kubernetes/kops · error

failed to add the %s kubelet credential provider: %w

Error message

failed to add the %s kubelet credential provider: %w

What it means

When UseExternalKubeletCredentialProvider is enabled and the cloud provider is GCE, Build calls addGCPCredentialProvider to configure the kubelet image credential provider; its failure is wrapped with the provider name (e.g. "gce").

Source

Thrown at nodeup/pkg/model/kubelet.go:230

				Type:           nodetasks.FileType_File,
				Mode:           s("0400"),
				BeforeServices: []string{kubeletService},
			})
		}
	}

	if !b.NodeupConfig.UsesKubenet {
		c.AddTask(&nodetasks.File{
			Path: b.CNIConfDir(),
			Type: nodetasks.FileType_Directory,
		})
	}

	if b.UseExternalKubeletCredentialProvider() {
		switch b.CloudProvider() {
		case kops.CloudProviderGCE:
			if err := b.addGCPCredentialProvider(c); err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("failed to add the %s kubelet credential provider: %w", b.CloudProvider(), err)
			}
		case kops.CloudProviderAWS:
			if err := b.addECRCredentialProvider(c); err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("failed to add the %s kubelet credential provider: %w", b.CloudProvider(), err)
			}
		}
	}

	{
		cgroup := kubeletConfig.KubeletCgroups
		if cgroup != "" {
			c.EnsureTask(b.buildCgroupService(cgroup))
		}

	}
	{
		cgroup := kubeletConfig.RuntimeCgroups
		if cgroup != "" {

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped %w error for the root cause (missing asset vs task build failure).
2. Ensure the GCP auth provider image/binary asset is available in the cluster's asset store.
3. If you do not need external credential providers, disable UseKubeletCredentialProvider in the cluster spec.
4. Verify GCE-specific cluster spec fields (registry/auth config) are correct.

// ensure the GCP credential provider image/binary is present before enabling
// in cluster spec:
// kubelet:
//   useKubeletCredentialProvider: true
// verify asset:
// kops get cluster -o yaml | grep -i credential

err := runNodeup(ctx)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "kubelet credential provider") {
    return fmt.Errorf("credential provider setup failed: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: addGCPCredentialProvider returns an error while building the GCP credential provider config/volume tasks — e.g. missing image for the credential provider binary or failure creating its file/config tasks.

Common situations: GCP clusters with external credential providers enabled but the required provider binary/asset missing from the asset store, or invalid GCP auth config.

Related errors

• error building kubelet server cert: %v
• error building kubelet config: %v
• error loading AWS config: %v
• error querying Azure instance metadata: %v
• error querying DigitalOcean droplet ID: %w

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6535ac4480df1d72. Report an issue: GitHub.