kubernetes/kops · error

getting VM: %w

Error message

getting VM: %w

What it means

When the parsed providerID identifies a standalone virtual machine (Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines), getVMTags calls the VMs client Get API to fetch the VM (including its tags). If the Azure API call fails, the error is wrapped with 'getting VM'.

Source

Thrown at pkg/nodeidentity/azure/client.go:84

		vmssClient: vmssClient,
	}, nil
}

func (c *client) getVMTags(ctx context.Context, providerID string) (map[string]*string, error) {
	if !strings.HasPrefix(providerID, "azure://") {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unknown providerID : %s", providerID)
	}

	res, err := arm.ParseResourceID(strings.TrimPrefix(providerID, "azure://"))
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error parsing providerID: %v", err)
	}

	switch res.ResourceType.String() {
	case "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines":
		resp, err := c.vmClient.Get(ctx, res.ResourceGroupName, res.Name, nil)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("getting VM: %w", err)
		}
		return resp.VirtualMachine.Tags, nil
	case "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines":
		resp, err := c.vmssClient.Get(ctx, res.ResourceGroupName, res.Parent.Name, res.Name, nil)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("getting VMSS VM: %w", err)
		}
		return resp.VirtualMachineScaleSetVM.Tags, nil
	default:
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unsupported resource type %q for %q", res.ResourceType, providerID)
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Check the wrapped error: if it is a 404, the VM no longer exists — delete the stale Node object (kubectl delete node <name>)
2. Verify the credential has at least Reader role on the VM / its resource group
3. Confirm the VM exists in the portal or with az vm show -g <rg> -n <vm-name>
4. For 429/throttling or transient network errors, retry; check Azure status

// verify the VM exists before the call
az vm show -g <resource-group> -n <vm-name> -o none  # exit 0 means it exists

resp, err := c.vmClient.Get(ctx, rg, name, nil)
if err != nil {
    var respErr *azcore.ResponseError
    if errors.As(err, &respErr) && respErr.StatusCode == 404 {
        // VM deleted; clean up the Node object instead of retrying
    } else if respErr != nil && (respErr.StatusCode == 429 || respErr.StatusCode >= 500) {
        // transient: retry with backoff
    }
    return fmt.Errorf("getting VM: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: c.vmClient.Get(ctx, resourceGroup, vmName, nil) returns an error — VM not found (ResourceNotFoundError), deleted VM whose Node object still exists, authz failure (no Reader role for the identity), or network/API errors.

Common situations: Node object orphaned after VM deletion or VMSS scale-in; managed identity lacking Reader on the VM's resource group; wrong subscription context (cluster moved between subscriptions); transient Azure API outages or throttling (429).

Related errors

• getting VMSS VM: %w
• error on getting VM ScaleSet: %s
• removing file %s: %w
• DNS not implemented on azureCloud
• FindVPCInfo not implemented on azureCloud, use FindVNetInfo

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b3017dbd49c517bb. Report an issue: GitHub.