kubernetes/kops · error

no zones found in instance groups in cluster %q

Error message

no zones found in instance groups in cluster %q

What it means

After finding instance groups, the command unions ig.Spec.Zones to choose target zones; if all instance groups have empty Zones it returns 'no zones found in instance groups in cluster %q'. The generated MachineDeployment must be placed in at least one zone.

Source

Thrown at pkg/commands/toolbox/clusterapi/generate_machinedeployment.go:167

	if len(zones) == 0 || instanceType == "" || image == "" {
		instanceGroups, err := clientset.InstanceGroupsFor(cluster).List(ctx, metav1.ListOptions{})
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}

		if len(instanceGroups.Items) == 0 {
			return fmt.Errorf("no instance groups found in cluster %q", options.ClusterName)
		}

		if len(zones) == 0 {
			allZones := sets.New[string]()
			for _, ig := range instanceGroups.Items {
				for _, z := range ig.Spec.Zones {
					allZones.Insert(z)
				}
			}
			if allZones.Len() == 0 {
				return fmt.Errorf("no zones found in instance groups in cluster %q", options.ClusterName)
			}

			zones = sets.List(allZones)
			log.Info("selected zones", "zones", zones)
		}

		if instanceType == "" {
			instanceTypes := sets.New[string]()
			for _, ig := range instanceGroups.Items {
				if ig.Spec.MachineType != "" {
					instanceTypes.Insert(ig.Spec.MachineType)
				}
			}
			if instanceTypes.Len() == 0 {
				return fmt.Errorf("no instance types found in instance groups in cluster %q", options.ClusterName)
			}
			if instanceTypes.Len() > 1 {
				klog.Warningf("multiple instance types found in instance groups in cluster %q; using an arbitrary instance type", options.ClusterName)

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Set zones on each instance group: `kops edit instancegroup nodes` and add spec.zones entries.
2. Recreate IGs via `kops update cluster` from a cluster spec with valid zones.
3. Verify with `kops get ig -oyaml` that each group lists at least one zone.

Example fix

// before: instance group spec
metadata:
  name: nodes
spec: {}
// after
metadata:
  name: nodes
spec:
  machineType: t3.medium
  zones:
  - us-east-1a
  - us-east-1b

zones := sets.New[string]()
for _, ig := range igs.Items {
	zones.Insert(ig.Spec.Zones...)
}
if zones.Len() == 0 {
	return fmt.Errorf("all instance groups lack spec.zones; add zones before generating")
}

func igHasZones(ig *api.InstanceGroup) bool { return ig != nil && len(ig.Spec.Zones) > 0 }

if err := RunGenerateMachineDeployment(ctx, f, out, options); err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no zones found in instance groups") {
		return fmt.Errorf("set spec.zones on instance groups, then retry: %w", err)
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: All InstanceGroups in the cluster have empty spec.zones — e.g. hand-written IG manifests without zones, or IGs edited to remove zones, while zones were not otherwise derivable.

Common situations: Importing cluster configs without zone fields; editing IGs with a script that drops zones; region-scoped configs intended for a different scheduler.

Related errors

• no instance groups found in cluster %q
• no instance types found in instance groups in cluster %q
• error creating kops config template: %w
• error creating gcp machine template: %w
• error building machine deployments: %w

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/59698f24e1d84e99. Report an issue: GitHub.