kubernetes/kops · error

spotinst: load balancer %q has no LoadBalancerName

Error message

spotinst: load balancer %q has no LoadBalancerName

What it means

buildLoadBalancers converts the task's LoadBalancers into spotinst aws.LoadBalancer objects of type CLASSIC, which require a LoadBalancerName. If a configured load balancer has only an ARN/ID and no name, kOps cannot build the CLASSIC LB reference and fails with the LB's name field (which is itself empty in practice).

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/spotinsttasks/elastigroup.go:1752

}

func (e *Elastigroup) buildAutoScaleLabels(labelsMap map[string]string) []*aws.AutoScaleLabel {
	labels := make([]*aws.AutoScaleLabel, 0, len(labelsMap))
	for key, value := range labelsMap {
		labels = append(labels, &aws.AutoScaleLabel{
			Key:   new(key),
			Value: new(value),
		})
	}

	return labels
}

func (e *Elastigroup) buildLoadBalancers(cloud awsup.AWSCloud) ([]*aws.LoadBalancer, error) {
	lbs := make([]*aws.LoadBalancer, len(e.LoadBalancers))
	for i, lb := range e.LoadBalancers {
		if lb.LoadBalancerName == nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("spotinst: load balancer %q has no LoadBalancerName", fi.ValueOf(lb.GetName()))
		}
		lbs[i] = &aws.LoadBalancer{
			Type: new("CLASSIC"),
			Name: lb.LoadBalancerName,
		}
	}
	return lbs, nil
}

func (e *Elastigroup) buildTargetGroups() []*aws.LoadBalancer {
	tgs := make([]*aws.LoadBalancer, len(e.TargetGroups))
	for i, tg := range e.TargetGroups {
		tgs[i] = &aws.LoadBalancer{
			Type: new("TARGET_GROUP"),
			Arn:  tg.ARN,
		}
	}
	return tgs

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Set loadBalancerName on each attached load balancer in the cluster/instance-group spec, using the classic ELB's name.
2. If the intent was ALB/NLB attachment, verify your kOps/spotinst task version supports it and use the appropriate field instead of the classic-LB path.
3. Run `kops get cluster -o yaml`, locate the loadBalancers entries for the elastigroup, and fill the missing name before applying.
4. Confirm the referenced classic ELB exists in the cluster region.

Example fix

// before
loadBalancers:
- targetGroupArn: arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:...
// after (classic LB requires a name)
loadBalancers:
- loadBalancerName: my-api-elb

// reject LB entries without a classic LB name before building
for i, lb := range e.LoadBalancers {
    if lb.LoadBalancerName == nil || *lb.LoadBalancerName == "" {
        return fmt.Errorf("loadBalancers[%d]: loadBalancerName is required for classic ELB attachment", i)
    }
}

func hasLBName(lb *LoadBalancer) bool {
    return lb != nil && lb.LoadBalancerName != nil && *lb.LoadBalancerName != ""
}

lb, err := buildLoadBalancers(cloud)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("skipping elastigroup render: %v", err) // fix spec and re-apply
}

When it happens

Trigger: Elastigroup spec includes a load balancer entry whose LoadBalancerName is nil — e.g. the spec referenced a target-group/ALB-style attachment without a classic LB name — and buildLoadBalancers runs during terraform-value rendering or group construction.

Common situations: Attaching an ALB/NLB or target group to a spotinst elastigroup spec that only supports CLASSIC LBs by name; load balancer name lost when copying specs between clusters; older spec format migrations.

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

• unknown load balancer Type: %q
• error building load balancers: %v
• spotinst: found multiple role tags %q vs %q
• --region is required (when --external)
• instance id for cloud instance member cannot be empty

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5ac1faa2f9bbb527. Report an issue: GitHub.