kops-configuration.service

systemctl is-active containerd && curl -sI --max-time 5 https://registry.k8s.io/v2/ >/dev/null && echo 'prereqs ok'

if err := nodeupCmd.Run(ctx); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error running tasks") {
        // nodeup returns (does not exit) so cmd/nodeup's retry loop can re-run;
        // preserve that behavior and back off
        return backoffRetry(nodeupCmd.Run, 5)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any NodeupTask fails during execution: apt/yum package download failure, containerd/systemd unit errors, DNS or registry unreachable for assets/images, permission errors writing /etc or /var, keypair fetching from kops-controller failing.

Common situations: Node can't reach the package mirror or container registry (egress/NAT issues); TLS errors fetching assets from S3/kops-controller; disk full on /var; systemd failing to start containerd; transient network blips during node bootstrap in a new VPC with missing egress rules.

Related errors

• building nodeConfig for instanceGroup: %w
• unsupported cloud provider for authenticator %q
• no keypairID for %q
• error building kubelet flags: %v
• failed to create bpf mount unit: %w

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fd7c324fc4bb80f2. Report an issue: GitHub.