# Troubleshoot issues in Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling provides specific and descriptive errors to help you troubleshoot issues. You can find the error messages in the description of the scaling activities.
**Topics**
+ [Retrieve an error message from scaling activities](#RetrievingErrors)
+ [Turn off scaling activities](#turn-off-scaling-activities)
+ [Additional troubleshooting resources](#additional-troubleshooting-resources)
+ [Troubleshoot Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling: EC2 instance launch failures](ts-as-instancelaunchfailure.md)
+ [Troubleshoot Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling: AMI issues](ts-as-ami.md)
+ [Troubleshoot Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling: Load balancer issues](ts-as-loadbalancer.md)
+ [Troubleshoot Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling: Launch templates](ts-as-launch-template.md)
## Retrieve an error message from scaling activities
To retrieve an error message from the description of scaling activities, use the [describe-scaling-activities](https://awscli.amazonaws.com/v2/documentation/api/latest/reference/autoscaling/describe-scaling-activities.html) command. You have a record of scaling activities that dates back 6 weeks. Scaling activities are ordered by start time, with the latest scaling activities listed first.
**Note**
The scaling activities are also displayed in the activity history in the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling console on the **Activity** tab for the Auto Scaling group.
To see the scaling activities for a specific Auto Scaling group, use the following command.
```
aws autoscaling describe-scaling-activities --auto-scaling-group-name my-asg
```
The following is an example response, where `StatusCode` contains the current status of the activity and `StatusMessage` contains the error message.
```
{
"Activities": [
{
"ActivityId": "3b05dbf6-037c-b92f-133f-38275269dc0f",
"AutoScalingGroupName": "my-asg",
"Description": "Launching a new EC2 instance: i-003a5b3ffe1e9358e. Status Reason: Instance failed to complete user's Lifecycle Action: Lifecycle Action with token e85eb647-4fe0-4909-b341-a6c42d8aba1f was abandoned: Lifecycle Action Completed with ABANDON Result",
"Cause": "At 2021-01-11T00:35:52Z a user request created an AutoScalingGroup changing the desired capacity from 0 to 1. At 2021-01-11T00:35:53Z an instance was started in response to a difference between desired and actual capacity, increasing the capacity from 0 to 1.",
"StartTime": "2021-01-11T00:35:55.542Z",
"EndTime": "2021-01-11T01:06:31Z",
"StatusCode": "Cancelled",
"StatusMessage": "Instance failed to complete user's Lifecycle Action: Lifecycle Action with token e85eb647-4fe0-4909-b341-a6c42d8aba1f was abandoned: Lifecycle Action Completed with ABANDON Result",
"Progress": 100,
"Details": "{\"Subnet ID\":\"subnet-5ea0c127\",\"Availability Zone\":\"us-west-2b\"...}",
"AutoScalingGroupARN": "arn:aws:autoscaling:us-west-2:123456789012:autoScalingGroup:283179a2-f3ce-423d-93f6-66bb518232f7:autoScalingGroupName/my-asg"
},
...
]
}
```
For a description of the fields in the output, see [Activity](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/ec2/APIReference/API_Activity.html) in the *Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API Reference*.
**To view scaling activities for a deleted group**
To view scaling activities after the Auto Scaling group has been deleted, add the `--include-deleted-groups` option to the [describe-scaling-activities](https://awscli.amazonaws.com/v2/documentation/api/latest/reference/autoscaling/describe-scaling-activities.html) command as follows.
```
aws autoscaling describe-scaling-activities --auto-scaling-group-name my-asg --include-deleted-groups
```
The following is an example response, with a scaling activity for a deleted group.
