google cloud (re)boot error - required key instance-id returned nothing

gistfile1.txt

[    5.621521] cloud-init[497]: Cloud-init v. 21.3-1-g6803368d-0ubuntu1~20.04.4 running 'init-local' at Wed, 10 Nov 2021 23:40:27 +0000. Up 5.33 seconds.
[  OK  ] Finished Initial cloud-init job (pre-networking).
         Starting Initial cloud-ini… (metadata service crawler)...
[    6.165672] cloud-init[517]: Cloud-init v. 21.3-1-g6803368d-0ubuntu1~20.04.4 running 'init' at Wed, 10 Nov 2021 23:40:28 +0000. Up 6.10 seconds.
[    6.178570] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++Net device info++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
[    6.190549] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: +--------+-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------------------+
[    6.202533] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: | Device |   Up  |  Address  |    Mask   | Scope |     Hw-Address    |
[    6.214512] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: +--------+-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------------------+
[    6.216738] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: |  ens4  | False |     .     |     .     |   .   | 00:00:00:00:00:00 |
[    6.218654] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: |   lo   |  True | 127.0.0.1 | 255.0.0.0 |  host |         .         |
[    6.220499] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: |   lo   |  True |  ::1/128  |     .     |  host |         .         |
[    6.222570] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: +--------+-------+-----------+-----------+-------+-------------------+
[    6.224668] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: +++++++++++++++++++Route IPv6 info+++++++++++++++++++
[    6.238508] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: +-------+-------------+---------+-----------+-------+
[    6.254578] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: | Route | Destination | Gateway | Interface | Flags |
[    6.266575] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: +-------+-------------+---------+-----------+-------+
[    6.278530] cloud-init[517]: ci-info: +-------+-------------+---------+-----------+-------+
[    6.290552] cloud-init[517]: 2021-11-10 23:40:28,676 - DataSourceGCE.py[WARNING]: required key instance-id returned nothing. not GCE

Any idea how to solve this error?

Did you figure out what the issue was? One of my boxes won't reboot with this exact error. This seems to be the only resource with this specific error mentioned.

reboot seems to fix it. no response from Google on what causes it.