timeout waiting for instance %q to be running, state was %q

Error message

timeout waiting for instance %q to be running, state was %q

What it means

The instance did not reach the 'running' state within the polling budget (30 attempts, 10s apart); it is stuck in a transitional state (pending, stopping) or blocked by capacity/boot problems.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/awsup/aws_apitarget.go:145

		if instance == nil {
			// TODO: Wait if we _just_ created the instance?
			return fmt.Errorf("instance not found while waiting for instance to be running")
		}

		state := "?"
		if instance.State != nil {
			state = string(instance.State.Name)
		}
		if state == "running" {
			return nil
		}
		klog.Infof("Waiting for instance %q to be running (current state is %q)", instanceID, state)

		time.Sleep(10 * time.Second)
		attempt++
		if attempt > 30 {
			return fmt.Errorf("timeout waiting for instance %q to be running, state was %q", instanceID, state)
		}
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

Inspect the instance's state and system log in the AWS console
Address capacity or AMI/userdata issues and re-run the operation
Retry — some instances take longer under heavy load

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/awsup/aws_apitarget.go:145 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

Timeouts: ETIMEDOUT, deadlines, and hung requests — what actually expires when a request times out.

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d70ea9f2d92d2d59. Report an issue: GitHub.