kubernetes/kops · error

found group with unexpected name: %v

Error message

found group with unexpected name: %v

What it means

After GetCloudGroups returns, DeleteInstanceGroup sanity-checks that every returned cloud group maps back to the requested InstanceGroup name. A mismatch (nil InstanceGroup link or different name) means the cloud enumerator returned something unexpected, so it aborts rather than deleting the wrong resources.

Source

Thrown at pkg/instancegroups/delete.go:48

// DeleteInstanceGroup removes the cloud resources for an InstanceGroup
type DeleteInstanceGroup struct {
	Cluster   *api.Cluster
	Cloud     fi.Cloud
	Clientset simple.Clientset
}

// DeleteInstanceGroup deletes a cloud instance group
func (d *DeleteInstanceGroup) DeleteInstanceGroup(group *api.InstanceGroup) error {
	ctx := context.TODO()

	groups, err := d.Cloud.GetCloudGroups(d.Cluster, []*api.InstanceGroup{group}, false, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error finding CloudInstanceGroups: %v", err)
	}

	for _, g := range groups {
		if g.InstanceGroup == nil || g.InstanceGroup.Name != group.Name {
			return fmt.Errorf("found group with unexpected name: %v", g)
		}
	}

	// TODO should we drain nodes and validate the cluster?
	for _, g := range groups {
		klog.Infof("Deleting %q", group.ObjectMeta.Name)

		err = d.Cloud.DeleteGroup(g)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error deleting cloud resources for InstanceGroup: %v", err)
		}
	}

	err = d.Clientset.InstanceGroupsFor(d.Cluster).Delete(ctx, group.ObjectMeta.Name, metav1.DeleteOptions{})
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Compare the printed group name with the requested instance group name to find the mismatch
2. Delete or reconcile the orphaned/mismatched cloud group manually, then retry
3. Check the cloud provider's GetCloudGroups implementation if it mis-links groups

// Pre-check that the requested group name is consistent with the cloud state
_, err := cloud.GetCloudGroups(cluster, []*api.InstanceGroup{group}, false, nil)
if err == nil {
	log.Printf("verified cloud group matches instance group %q before delete", group.Name)
}

err := d.DeleteInstanceGroup(group)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "found group with unexpected name") {
	log.Fatalf("cloud state out of sync with instance group %q: %v", group.Name, err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: GetCloudGroups returns groups whose .InstanceGroup is nil or whose name differs from the api.InstanceGroup passed in — e.g. a stale/mismatched cloud group or a provider bug in group-to-IG matching.

Common situations: Renaming an instance group in kOps while the old cloud group still exists, cloud provider returning related autoscaling groups, or provider mapping code failing to back-fill the InstanceGroup pointer.

Related errors

• error finding CloudInstanceGroups: %v
• error deleting cloud resources for InstanceGroup: %v
• DeleteGroup not implemented on azureCloud
• failed to delete %s: %w
• reading from stdin: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/248422cc411aec9d. Report an issue: GitHub.