Systems Manager Automation simplifies common EC2 instances and other AWS resources management such as maintenance and deployment tasks.

Here at Bobcares, we have seen several such AWS related errors as part of our Server Management Services for web hosts, AWS users, and online service providers.

Today, we’ll take a look at the causes of this error and see how to fix it.

What is the Systems Manager and Systems Manager

The System Manager helps to view and control the infrastructure on AWS. Further, one of the best capabilities in Systems Manager is Automation. It allows automating the repetitive management task across the AWS resources.

Also, the Systems Manager Automation allows managing the following:

1. Create Automation Workflows to configure and manage instances and AWS resources.

2. Build custom workflows or use pre-defined workflows maintained by AWS.

3. Obtain notifications about Automation tasks and workflows by using Amazon CloudWatch Events.

4. Continues evaluation and monitoring of Automation progress and execution details by using the Amazon EC2 or the AWS Systems Manager console.

How we fix Systems Manager automation errors

Now let’s see the solution that our Support Engineers provide to our customers to resolve automation errors.

1. VPC not defined 400

Sometimes, the customer gets an error like VPC not defined 400 when deleted the default VPC.  This occurs when performs Automation, it runs either the AWS-UpdateLinuxAmi document or the AWS-UpdateWindowsAmi document. Then the temporary instance will create in the default VPC.

So, the following error results when deleting the default VPC.

VPC not defined 400.

Therefore, the error can be rectified by specifying a value for the SubnetId input parameter.

2. Failed to start Automation execution

Mostly, Automation execution errors happen due to an improperly configured IAM users, roles, and policies for Automation. Then, the Automation execution ends with an access denied error or an invalid assume role error.

The error message looks like

Error message: Step timed out while the step is verifying launched instance(s) are ready to be used. Please refer to Automation Service Troubleshooting Guide for more diagnosis details.

Here, the IAM user attempting to start the Automation execution. However, the user does not have permission to start the StartAutomationExecution API.

However, this error can be solved by Including the required IAM policy with the user account used to start execution.

[Need assistance to fix Automation errors? We’ll help you.]

Conclusion

In short, Systems Manager automation errors occurs if there is a permission issue with the user or due to missing values. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers fix this error.