kubernetes/kops · error

unable to find autoscale groups: %v

Error message

unable to find autoscale groups: %v

What it means

FindAutoscalingGroups (an autoscaling DescribeTags/DescribeAutoScalingGroups lookup filtered by cluster tags) failed while getCloudGroups was building the cloud instance group map. It fires when the AWS Autoscaling API returns an error or the credentials lack autoscaling:DescribeTags/DescribeAutoScalingGroups permissions.

Source

Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/awsup/aws_cloud.go:798

		for _, r := range result.Reservations {
			for _, i := range r.Instances {
				id := aws.ToString(i.InstanceId)
				cloudInstance, _ := karpenterGroup.NewCloudInstance(aws.ToString(i.InstanceId), cloudinstances.CloudInstanceStatusUpToDate, nodeMap[id])
				addCloudInstanceData(cloudInstance, &i)
			}
		}
	}

	return karpenterGroup, nil
}

func getCloudGroups(ctx context.Context, c AWSCloud, cluster *kops.Cluster, instancegroups []*kops.InstanceGroup, warnUnmatched bool, nodes []v1.Node) (map[string]*cloudinstances.CloudInstanceGroup, error) {
	nodeMap := cloudinstances.GetNodeMap(nodes, cluster)

	groups := make(map[string]*cloudinstances.CloudInstanceGroup)
	asgs, err := FindAutoscalingGroups(c, c.Tags())
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to find autoscale groups: %v", err)
	}

	for _, asg := range asgs {
		name := aws.ToString(asg.AutoScalingGroupName)

		instancegroup, err := matchInstanceGroup(name, cluster.ObjectMeta.Name, instancegroups)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error getting instance group for ASG %q", name)
		}
		if instancegroup == nil {
			if warnUnmatched {
				klog.Warningf("Found ASG with no corresponding instance group %q", name)
			}
			continue
		}

		groups[instancegroup.ObjectMeta.Name], err = awsBuildCloudInstanceGroup(ctx, c, cluster, instancegroup, asg, nodeMap)
		if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Verify AWS credentials and that the IAM user/role has autoscaling:DescribeTags and autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups permissions
2. Check AWS service health and retry the kops operation; Describe calls are read-only and safe to re-run
3. Inspect the wrapped %v error for throttling (RequestLimitExceeded) and back off before retrying

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at upup/pkg/fi/cloudup/awsup/aws_cloud.go:798 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/c36ab0e0a501b543. Report an issue: GitHub.