instance detach is not yet implemented for Akamai (Linode)

Error message

instance detach is not yet implemented for Akamai (Linode)

What it means

Cloud.DetachInstance for the Akamai (Linode) provider is a stub returning 'instance detach is not yet implemented'. Detaching (removing an instance from its group without deleting) is unsupported for Linode.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/linode/cloud.go:147

		if linodego.IsNotFound(err) {
			return nil
		}
		return fmt.Errorf("error deleting Akamai (Linode) instance %q: %w", instance.ID, err)
	}

	return nil
}

func (c *Cloud) DeregisterInstance(instance *cloudinstances.CloudInstance) error {
	return nil
}

func (c *Cloud) DeleteGroup(group *cloudinstances.CloudInstanceGroup) error {
	return fmt.Errorf("instance group deletion is not yet implemented for Akamai (Linode)")
}

func (c *Cloud) DetachInstance(instance *cloudinstances.CloudInstance) error {
	return fmt.Errorf("instance detach is not yet implemented for Akamai (Linode)")
}

func (c *Cloud) GetCloudGroups(cluster *kops.Cluster, instancegroups []*kops.InstanceGroup, warnUnmatched bool, nodes []v1.Node) (map[string]*cloudinstances.CloudInstanceGroup, error) {
	return map[string]*cloudinstances.CloudInstanceGroup{}, nil
}

func (c *Cloud) Region() string {
	return c.region
}

func (c *Cloud) FindClusterStatus(cluster *kops.Cluster) (*kops.ClusterStatus, error) {
	return &kops.ClusterStatus{}, nil
}

func (c *Cloud) GetApiIngressStatus(cluster *kops.Cluster) ([]fi.ApiIngressStatus, error) {
	return nil, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

Use rolling-update settings that delete-and-recreate instances instead of detaching (avoid detach-dependent flags).
Manually remove and recreate the Linode if a single instance must be replaced outside a rolling update.
Wait for/upstream Linode DetachInstance support in kops before using detach workflows.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: fallback

Validate before calling

if provider == kops.CloudProviderLinode && needsDetach {
	return fmt.Errorf("detach is unsupported for Linode; use delete-and-recreate")
}

Try / catch

if err := cloud.DetachInstance(inst); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "not yet implemented for Akamai") {
	// fall back to DeleteInstance + recreate workflow
}

Prevention

Configure rolling updates to replace (delete+create) instances instead of detaching
Avoid detach-based surge strategies on Linode clusters
Check upstream kops issues for Linode DetachInstance support before enabling related flags

When it happens

Trigger: Rolling-update operations that use detach/reattach semantics (e.g. --instance-group with detach-based replacement), or any code path invoking Cloud.DetachInstance on a Linode cluster.

Common situations: Users attempting surge-style rolling updates that require detaching instances from groups on Linode clusters.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/977bbdd61404aa33. Report an issue: GitHub.