kubernetes/kops · error

invalid topology %s

Error message

invalid topology %s

What it means

After handling public and private topology, setupTopology's switch falls through to default when --topology is any other value. This is the guard against invalid topology strings, echoing the value the user passed.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/new_cluster.go:1502

					PublicName: "bastion." + cluster.Name,
				}
			}
			if opt.IPv6 {
				for _, s := range cluster.Spec.Networking.Subnets {
					if s.Type == api.SubnetTypeDualStack {
						bastionGroup.Spec.Subnets = append(bastionGroup.Spec.Subnets, s.Name)
					}
				}
			}
			if cluster.GetCloudProvider() == api.CloudProviderGCE {
				bastionGroup.Spec.Zones = allZones.List()
			}

			bastionGroup.Spec.Image = opt.BastionImage
		}

	default:
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid topology %s", opt.Topology)
	}

	if opt.IPv6 {
		cluster.Spec.Networking.NonMasqueradeCIDR = "::/0"
		cluster.Spec.ExternalCloudControllerManager = &api.CloudControllerManagerConfig{}
		if cluster.GetCloudProvider() == api.CloudProviderAWS {
			for i := range cluster.Spec.Networking.Subnets {
				cluster.Spec.Networking.Subnets[i].IPv6CIDR = fmt.Sprintf("/64#%x", i)
			}
		} else {
			klog.Errorf("IPv6 support is available only on AWS")
		}
	}

	return bastions, nil
}

func setupDNSTopology(opt *NewClusterOptions, cluster *api.Cluster) error {

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Use exactly --topology public or --topology private.
2. Fix shell variables so the flag expands to a valid value, or drop the flag if the default is fine.
3. Check `kops create cluster --help` for accepted topology values.

Example fix

// before
kops create cluster my.cluster --topology $TOPOLOGY   # TOPOLOGY empty -> "invalid topology "
// after
TOPOLOGY=private kops create cluster my.cluster --topology $TOPOLOGY

case "$TOPOLOGY" in public|private) ;; *) echo "--topology must be public or private"; exit 1;; esac

if err := createCluster(); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid topology") { /* print the value, fix it, retry */ }

When it happens

Trigger: `kops create cluster --topology <invalid>` where <invalid> is anything other than "public" or "private" — e.g. a typo (`privte`), an empty value from a shell variable, or "federated" from a misunderstanding.

Common situations: Typos in scripts; unset shell variables expanding --topology ""; copying flags from other tools that support different topology names; case-sensitivity issues (Public vs public).

Understand the failure class

Background: "unknown output mode", "invalid value for flag", "expects true/false": fixing invalid flag value errors in CLI tools — this error's family across 24 libraries.

Related errors

• bastion supports --topology='private' only
• unknown DNSType: %q
• specified %d control-plane zones, but also requested %d cont
• unknown networking mode %q
• unknown topology type: %q

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1f885ff75b9bda5d. Report an issue: GitHub.