kubernetes/kops · error

SSH public key must be specified when running with Openstack

Error message

SSH public key must be specified when running with Openstack (create with `kops create secret --name %s sshpublickey admin -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`)

What it means

OpenStack requires an SSH keypair to be passed at server creation, but no admin sshpublickey secret was found in the state store, so the OpenStack cloud model cannot be built.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/apply_cluster.go:477

	case kops.CloudProviderAzure:
		{
			if !featureflag.Azure.Enabled() {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("azure support is currently alpha, and is feature-gated. Please export KOPS_FEATURE_FLAGS=Azure")
			}

			if len(sshPublicKeys) == 0 {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("SSH public key must be specified when running with AzureCloud (create with `kops create secret --name %s sshpublickey admin -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`)", cluster.ObjectMeta.Name)
			}

			if len(sshPublicKeys) != 1 {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("exactly one 'admin' SSH public key can be specified when running with AzureCloud; please delete a key using `kops delete secret`")
			}
		}
	case kops.CloudProviderOpenstack:
		{
			if len(sshPublicKeys) == 0 {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("SSH public key must be specified when running with Openstack (create with `kops create secret --name %s sshpublickey admin -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`)", cluster.ObjectMeta.Name)
			}

			if len(sshPublicKeys) != 1 {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("exactly one 'admin' SSH public key can be specified when running with Openstack; please delete a key using `kops delete secret`")
			}
		}

	case kops.CloudProviderScaleway:
		{
			if !featureflag.Scaleway.Enabled() {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("Scaleway support is currently alpha, and is feature-gated.  export KOPS_FEATURE_FLAGS=Scaleway")
			}

			if len(sshPublicKeys) == 0 {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("SSH public key must be specified when running with Scaleway (create with `kops create secret --name %s sshpublickey admin -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`)", cluster.ObjectMeta.Name)
			}
			if len(sshPublicKeys) != 1 {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("exactly one 'admin' SSH public key can be specified when running with Scaleway; please delete a key using `kops delete secret`")

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Create the key secret: `kops create secret --name <cluster> sshpublickey admin -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/apply_cluster.go:477 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f1dc4da3b4ebf792. Report an issue: GitHub.