Netflix/chaosmonkey · error

termination failed

Error message

termination failed

What it means

Returned by doTerminate when the actual kill call (Terminator.Execute, e.g. the Spinnaker terminate POST or the leashed no-op killer) fails; all prior checks passed but the instance termination itself did not complete.

Source

Thrown at term/term.go:177

		return errors.Wrap(err, "not terminating: check for min time between terminations failed")
	}

	//
	// Record the termination with configured trackers
	//
	for _, tracker := range d.Trackers {
		err = tracker.Track(trm)
		if err != nil {
			return errors.Wrap(err, "not terminating: recording termination event failed")
		}
	}

	//
	// Actual instance termination happens here
	//
	err = killer.Execute(trm)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.Wrap(err, "termination failed")
	}

	return nil
}

// PickRandomInstance randomly selects an eligible instance from a group
func PickRandomInstance(group grp.InstanceGroup, cfg chaosmonkey.AppConfig, dep deploy.Deployment) (chaosmonkey.Instance, bool) {
	instances, err := eligible.Instances(group, cfg.Exceptions, dep)
	if err != nil {
		log.Printf("WARNING: eligible.Instances failed for %s: %v", group, err)
		return nil, false
	}
	if len(instances) == 0 {
		return nil, false
	}

	r := rand.New(rand.NewSource(time.Now().UnixNano()))
	index := r.Intn(len(instances))

View on GitHub (pinned to eaa28fb761)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped error for the Spinnaker API failure reason
2. Verify instance ID validity and API permissions
3. Retry the termination; transient Spinnaker errors are common

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at term/term.go:177 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of Netflix/chaosmonkey@eaa28fb761 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3eaa085f7236973e. Report an issue: GitHub.