Skip to content

Autoscaling group cannot update capacity despite sufficient service quota being available.

0

The autoscaling group for p3 spot-instance types cannot update capacity to 64vCPUs, even though I have a quota of 64 vCPUs available for p family spot instance types. Why?

The error from the autoscaling group activity says:

Launching a new EC2 instance. Status Reason: Could not launch Spot Instances. UnfulfillableCapacity - Unable to fulfill capacity due to your request configuration. Please adjust your request and try again. Launching EC2 instance failed. At 2025-05-21T10:42:24Z an instance was started in response to a difference between desired and actual capacity, increasing the capacity from 0 to provide the desired capacity of 64.

The autoscaling group's instance type requirements are

Instance typevCPUsMemoryStorageNetwork performanceWeight
p3.8xlarge32250 GiBEBS-Only10 Gigabit32

The "Applied account-level quota value" for p family spot instances (in the same region at the autoscaling group) is 64, utilization of this quota is currently 0. So there is sufficient capacity for the autoscaling group, however it cannot seem to use it.

1 Answer
1
Accepted Answer

The issue you're experiencing is not related to your service quota, but rather to the availability of Spot Instances in the AWS region where you're trying to launch them. Even though you have sufficient quota available, the error message indicates that AWS is unable to fulfill your Spot Instance request due to the current capacity constraints.

The error "UnfulfillableCapacity - Unable to fulfill capacity due to your request configuration" suggests that there aren't enough available p3.8xlarge Spot Instances to meet your request at the current Spot price in the specified Availability Zones.

To address this issue, you can try the following:

  1. Expand your instance type selection: Instead of relying solely on p3.8xlarge, consider including other instance types with similar capabilities in your Auto Scaling group configuration. This increases the chances of finding available capacity.

  2. Use multiple Availability Zones: If you haven't already, configure your Auto Scaling group to use multiple Availability Zones. This increases the likelihood of finding available Spot capacity.

  3. Implement a mixed instances policy: Use a mix of On-Demand and Spot Instances to ensure some level of guaranteed capacity while still leveraging cost savings from Spot Instances when available.

  4. Adjust your Spot price bid: If you've set a maximum price for Spot Instances, consider increasing it to improve your chances of obtaining instances.

  5. Use Capacity Rebalancing: Enable this feature in your Auto Scaling group to proactively seek new Spot Instances when your existing instances are at elevated risk of interruption.

  6. Consider using Capacity Reservations: If your workload requires guaranteed capacity, you might want to use Capacity Reservations for a portion of your instances.

  7. Monitor and retry: Keep monitoring the situation and retry your request after some time, as Spot Instance availability can change rapidly.

Remember, even with sufficient quota, the availability of Spot Instances is subject to real-time supply and demand in the AWS ecosystem. The error you're seeing is a normal part of working with Spot Instances and doesn't indicate an issue with your account or configuration.
Sources
EC2 Autoscaling Group not capacity tracking vCPU | AWS re:Post
Error: Launching EC2 instance failed | AWS re:Post
Why is my Auto Scaling group not launching new instances when the load increases? | AWS re:Post

answered a year ago
AWS
EXPERT
reviewed a year ago
EXPERT
reviewed a year ago
  • Thank you for the insight, now I know what 'UnfulfillableCapacity' error actually means. I'm going to try on-demand compute, as well as alternative regions for spot instances.

You are not logged in. Log in to post an answer.

A good answer clearly answers the question and provides constructive feedback and encourages professional growth in the question asker.