LBC is trying to re-create target groups when `TargetGroupConfiguration` `defaultConfiguration` is updated.

[maksym-iv-ef]

Bug Description
LBC is trying to re-create target groups when TargetGroupConfiguration defaultConfiguration is updated when using Gateway API (L7, multiple HTTP and GRPC routes)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Provision GTW with multiple HTTP and GRPC routes and use TargetGroupConfiguration

   apiVersion: gateway.k8s.aws/v1beta1
   kind: TargetGroupConfiguration
   metadata:
     annotations:
       argocd.argoproj.io/tracking-id: bar-foo-app-ingest:gateway.k8s.aws/TargetGroupConfiguration:foo-app/foo-app-ingest
     labels:
       app: foo-app-ingest
       app.kubernetes.io/instance: foo-app-ingest
       app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: Helm
       app.kubernetes.io/name: foo-app
       app.kubernetes.io/version: 0.1.0
       cloud: aws
       env: stage
       helm.sh/chart: foo-app-0.1.0
       region: us-east-2
     name: foo-app-ingest
     namespace: foo-app
   spec:
     defaultConfiguration:
       healthCheckConfig:
         healthCheckPath: /readyz
         healthCheckPort: "8080"
         healthCheckProtocol: HTTP
       protocol: HTTPS
       targetGroupAttributes:
       - key: deregistration_delay.timeout_seconds
         value: "30"
       targetType: ip
     targetReference:
       group: ""
       kind: Service
       name: foo-app-ingest

2. Change spec.defaultConfiguration.healthCheckConfig.healthCheckProtocol
3. Observe the LBC logs or GTW events.

Expected Behavior
Target Group params are updated

Actual Behavior
The error is thrown, apparently, LBC is trying to re-create the target group

Failed deploy model due to operation error Elastic Load Balancing v2: CreateTargetGroup, https response error StatusCode: 400, RequestID: 09b8a56d-e39f-4a86-888f-fbd55929e8cd, DuplicateTargetGroupName: A target group with the same name 'k8s-foo-fooin-19ad0c01af' exists, but with different settings

Environment

• AWS Load Balancer controller version: v3.3.0

• Kubernetes version: 1.35

• Using EKS (yes/no), if so version?: 1.35

• Using Service or Ingress: Gateway API

• AWS region: us-east-2

• How was the aws-load-balancer-controller installed:

  • If helm was used then please show output of helm ls -A | grep -i aws-load-balancer-controller

    aws-lb-controller	aws-lb-controller	2       	2026-05-13 16:54:28.778804 +0300 EEST	deployed	aws-load-balancer-controller-3.3.0	v3.3.0
    

  • If helm was used then please show output of helm -n <controllernamespace> get values <helmreleasename>

    USER-SUPPLIED VALUES:
    additionalLabels:
      foo: bar
    affinity:
      nodeAffinity:
        preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
        - preference:
            matchExpressions:
            - key: eks.amazonaws.com/compute-type
              operator: NotIn
              values:
              - fargate
              - auto
              - hybrid
          weight: 1
        requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
          nodeSelectorTerms:
          - matchExpressions:
            - key: k8s.companyname.io/role
              operator: In
              values:
              - sys
            - key: kubernetes.io/arch
              operator: In
              values:
              - arm64
            - key: karpenter.k8s.aws/instance-family
              operator: In
              values:
              - t4g
            - key: karpenter.k8s.aws/instance-cpu
              operator: In
              values:
              - "2"
              - "4"
    autoscaling:
      enabled: true
      maxReplicas: 2
      minReplicas: 1
    certManager:
      duration: 8760h0m0s
      issuerRef:
        kind: ClusterIssuer
        name: foo-incluster
      renewBefore: 720h0m0s
    clusterName: main-a
    defaultLoadBalancerScheme: internal
    defaultSSLPolicy: ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-PQ-2025-09
    defaultTags:
      foo: bar
    defaultTargetType: ip
    deploymentAnnotations:
      resource.opentelemetry.io/cloud.platform: aws_eks
      resource.opentelemetry.io/cloud.provider: aws
      resource.opentelemetry.io/cloud.region: us-east-2
      resource.opentelemetry.io/deployment.environment.name: stage
      resource.opentelemetry.io/service.namespace: aws-lb-controller
      resource.opentelemetry.io/service.version: 3.2.1
    disableIngressClassAnnotation: true
    enableCertManager: true
    enableEndpointSlices: true
    enableServiceMutatorWebhook: false
    externalManagedTags:
    - app
    fullnameOverride: aws-lb-controller
    ingressClassParams:
      create: false
    podAnnotations:
      resource.opentelemetry.io/cloud.platform: aws_eks
      resource.opentelemetry.io/cloud.provider: aws
      resource.opentelemetry.io/cloud.region: us-east-2
      resource.opentelemetry.io/deployment.environment.name: stage
      resource.opentelemetry.io/service.namespace: aws-lb-controller
      resource.opentelemetry.io/service.version: 3.2.1
    podDisruptionBudget:
      maxUnavailable: 1
    podLabels:
      foo: bar
    podSecurityContext:
      fsGroup: 65534
      runAsGroup: 65534
      runAsNonRoot: true
      runAsUser: 65534
    region: us-east-2
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: 200m
        memory: 256Mi
      requests:
        cpu: 100m
        memory: 128Mi
    securityContext:
      allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
      capabilities:
        drop:
        - ALL
      readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
      runAsGroup: 65534
      runAsNonRoot: true
      runAsUser: 65534
    serviceMonitor:
      enabled: true
    tolerations:
    - key: CriticalAddonsOnly
      operator: Exists
    topologySpreadConstraints:
    - labelSelector:
        matchLabels:
          app: aws-lb-controller
      matchLabelKeys:
      - pod-template-hash
      maxSkew: 1
      topologyKey: topology.kubernetes.io/zone
      whenUnsatisfiable: DoNotSchedule
    - labelSelector:
        matchLabels:
          app: aws-lb-controller
      matchLabelKeys:
      - pod-template-hash
      maxSkew: 1
      topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
      whenUnsatisfiable: DoNotSchedule
    vpcId: vpc-e5c62fcc9cdd8227d
    

• Current state of the Controller configuration:

  aws-lb-controller   1/1     1            1           10d
  

• Current state of the Ingress/Service configuration:

[shraddhabang]

Thanks for reporting this. I have a PR out with a fix.