Failed to Create an AccessEntry for Karpenter Node Role

[hflobao]

Describe the bug
When creating an AccessEntry to be used by nodes provisioned by Karpenter autoscaler, the ACK resource keeps in this state:

status:
  ackResourceMetadata:
    arn: arn:aws:eks:us-east-1:012345678910:access-entry/cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7/role/759021108710/karpenter-node-role-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7/f8c8bdf0-4831-b76a-5b34-b465b3bd4b6d
    ownerAccountID: "012345678910"
    region: us-east-1
  conditions:
  - message: |-
      InvalidParameterException: This operation can only be performed on Access Entries with a type of "STANDARD".
      {
        RespMetadata: {
          StatusCode: 400,
          RequestID: "db318416-8193-4f94-b553-0180a150b89e"
        },
        Message_: "This operation can only be performed on Access Entries with a type of \"STANDARD\"."
      }
    status: "True"
    type: ACK.Recoverable
  - lastTransitionTime: "2024-08-23T12:15:53Z"
    message: Unable to determine if desired resource state matches latest observed
      state
    reason: |-
      InvalidParameterException: This operation can only be performed on Access Entries with a type of "STANDARD".
      {
        RespMetadata: {
          StatusCode: 400,
          RequestID: "db318416-8193-4f94-b553-0180a150b89e"
        },
        Message_: "This operation can only be performed on Access Entries with a type of \"STANDARD\"."
      }
    status: Unknown
    type: ACK.ResourceSynced
  createdAt: "2024-08-22T20:56:40Z"
  modifiedAt: "2024-08-22T20:56:40Z"

Checking in CloudTrail, its possible to see that the AccessEntry was created, but the ack-eks-controller is trying to update it, which is not allowed:

Successful creation:

{
    "eventVersion": "1.09",
    "userIdentity": {
        "type": "AssumedRole",
        "principalId": "AROA3BOJO7XTFT6XXXXXX:eks-cluster-ek-ack-eks-co-a0e5ca17-7d10-4d01-995c-275765e9c280",
        "arn": "arn:aws:sts::012345678910:assumed-role/ACKRole-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7/eks-cluster-ek-ack-eks-co-a0e5ca17-7d10-4d01-995c-275765e9c280",
        "accountId": "012345678910",
        "accessKeyId": "ASIA3BOJO7XTCTXXXXXX",
        "sessionContext": {
            "sessionIssuer": {
                "type": "Role",
                "principalId": "AROA3BOJO7XTFT6XXXXXX",
                "arn": "arn:aws:iam::012345678910:role/ACKRole-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7",
                "accountId": "012345678910",
                "userName": "ACKRole-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7"
            },
            "attributes": {
                "creationDate": "2024-08-22T20:46:10Z",
                "mfaAuthenticated": "false"
            }
        }
    },
    "eventTime": "2024-08-22T20:56:40Z",
    "eventSource": "eks.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "CreateAccessEntry",
    "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
    "sourceIPAddress": "98.80.131.36",
    "userAgent": "aws-controllers-k8s/eks.services.k8s.aws-1.4.4 (GitCommit/1afb0be525003c884306f73102991dd2557c1e3d; BuildDate/2024-08-07T04:31; CRDKind/AccessEntry; CRDVersion/v1alpha1) aws-sdk-go/1.49.13 (go1.22.5; linux; amd64)",
    "requestParameters": {
        "clientRequestToken": "AE2AC76E-E7A3-438F-967A-E75E6BAXXXXX",
        "name": "cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7",
        "type": "EC2_LINUX",
        "principalArn": "arn:aws:iam::012345678910:role/karpenter-node-role-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7",
        "tags": {
            "services.k8s.aws/controller-version": "eks-1.4.4",
            "services.k8s.aws/namespace": "karpenter"
        }
    },
    "responseElements": {
        "accessEntry": {
            "clusterName": "cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7",
            "principalArn": "arn:aws:iam::012345678910:role/karpenter-node-role-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7",
            "kubernetesGroups": [
                "system:nodes"
            ],
            "accessEntryArn": "arn:aws:eks:us-east-1:012345678910:access-entry/cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7/role/759021108710/karpenter-node-role-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7/f8c8bdf0-4831-b76a-5b34-b465b3bd4b6d",
            "createdAt": 1724360200.593,
            "modifiedAt": 1724360200.593,
            "tags": {
                "services.k8s.aws/controller-version": "eks-1.4.4",
                "services.k8s.aws/namespace": "karpenter"
            },
            "username": "system:node:{{EC2PrivateDNSName}}",
            "type": "EC2_LINUX"
        }
    },
    "requestID": "78bfea3f-23f1-4367-93ed-51b57942e769",
    "eventID": "e2e0e3e3-83c3-45ca-9d82-85362e548463",
    "readOnly": false,
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "managementEvent": true,
    "recipientAccountId": "012345678910",
    "eventCategory": "Management"
}

