Hyperpod Cluster Debugger
AWS LabsOfficialPublished by AWS Labs
- Skill
- Review and audit
- Cloud and DevOps
- Apache-2.0
- Low risk
- Has scripts
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
The HyperPod Cluster Debugger is a read-only diagnostic tool designed to identify and resolve common failures in HyperPod clusters, including deployment errors, EFA health checks, lifecycle script failures, and capacity issues. It provides a structured workflow to collect cluster state via AWS APIs and SSM, mapping findings to specific remediation runbooks. The tool emphasizes safe operations by providing suggested commands for users to execute manually, ensuring that IaC-managed environments are not inadvertently drifted.
What it does
- Collects cluster state via AWS APIs and SSM for comprehensive diagnostic reporting.
- Validates pre-flight requirements including SGs, subnets, IAM, and capacity.
- Maps detected failures to specific remediation runbooks for EFA, EKS, SSM, and CloudFormation.
- Provides actionable, read-only diagnostic commands to identify root causes.
- Offers guidance on distinguishing between manual fixes and IaC-managed configurations.
- Generates diagnostic bundles to streamline escalation to AWS Support.
When to use it
- When a HyperPod cluster fails during creation or deployment.
- When diagnosing EKS access, node replacement, or autoscaler conflicts.
- When troubleshooting lifecycle script timeouts or failures.
- When verifying capacity availability in specific AZs before cluster creation.
- When investigating post-maintenance rollback states or dangling nodes.
Advantages
- Reduces manual troubleshooting time by automating the collection of cluster state.
- Provides clear, categorized remediation steps for complex HyperPod error signals.
- Promotes safe practices by preventing unintended configuration drift in IaC environments.
- Standardizes the diagnostic output for efficient escalation to AWS Support.
- Includes pre-flight validation to catch configuration errors before cluster deployment.
Usage examples
- “Diagnose my existing HyperPod cluster named my-cluster in us-west-2.”
- The tool runs the diagnostic script, collects state, and outputs a list of [PASS], [FAIL], or [WARN] items with pointers to specific remediation documentation.
- “Validate my network and IAM configuration before creating a new HyperPod cluster.”
- The tool performs a pre-flight check using the provided SG IDs and subnet IDs, verifying capacity and permissions to ensure a successful cluster creation.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/awslabs/hyperpod-cluster-debugger/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip hyperpod-cluster-debugger.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by AWS Labs
HyperPod Cluster Debugger
Operating policy. Run read-only diagnostics yourself. Never run a command that changes cluster, node, or workload state — present each one as a Suggested command (run this yourself) block and wait for the customer to run it. Destructive order: investigate → reboot → replace (replace destroys root + secondary volumes; not supported on Slurm controller nodes).
Before any state-changing CLI: ask if it's IaC-managed. HyperPod clusters, SGs, EKS access entries, and IAM are usually provisioned via CloudFormation / CDK / Terraform. If yes, the fix belongs in IaC — running the CLI will drift and the next deploy reverts it. Use the CLI only when IaC is unavailable (locked out, predates IaC, mid-review).
scripts/diagnose-cluster.sh is read-only: it collects state via AWS APIs (and SSM for Slurm controller health) and prints each issue as [FAIL] ... → references/<file>.md § <section>.
| Reference | Open when |
|---|---|
| cluster-diagnostics-detail.md | Per-finding remediation runbook (§ A–L) |
| cluster-operations.md | Operational deep-dives (EFA SG, EKS access, SSM, Slurm, filesystem) |
| cloudformation-errors.md | § H needs the full per-resource CFN error catalog |
| capacity-planning.md | § B or --validate flags capacity / subnet sizing |
| lifecycle-scripts.md | § C points at a specific lifecycle failure |
| iam-permissions.md | Full IAM policy for the diagnostic |
Workflow
Collect HyperPod cluster name (not EKS name), region, exact error string.
Run
scripts/diagnose-cluster.sh(or--validatefor pre-create).For every
[FAIL]line,Readthe referenced section.Present finding, root cause, and the Suggested-command block verbatim. Wait for customer approval.
Re-run the diagnostic to confirm.
Step 1: Run diagnostics
# Diagnose an existing cluster:
bash scripts/diagnose-cluster.sh --cluster <CLUSTER_NAME_OR_ARN> --region <REGION>
# Pre-flight (no cluster needed) — validates SGs, subnets, IAM, VPC endpoints,
# optionally S3 lifecycle scripts and per-AZ capacity:
bash scripts/diagnose-cluster.sh --validate --region <REGION> \
--sg-ids <sg-1,sg-2> --subnet-ids <sub-1,sub-2> [--iam-role <role-arn>] \
[--s3-uri s3://<BUCKET>/path/] [--instance-type ml.p5.48xlarge]Pass --instance-type when the target instance type is known — enables the per-AZ capacity check (warns if none of the provided subnets are in an AZ that offers that type, which causes insufficient-capacity failures at creation time).