```
{
"Activities": [
{
"ActivityId": "e1f5de0e-f93e-1417-34ac-092a76fba220",
"AutoScalingGroupName": "my-asg",
"Description": "Launching a new EC2 instance. Status Reason: Your Spot request price of 0.001 is lower than the minimum required Spot request fulfillment price of 0.0031. Launching EC2 instance failed.",
"Cause": "At 2021-01-13T20:47:24Z a user request update of AutoScalingGroup constraints to min: 1, max: 5, desired: 3 changing the desired capacity from 0 to 3. At 2021-01-13T20:47:27Z an instance was started in response to a difference between desired and actual capacity, increasing the capacity from 0 to 3.",
"StartTime": "2021-01-13T20:47:30.094Z",
"EndTime": "2021-01-13T20:47:30Z",
"StatusCode": "Failed",
"StatusMessage": "Your Spot request price of 0.001 is lower than the minimum required Spot request fulfillment price of 0.0031. Launching EC2 instance failed.",
"Progress": 100,
"Details": "{\"Subnet ID\":\"subnet-5ea0c127\",\"Availability Zone\":\"us-west-2b\"...}",
"AutoScalingGroupState": "Deleted",
"AutoScalingGroupARN": "arn:aws:autoscaling:us-west-2:123456789012:autoScalingGroup:283179a2-f3ce-423d-93f6-66bb518232f7:autoScalingGroupName/my-asg"
},
...
]
}
```
## Turn off scaling activities
You have the following options if you need to investigate an issue without interference from scaling policies or scheduled actions:
+ Prevent all dynamic scaling policies and scheduled actions from making changes to the group's desired capacity by suspending the `AlarmNotification` and `ScheduledActions` processes. For more information, see [Suspend and resume Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling processes](as-suspend-resume-processes.md).
+ Disable individual dynamic scaling policies so that they don't change the group's desired capacity in response to changes in load. For more information, see [Disable a scaling policy for an Auto Scaling group](as-enable-disable-scaling-policy.md).
+ Update individual target tracking scaling policies to only scale out (add capacity) by disabling the policy's scale-in portion. This method prevents the group's desired capacity from shrinking but allows it to be increased when load increases. For more information, see [Target tracking scaling policies for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling](as-scaling-target-tracking.md).
+ Update your predictive scaling policy to *forecast only* mode. While in forecast only mode, predictive scaling will continue to generate forecasts, but it will not automatically increase capacity. For more information, see [Create a predictive scaling policy for an Auto Scaling group](predictive-scaling-create-policy.md).
## Additional troubleshooting resources
The following pages provide additional information for troubleshooting issues with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling.
+ [Verify a scaling activity for an Auto Scaling group](as-verify-scaling-activity.md)
+ [View monitoring graphs in the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling console](viewing-monitoring-graphs.md)
+ [Health checks for instances in an Auto Scaling group](ec2-auto-scaling-health-checks.md)
+ [Considerations and limitations for lifecycle hooksConsiderations and limitations](lifecycle-hooks.md#lifecycle-hook-considerations)
+ [Complete a lifecycle action in an Auto Scaling group](completing-lifecycle-hooks.md)
+ [Provide network connectivity for your Auto Scaling instances using Amazon VPC](asg-in-vpc.md)
+ [Temporarily remove instances from your Auto Scaling group](as-enter-exit-standby.md)
+ [Disable a scaling policy for an Auto Scaling group](as-enable-disable-scaling-policy.md)
+ [Suspend and resume Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling processes](as-suspend-resume-processes.md)
+ [Control which Auto Scaling instances terminate during scale in](as-instance-termination.md)
+ [Delete your Auto Scaling infrastructure](as-process-shutdown.md)
+ [Quotas for Auto Scaling resources and groups](ec2-auto-scaling-quotas.md)
The following AWS resources can also be of help:
+ [Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling topics in the AWS Knowledge Center](https://repost.aws/knowledge-center)
+ [Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling questions on AWS re:Post](https://repost.aws/tags/TA5Ef3s6KtTiqT0mCRhR79ig/amazon-ec2-auto-scaling)
+ [Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling posts in the AWS Compute Blog](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/category/compute/auto-scaling/)
+ [Troubleshooting CloudFormation in the *CloudFormation User Guide*](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/troubleshooting.html)
Troubleshooting often requires iterative query and discovery by an expert or from a community of helpers. If you continue to experience issues after trying the suggestions in this section, contact AWS Support (in the AWS Management Console, click **Support**, **Support Center**) or ask a question on [AWS re:Post](https://repost.aws/) using the **Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling** tag.