Failed update tentative by ack:

{
    "eventVersion": "1.09",
    "userIdentity": {
        "type": "AssumedRole",
        "principalId": "AROA3BOJO7XTFT6XXXXXX:eks-cluster-ek-ack-eks-co-804545b6-3848-48b5-a0c9-ed128a497a83",
        "arn": "arn:aws:sts::012345678910:assumed-role/ACKRole-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7/eks-cluster-ek-ack-eks-co-804545b6-3848-48b5-a0c9-ed128a497a83",
        "accountId": "012345678910",
        "accessKeyId": "ASIA3BOJO7XTPZXXXXXX",
        "sessionContext": {
            "sessionIssuer": {
                "type": "Role",
                "principalId": "AROA3BOJO7XTFT6XXXXXX",
                "arn": "arn:aws:iam::012345678910:role/ACKRole-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7",
                "accountId": "012345678910",
                "userName": "ACKRole-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7"
            },
            "attributes": {
                "creationDate": "2024-08-23T08:49:45Z",
                "mfaAuthenticated": "false"
            }
        }
    },
    "eventTime": "2024-08-23T12:32:34Z",
    "eventSource": "eks.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "UpdateAccessEntry",
    "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
    "sourceIPAddress": "98.80.131.36",
    "userAgent": "aws-controllers-k8s/eks.services.k8s.aws-1.4.4 (GitCommit/1afb0be525003c884306f73102991dd2557c1e3d; BuildDate/2024-08-07T04:31; CRDKind/AccessEntry; CRDVersion/v1alpha1) aws-sdk-go/1.49.13 (go1.22.5; linux; amd64)",
    "errorCode": "InvalidParameterException",
    "requestParameters": {
        "clientRequestToken": "B35794FF-2AF3-4F93-AB5B-96EB79DXXXXX",
        "name": "cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7",
        "principalArn": "arn%3Aaws%3Aiam%3A%3A759021108710%3Arole%2Fkarpenter-node-role-cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7"
    },
    "responseElements": {
        "message": "This operation can only be performed on Access Entries with a type of \"STANDARD\"."
    },
    "requestID": "11a808c0-d7ae-474c-ae09-1bc8ac907793",
    "eventID": "1c7df672-d6c4-491e-bdbf-cb26dd32e414",
    "readOnly": false,
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "managementEvent": true,
    "recipientAccountId": "012345678910",
    "eventCategory": "Management"
}

The YAML definition for the AccessEntry hasn't being changed and is as follows:

apiVersion: eks.services.k8s.aws/v1alpha1
kind: AccessEntry
metadata:
  name: eks-${clusterNameShort}-${cluster_env}-karpenter-ae
  namespace: karpenter
spec:
  clusterName: ${clusterName}
  type: EC2_LINUX
  principalARN: arn:aws:iam::${cluster_account}:role/karpenter-node-role-${clusterName}

Its getting deployed in the cluster by FluxCD using Kustomization.

Steps to reproduce
Just deploy the resource in the cluster. It never turns to the True SYNCED state.

$ k get accessentry -A
NAMESPACE   NAME                               CLUSTER                          TYPE        USERNAME   SYNCED    AGE
karpenter   eks-sprint6-staging-karpenter-ae   cluster-eks-nprd-pnu0001324-s7   EC2_LINUX              Unknown   39m

Expected outcome
The resource with a True SYNCED state in the cluster.

Environment
eks-controller version: 1.4.4

• Kubernetes version
  1.30

• Using EKS (yes/no), if so version?
  Yes.
  eks.6

• AWS service targeted (S3, RDS, etc.)
  EKS (AccessEntry)

[a-hilaly]

Thank you @hflobao for raising this, we'll take a look at it :)