kubernetes/kops · error

GroupName is required

Error message

GroupName is required

What it means

RunDeleteInstanceGroup requires the name of the instance group to delete via options.GroupName. If it is empty, the command aborts immediately before contacting the cluster. This is a mandatory-input guard in the kOps CLI.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops/delete_instancegroup.go:127

				}
			}

			return RunDeleteInstanceGroup(ctx, f, out, options)
		},
	}

	cmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&options.Yes, "yes", "y", options.Yes, "Specify --yes to immediately delete the instance group")

	return cmd
}

// RunDeleteInstanceGroup runs the deletion of an instance group
func RunDeleteInstanceGroup(ctx context.Context, f *util.Factory, out io.Writer, options *DeleteInstanceGroupOptions) error {
	// TODO make this drain and validate the ig?
	// TODO implement drain and validate logic
	groupName := options.GroupName
	if groupName == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("GroupName is required")
	}

	cluster, err := GetCluster(ctx, f, options.ClusterName)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	clientset, err := f.KopsClient()
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	group, err := clientset.InstanceGroupsFor(cluster).Get(ctx, groupName, metav1.GetOptions{})
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error reading InstanceGroup %q: %v", groupName, err)
	}
	if group == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("InstanceGroup %q not found", groupName)

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Pass the instance group name as a positional argument: kops delete instancegroup <name> --name <cluster>
2. Verify the group exists with `kops get instancegroups` and re-run with the exact name
3. In code, set DeleteInstanceGroupOptions.GroupName before calling RunDeleteInstanceGroup

Example fix

// before
kops delete instancegroup --name mycluster.k8s.local
// after
kops delete instancegroup nodes --name mycluster.k8s.local

if options.GroupName == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("GroupName is required")
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `kops delete instancegroup` (or RunDeleteInstanceGroup programmatically) without a positional group-name argument and without --name, so options.GroupName resolves to "".

Common situations: Typing `kops delete instancegroup` with no argument; scripting the command with a shell variable that is empty; forgetting that --name sets the cluster, not the group.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• at least one channel URL is required
• invalid InstanceGroup name: %v
• must specify %q label with cluster name to create instanceGr
• cluster %q not found
• instanceGroup %q already exists

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b7a1507f2c4cacc5. Report an issue: GitHub.