Tags: [PASS] · [FAIL] (counted, has → references/... pointer) · [WARN] · [INFO]. Priorities: P0 blocks operation · P1 degraded · P2 informational.
Step 2: Match signal → section
Error messages / events:
| Signal | Section |
|---|---|
"EFA health checks did not run successfully" (public-doc verbatim signal) | A: EFA Health Checks |
| Insufficient-capacity or AZ-mismatch failure at creation | B: Capacity & AZ |
| Lifecycle-script failure or timeout during provisioning | C: Lifecycle Scripts |
| kubectl auth error (server asks for credentials / no API group list) | D: EKS Access |
InService but not all instances visible | E: Cluster Provisioning |
"Target is not connected" / SSM errors | F: SSM Connectivity |
Node replacement not happening / batch-replace not working | G: Node Replacement |
"Embedded stack failed" / any CloudFormation error | H: CloudFormation Errors |
UpdateClusterSoftware failed or cluster in post-maintenance rollback state | J: AMI & Cluster Updates |
Dangling / orphaned nodes in EKS vs list-cluster-nodes | K: Dangling Nodes & Cleanup |
| Cluster Autoscaler breaks after HyperPod attached | L: Autoscaler Compatibility |
| Slow I/O, FSx throughput saturated | cluster-operations.md § 9 |
| Slurm node name → instance ID lookup | I: Utilities |
A: EFA Health Checks
SG missing self-reference. Add inbound + outbound self-ref to every SG on the cluster, plus least-privilege egress for the AWS APIs the node needs (HTTPS 443 to S3 / ECR / SageMaker / SSM / STS / CloudWatch Logs — via VPC-endpoint prefix-lists when possible). Full procedure: cluster-diagnostics-detail.md § A.
B: Capacity & AZ
Instance type unavailable in the requested AZ. Verify with describe-instance-type-offerings, then change AZ, use Flexible Training Plans, or request ODCR. Full: § B · strategy: capacity-planning.md.
C: Lifecycle Scripts
Script failed or timed out during provisioning. Read CloudWatch under /aws/sagemaker/Clusters/<name>/<id> — common causes: missing S3 VPC endpoint, IAM gap, CRLF line endings, instance-group name mismatch. Full: § C · layout: lifecycle-scripts.md.
D: EKS Access / kubectl
IAM identity not in EKS access entries. Verify with sts get-caller-identity, create an access entry with admin policy, update kubeconfig. Full: § D.
E: Cluster Provisioning
InService without all instances is expected under Continuous Provisioning — failures surface as events, not cluster errors. For stuck Creating/Updating/Deleting: check CFN nested stacks (§ H), IAM, capacity, events; if stuck Deleting check VPC ENI dependencies. Full: § E.
F: SSM Connectivity
Target is not connected: use sagemaker-cluster:<CLUSTER_ID>_<GROUP>-<INSTANCE_ID> format (not raw EC2 ID), install session-manager-plugin, confirm node Running. Check IAM + VPC endpoints on timeouts. Full: § F.
G: Node Replacement
Auto-repair: confirm NodeRecovery=Automatic, check Health Monitoring Agent (HMA) logs + node labels / Slurm reason, confirm capacity. Manual: reboot first, replace only if reboot fails. Replace requires the cluster to have been patched via UpdateClusterSoftware at least once and cannot target a Slurm controller node. Full: § G.
H: CloudFormation Errors
Embedded stack failed hides the real error. Drill into nested stacks via Events tab (filter Failed) until you reach a non-stack resource. CLI: describe-stack-events --query 'StackEvents[?ResourceStatus==\CREATE_FAILED`]'`. Also covers SLR creation failures and permission-boundary denials. Full: § H · catalog: cloudformation-errors.md.
I: Utilities
Map Slurm node names (ip-10-x-y-z) to HyperPod instance IDs via list-cluster-nodes or on-node /opt/ml/config/resource_config.json. Full: § I.
J: AMI & Cluster Updates
UpdateClusterSoftware fails and rolls back, or the cluster stays in a post-maintenance rollback state. Common causes: lifecycle script incompatible with new AMI, HMA version too old, insufficient rolling-update capacity. If the cluster has active nodes, collect diagnostics and escalate rather than delete-and-recreate. Full: § J.
