kubernetes/kops · error

error searching for detached instances: %v

Error message

error searching for detached instances: %v

What it means

Residual error guard after scanning the instance map for the kOps detached-instance tag: an earlier DescribeInstances-style error (stored in err) surfaces here, aborting the detached-instance handling in awsBuildCloudInstanceGroup.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/awsup/aws_cloud.go:1038

	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	for _, i := range result.Instances {
		err := buildCloudInstance(i, instances, instanceSeen, nodeMap, cg, newConfigName)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
	}
	var detached []*string
	for id, instance := range instances {
		for _, tag := range instance.Tags {
			if aws.ToString(tag.Key) == tagNameDetachedInstance {
				detached = append(detached, aws.String(id))
			}
		}
	}
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error searching for detached instances: %v", err)
	}
	for _, id := range detached {
		if id != nil && *id != "" && !instanceSeen[*id] {
			cm, err := cg.NewCloudInstance(*id, cloudinstances.CloudInstanceStatusDetached, nodeMap[*id])
			if err != nil {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("error creating cloud instance group member: %v", err)
			}
			instanceSeen[*id] = true
			addCloudInstanceData(cm, instances[aws.ToString(id)])
		}
	}

	return cg, nil
}

func buildCloudInstance(i autoscalingtypes.Instance, instances map[string]*ec2types.Instance, instanceSeen map[string]bool, nodeMap map[string]*v1.Node, cg *cloudinstances.CloudInstanceGroup, newConfigName string) error {
	id := aws.ToString(i.InstanceId)
	if id == "" {

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped %v error to find the failing AWS call
2. Verify ec2:DescribeInstances permissions for the credentials
3. Retry the read-only operation once transient AWS errors clear

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/awsup/aws_cloud.go:1038 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c9fcbee8b292a786. Report an issue: GitHub.