What causes "error updating Akamai (Linode) Subnet %q: %w" in kubernetes/kops?

Inspect the wrapped cause with errors.Unwrap / %v of the error to see the exact Linode API message and status code

error updating Akamai (Linode) Subnet %q: %w

Error message

error updating Akamai (Linode) Subnet %q: %w

What it means

This error is wrapped by RenderLinode in the Linode subnet task when the linodego UpdateVPCSubnet API call fails. kOps found a drift between the expected and actual VPC subnet and attempted to update the subnet's label, but the Akamai (Linode) API rejected or failed the request. The original linodego error is preserved via %w so callers can unwrap it.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/linodetasks/subnet.go:164

			fi.ValueOf(expected.VPC.ID),
		)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error creating Akamai (Linode) Subnet %q: %w", fi.ValueOf(expected.Name), err)
		}
		expected.ID = new(subnet.ID)
		return nil
	}

	if changes == nil || (changes.Name == nil && changes.IPv4 == nil) {
		expected.ID = actual.ID
		return nil
	}

	subnet, err := t.Cloud.Client().UpdateVPCSubnet(context.Background(), fi.ValueOf(actual.VPC.ID), fi.ValueOf(actual.ID), linodego.VPCSubnetUpdateOptions{
		Label: fi.ValueOf(expected.Name),
	})
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error updating Akamai (Linode) Subnet %q: %w", fi.ValueOf(expected.Name), err)
	}
	expected.ID = new(subnet.ID)

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped cause with errors.Unwrap / %v of the error to see the exact Linode API message and status code
Verify the VPC ID and subnet ID still exist in the Linode account (linode-cli vpcs view) and re-run if they were deleted out-of-band
Ensure the API token has vpcs:read_write scope and is not expired
Retry after a short delay if the cause is a rate limit (429) or transient 5xx
If label drift is unwanted, align the kOps cluster spec subnet name with the actual Linode subnet label instead of updating

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// before calling kops update
if subnetID == "" || vpcID == "" {
  return fmt.Errorf("vpc/subnet IDs must be resolved before update")
}
// verify the subnet still exists via linodego
if _, err := client.GetVPCSubnet(ctx, vpcID, subnetID); err != nil {
  return fmt.Errorf("subnet %s no longer exists: %w", subnetID, err)
}

Try / catch

err := task.Run(ctx)
var apiErr *linodego.Error
if errors.As(err, &apiErr) {
  switch apiErr.Code {
  case 404:
    // subnet deleted out-of-band: re-import or recreate
  case 429:
    // retry with backoff
  default:
    log.Errorf("subnet update failed: %v", apiErr)
  }
}

Prevention

Keep the Linode API token scoped with vpcs:read_write and rotated before expiry
Avoid editing Linode VPC subnets outside of kOps to prevent label drift
Add retry-with-backoff around kops update for 429/5xx responses
Periodically run kops edit/diff to catch drift before applying updates

When it happens

Trigger: Calling cloud.Client().UpdateVPCSubnet(ctx, vpcID, subnetID, linodego.VPCSubnetUpdateOptions{Label: expected.Name}) returns a non-nil error during a kOps cluster update when the subnet's label has drifted.

Common situations: The VPC or subnet was deleted out-of-band so the ID is stale; label violates Linode naming rules; API token lacks vpc read/write OAuth scopes; Linode API rate limiting or transient 5xx; region undergoing maintenance.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8437d2a790e94ae7. Report an issue: GitHub.