K: Dangling Nodes & Cleanup
Nodes in kubectl get nodes but not in list-cluster-nodes (ghost EKS nodes), or the inverse (HyperPod nodes that never registered kubelet). Script flags both. Full: § K.
L: Autoscaler Compatibility
Cluster Autoscaler errors on HyperPod provider IDs and breaks autoscaling for all node groups. No officially endorsed workaround — escalate to AWS Support. Karpenter does not conflict with HyperPod nodes by default. Full: § L.
Prerequisites
awsCLI v2.13+ authenticated to the cluster's accountjq,python3,bash4.2+kubectlauthenticated to the EKS cluster (EKS checks skipped if absent)session-manager-plugin(Slurm controller health checks only)
IAM policy: references/iam-permissions.md.
Defaults
Region — required: pass
--regionor set$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION.Mode —
--cluster <NAME>(diagnose) or--validate(pre-create).Event window — up to 500 most recent events (5 × 100, paginated).
Colors — auto-disabled on non-TTY;
--no-colorto force off.
Error handling
| Failure | Script | Tell the customer |
|---|---|---|
aws sts get-caller-identity fails | Exit 1 | "Fix AWS credentials and rerun." |
| Cluster not found | Exit 1 after listing region's clusters | "Confirm HyperPod cluster name (not EKS) and region." |
sagemaker:* / ec2:* / eks:* / logs:* denied | Warn, add Missing IAM permission for <API>, continue | "Grant the listed IAM action and rerun." |
kubectl absent or unauthenticated | Skip EKS checks (access entries, add-ons, aws-auth, nodes) | "Install/authenticate kubectl." |
session-manager-plugin absent (Slurm) | Skip Slurm controller probe | "Install session-manager-plugin." |
| SSM throttled / times out (180s) | Retry with backoff; warn and continue if still failing | "Rerun later — script is idempotent." |
| CloudWatch log group not found | Skip CloudWatch check | "CloudWatch not configured on this cluster." |
Exit codes: 0 no critical failures · 1 one or more critical failures (cluster not found, fatal prerequisite missing, or any [FAIL] in diagnose or --validate mode). [WARN] lines do not affect the exit code.
Skill delegation
| Need | Use |
|---|---|
| Shell on nodes | hyperpod-ssm |
| Version comparison across nodes | hyperpod-version-checker |
Escalate to AWS Support
Escalate when:
EFA health checks fail despite correct SG rules.
Capacity errors persist despite a valid Flexible Training Plan / ODCR.
Node replacement fails repeatedly without clear events / log signal.
Cluster stuck in a non-terminal state (
Creating,Updating, or a post-maintenance rollback state) for an extended period.CloudFormation root-cause is an internal service error.
Before opening the case
Run these commands and attach the output. Goal: AWS Support has everything at case open.
# 1. Cluster identity + status (confirms region, ARN, orchestrator, instance groups)
aws sagemaker describe-cluster --cluster-name <CLUSTER> --region <REGION>
# 2. Full cluster-level diagnostic bundle
bash scripts/diagnose-cluster.sh --cluster <CLUSTER> --region <REGION> > diag.txt
# 3. Per-node log/config bundle to S3 (delegates to hyperpod-issue-report skill)
# See skills/hyperpod-issue-report/SKILL.md for the exact invocation.Include in the case
Cluster name + ARN (or
ClusterIdsuffix) and AWS regionClusterStatus+FailureMessagefromdescribe-clusterTimestamp window (UTC start / end) of the failure
Exact error strings observed (copy verbatim from events / logs / console)
Affected instance IDs /
NodeLogicalIds / instance group namesdiag.txtfrom step 2 aboveS3 URI of the
hyperpod-issue-reportbundle from step 3
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer934 B
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer9.9 KiB
- NOTICELicence file added by AutoGineer89 B
- SKILL.md14.1 KiB
- references/capacity-planning.md4.5 KiB
- references/cloudformation-errors.md5.8 KiB
- references/cluster-diagnostics-detail.md23.3 KiB
- references/cluster-operations.md11.5 KiB
- references/iam-permissions.md1.2 KiB
- references/lifecycle-scripts.md5.1 KiB
- scripts/diagnose-cluster.shScript69.0 KiB
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Requirements and compatibility
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
Needs: Needs a command-line tool, Needs Python, Needs Node.js
Security
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Attribution and licence
- Published by
- AWS Labs
- Publisher
- AWS Labs (Official)
- Source
- awslabs/agent-plugins · plugins/sagemaker-ai/skills/hyperpod-cluster-debugger · commit fbefb37
- Licence
- Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
- NOTICE (added by AutoGineer from NOTICE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
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