kubernetes/kops · error

failed to fetch instances: %v

Error message

failed to fetch instances: %v

What it means

findInstances failed while listing the EC2 instances belonging to the instance group's ASG during awsBuildCloudInstanceGroup. Fires on DescribeInstances API errors, throttling, or missing ec2:DescribeInstances permission.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/awsup/aws_cloud.go:998

		if id != "" {
			launchTemplate := id + ":" + version
			return launchTemplate
		}
	}

	return ""
}

func awsBuildCloudInstanceGroup(ctx context.Context, c AWSCloud, cluster *kops.Cluster, ig *kops.InstanceGroup, g *autoscalingtypes.AutoScalingGroup, nodeMap map[string]*v1.Node) (*cloudinstances.CloudInstanceGroup, error) {
	newConfigName, err := findAutoscalingGroupLaunchConfiguration(ctx, c, g)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	instanceSeen := map[string]bool{}
	instances, err := findInstances(ctx, c, ig)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to fetch instances: %v", err)
	}

	cg := &cloudinstances.CloudInstanceGroup{
		HumanName:     aws.ToString(g.AutoScalingGroupName),
		InstanceGroup: ig,
		MinSize:       int(aws.ToInt32(g.MinSize)),
		TargetSize:    int(aws.ToInt32(g.DesiredCapacity)),
		MaxSize:       int(aws.ToInt32(g.MaxSize)),
		Raw:           g,
	}

	for _, i := range g.Instances {
		err := buildCloudInstance(i, instances, instanceSeen, nodeMap, cg, newConfigName)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Verify IAM permission ec2:DescribeInstances
2. Retry after a backoff if throttled
3. Check the wrapped error for region mismatch or stale instance filters

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/awsup/aws_cloud.go:998 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/1448464df9a1c207. Report an issue: GitHub.