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    Elastic Compute Service:Check Cloud Assistant status and handle anomalies

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    Elastic Compute Service:Check Cloud Assistant status and handle anomalies

    Last Updated:Feb 02, 2026

    This topic describes how to check the Cloud Assistant status and handle anomalies.

    Check Cloud Assistant status

    Console

    1. Go to ECS console - ECS Cloud Assistant.

    2. In the top navigation bar, select the region and resource group of the resource that you want to manage. 地域

    3. On the ECS Instances tab, check the Cloud Assistant status.

      • Normal: The Cloud Assistant Agent is running correctly.

        image.png

      • Not Installed: Cloud Assistant Agent is not installed on the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance. You can install it in one of the following ways:

        • Click Install to automatically install Cloud Assistant Agent.

          Restart the instance for the installation to take effect.

        • Manually install Cloud Assistant Agent. For more information, see Install Cloud Assistant Agent.

          image.png

      • Abnormal: This status indicates a problem. For troubleshooting instructions, see Handle Cloud Assistant status anomalies.

        image.png

    API

    Call the DescribeCloudAssistantStatus operation. If CloudAssistantStatus is true in the response, the agent is running normally. If the status is abnormal, see Handle Cloud Assistant status anomalies.

    Handle Cloud Assistant status anomalies

    Linux instance

    1. Connect to a Linux instance.

      For more information, see Connect to Linux.

    2. Run the following command to check for the Cloud Assistant installation directory.

      • For CentOS:

        cd /opt/local/share/
ls

      • For other operating systems such as Alibaba Cloud Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and openSUSE:

        cd /usr/local/share/
ls

      • If the aliyun-assist folder exists, proceed to step 3.

      • If the aliyun-assist folder does not exist, Cloud Assistant Agent has been uninstalled. You must install Cloud Assistant Agent again.

    3. Check the Cloud Assistant service status.

      First, determine the instance's init system. The command to check the service status depends on the instance's init system. 

      ls -l /sbin/init

      • If the command output indicates systemd, such as /lib/systemd/systemd, the instance uses systemd.

      • If the command output indicates upstart, such as /sbin/upstart, the instance uses Upstart.

      • If the command output indicates init, such as /sbin/init, the instance uses sysvinit.

        systemd

        Run the following command to check the Cloud Assistant status: 

        systemctl status aliyun.service

        • If the status is inactive (dead), the service is stopped. Run systemctl start aliyun.service to start the service.

          If an error occurs during startup or the service fails to start, uninstall then reinstall the agent. For detailed instructions, see Stop and uninstall Cloud Assistant Agent and Install Cloud Assistant Agent.

          image.png

        • If the status is active (running), the service is running normally. Proceed to Step 4.

          image.png

        UpStart

        Run the following command to check the Cloud Assistant status: 

        /sbin/initctl status aliyun-service

        • If the status is stop/waiting, the service is stopped. Run /sbin/initctl start aliyun-service to start the service.

          If an error occurs during startup or the service fails to start, uninstall then reinstall the agent. For detailed instructions, see Stop and uninstall Cloud Assistant Agent and Install Cloud Assistant Agent.

          image.png

        • If the status is start/running, the service is running normally. Proceed to Step 4.

          image.png

        sysvinit

        Run the following command to check the Cloud Assistant status: 

        /etc/init.d/aliyun-service status

        • If the status is Stopped, the service is stopped. Run /etc/init.d/aliyun-service start to start the service.

          If an error occurs during startup or the service fails to start, uninstall then reinstall the agent. For detailed instructions, see Stop and uninstall Cloud Assistant Agent and Install Cloud Assistant Agent.

          image.png

        • If the status is Running, the service is running normally. Proceed to Step 4.

          image.png

    4. Check the Cloud Assistant Agent status in the console.

      • If the status is normal, the issue is resolved.

      • If the status remains abnormal, check the Cloud Assistant logs for further analysis.

        • For CoreOS:

          cd /opt/local/share/aliyun-assist/<version>/log  
tail -100f aliyun_assist_main.log

        • For other operating systems such as Alibaba Cloud Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and openSUSE:

          cd /usr/local/share/aliyun-assist/<version>/log  
tail -100f aliyun_assist_main.log

    Windows instance

    1. Connect to a Windows instance.

      For more information, see Connect to Windows.

    2. Check for the Cloud Assistant installation directory C:\ProgramData\aliyun\assist.

      • If the assist folder exists, proceed to step 3.

      • If the assist folder does not exist, the Cloud Assistant Agent has been uninstalled. You must install Cloud Assistant Agent again.

    3. Check the Cloud Assistant service status.

      • If the status is normal, the issue is resolved.

      • If the status remains abnormal, check the Cloud Assistant logs for further analysis.

        The default log path for Cloud Assistant is C:\ProgramData\aliyun\assist\<version>\log, where <version> is the agent's version number.

        image.png

    FAQ

    Why do I see a "context deadline exceeded (Client.Timeout exceeded while awaiting headers)" error in the Cloud Assistant logs?

    image.png

    This error typically indicates a network connectivity issue between the ECS instance and the Cloud Assistant service. Run the following commands to check connectivity.

    Note

    Replace with the ID of your region. For more information, see Regions and zones. 

    ping <region-id>.axt.aliyun.com
curl https://<region-id>.axt.aliyun.com/luban/api/instance/instance-id

    In a successful test, the domain resolves and the endpoint returns a valid instance ID.

    If name resolution fails or the endpoint does not return the instance ID, the instance has a network issue. For troubleshooting steps, see Configure network permissions for Cloud Assistant Agent.

    image.png

    Why does a managed instance show an abnormal status after successful registration?

    If a managed instance is successfully registered but shows an abnormal status in the Cloud Assistant console, check the logs for an invalid timestamp error.

    Note

    The default Cloud Assistant log paths are as follows.

    • Linux instances

      • CoreOS: /opt/local/share/aliyun-assist/<version>/log

      • Other operating systems (Alibaba Cloud Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and OpenSUSE): /usr/local/share/aliyun-assist/<version>/log

    • Windows instances: C:\ProgramData\aliyun\assist\<version>\log

    image.png

    Time drift on the managed instance causes this error. To resolve this issue, synchronize the instance's clock. For more information, see Clock synchronization.

    References

    You can call the ListPluginStatus operation to query the status of Cloud Assistant plugins on an instance. The response also includes the first (FirstHeartbeatTime) and last (LastHeartbeatTime) times the agent reported the plugin status.