How to get insight into an EKS Kubernetes version update error

Question

In the EKS web console, it gives me the following warning at the top of the dashboard: "This cluster is running the oldest Kubernetes version currently supported by Amazon EKS. Ensure that your cluster is updated before the version end of support date." And it has a "Update now" button. But every time I try to update, it fails silently. No errors or logs to go on.

When I select the button, it shows me that I am able to update from Kubernetes 1.22 to 1.23. After clicking Update, the status of the cluster changes to "Updating" for a couple minutes, but then back to "Active". And the version is still at 1.22. In the "Update history" tab, I can see the failed attempt. It has an Update ID, Submission time, Type, and Status. The type is VersionUpdate, and Status is Failed. When I click on it, the Error count is zero, and no errors are displayed. Only a status of Failed. How can I find out why the upgrade failed? Thanks in advance.

Answer

The problem seems to have resolved itself.  After attempting a few days later, the upgrade worked.  The only difference was the Platform Version was updated from eks.6 to eks7.  The Update ID of the failed attempt:
{
    "update": {
        "id": "cbb53f20-b5e2-4cf0-b95a-f6634e71b9de",
        "status": "Failed",
        "type": "VersionUpdate",
        "params": [
            {
                "type": "Version",
                "value": "1.23"
            },
            {
                "type": "PlatformVersion",
                "value": "eks.6"
            }
        ],
        "createdAt": 1680798494.173,
        "errors": []
    }
}
The Update ID of the successful attempt:
 {
    "update": {
        "id": "f0e0c973-d8c0-4bd2-85e3-99e1b8dd8aa2",
        "status": "Successful",
        "type": "VersionUpdate",
        "params": [
            {
                "type": "Version",
                "value": "1.23"
            },
            {
                "type": "PlatformVersion",
                "value": "eks.7"
            }
        ],
        "createdAt": 1681132540.091,
        "errors": []
    }
}
According to AWS "Amazon EKS automatically upgrades all existing clusters to the latest Amazon EKS platform version for their corresponding Kubernetes minor version" (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/platform-versions.html)

Answer

Hi. Error should be there in the update history. Try to update nodes and only then EKS.

How to get insight into an EKS Kubernetes version update error

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