kubernetes/kops · error

getting http client: %w

Error message

getting http client: %w

What it means

Building the HTTP client used to reach the cluster's API server during validate cluster failed: the REST config was obtained, but wrapping it into a client (transport/authn setup) errored. Typically a malformed kubeconfig credential, an unsupported auth plugin, or broken system TLS configuration.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops/validate_cluster.go:172

	var instanceGroups []kopsapi.InstanceGroup
	for _, ig := range list.Items {
		instanceGroups = append(instanceGroups, ig)
		klog.V(2).Infof("instance group: %#v\n\n", ig.Spec)
	}

	if len(instanceGroups) == 0 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("no InstanceGroup objects found")
	}

	restConfig, err := f.RESTConfig(ctx, cluster, options.CreateKubecfgOptions)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("getting rest config: %w", err)
	}

	httpClient, err := f.HTTPClient(restConfig)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("getting http client: %w", err)
	}

	k8sClient, err := kubernetes.NewForConfigAndClient(restConfig, httpClient)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("building kubernetes client: %w", err)
	}

	timeout := time.Now().Add(options.wait)

	validator, err := validation.NewClusterValidator(cluster, cloud, list, options.filterInstanceGroups, options.filterPodsForValidation, options.MaxUnreadyNodes, restConfig, k8sClient)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unexpected error creating validatior: %v", err)
	}

	consecutive := 0
	for {
		if options.wait > 0 && time.Now().After(timeout) && consecutive == 0 {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("wait time exceeded during validation")

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Regenerate credentials with kops export kubeconfig and retry
2. Inspect the kubeconfig/REST config for invalid auth info, certificates, or exec credential plugins
3. Check that CA-bundle environment variables (e.g. SSL_CERT_FILE) are not breaking TLS setup

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cmd/kops/validate_cluster.go:172 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/5c2130bf75974c3a. Report an issue: GitHub.