Official agent skill

Troubleshooting Efs

by aws in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws

Diagnoses and resolves Amazon EFS issues including mount failures, NFS timeouts, permission errors, throughput problems, and burst credit exhaustion.

OfficialApache-2.0Auto-check: notesSecurity

Install Troubleshooting Efs

skills CLI
$ npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill troubleshooting-efs -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws troubleshooting-efs --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/specialized-skills/storage-skills/troubleshooting-efs .claude/skills/troubleshooting-efs && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
troubleshooting-efs
GitHub stars
2.8k
Token cost
~1.6k tokens
SKILL.md length
618 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
138
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Diagnoses and resolves Amazon EFS issues including mount failures, NFS timeouts, permission errors, throughput problems, and burst credit exhaustion.

  • Works in 8 steps: Verify Dependencies → Classify the Issue → Category A — Missing NFS Client → …
  • The user has an EFS file system that is not mounting
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, Common Tasks, Troubleshooting and Security Considerations, plus 1 more section
  • Calls aws, yum and apt-get

What it does

Troubleshooting Efs is an agent skill from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Diagnoses and resolves Amazon EFS issues including mount failures, NFS timeouts, permission errors, throughput problems, and burst credit exhaustion. Use when the user has an EFS file system that is not mounting, returning errors, performing slowly, or showing access denied.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.6k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Security. It works with Amazon Web Services. The repository describes itself as: Official, AWS-supported MCP servers, skills, and plugins to help AI agents build on AWS. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • The user has an EFS file system that is not mounting
  • Returning errors
  • Performing slowly
  • Showing access denied

Example prompts

  • “Use the troubleshooting-efs skill to diagnose and resolves Amazon EFS issues including mount failures, NFS timeouts, permission errors, throughput…”
  • “/troubleshooting-efs”

Workflow steps

8 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Verify Dependencies
  2. Classify the Issue
  3. Category A — Missing NFS Client
  4. Category B — Network/Security Group
  5. Category C — IAM/Permissions
  6. Category D — Performance
  7. Category E — Encryption/KMS
  8. Category F — VPC DNS

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit df2ab44. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • aws
    • yum
    • apt-get

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

    • docs.aws.amazon.com

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Troubleshooting Efs loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 74 tokens; SKILL.md has 618 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~74
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check: notes

The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.

  • NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:48
    sudo yum -y install amazon-efs-utils  # preferred (includes mount helper + TLS)
  • NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:50
    sudo yum -y install nfs-utils
  • NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:53
    sudo apt-get install nfs-common
  • NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:164
    sudo tar -czf /tmp/efs-logs.tar.gz /var/log/amazon/efs/ /etc/amazon/efs/efs-utils.conf

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws at commit df2ab44, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© aws). 618 words, ~1,617 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/troubleshooting-efs/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
troubleshooting-efs
description
Diagnoses and resolves Amazon EFS issues including mount failures, NFS timeouts, permission errors, throughput problems, and burst credit exhaustion. Use when the user has an EFS file system that is not mounting, returning errors, performing slowly, or showing access denied.
version
1

Troubleshooting EFS

Overview

Domain expertise for diagnosing and resolving Amazon EFS issues. Covers mount failures, NFS connectivity, IAM and POSIX permissions, throughput and performance, and encryption problems.

For authoritative guidance, see EFS Troubleshooting.

Common Tasks

0. Verify Dependencies
  • You MUST verify aws CLI is available
  • You MUST check if amazon-efs-utils or nfs-utils is installed on the instance
  • You MUST ONLY check for tool existence and version — MUST NOT execute destructive or mutating commands during verification
  • You MUST inform the user if any required tools are missing
  • You MUST respect the user's decision to abort if tools are unavailable
  • You SHOULD explain what each step does and why before executing it
  • You SHOULD display write commands and wait for user confirmation before executing
1. Classify the Issue
SymptomCategory
"wrong fs type" or mount command failsA: Missing NFS Client
Connection timed out (hangs 2+ min)B: Network/Security Group
"access denied by server"C: IAM/Permissions
Slow throughput or high latencyD: Performance
NFS server error on encrypted FSE: Encryption/KMS
DNS name resolution failsF: VPC DNS
2. Category A — Missing NFS Client
bash
# Amazon Linux / RHEL / CentOS
sudo yum -y install amazon-efs-utils  # preferred (includes mount helper + TLS)
# OR
sudo yum -y install nfs-utils

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt-get install nfs-common
3. Category B — Network/Security Group

Connection timeout is the #1 EFS mount failure — almost always security groups.

  1. Verify mount target exists in the instance's AZ:
bash
aws efs describe-mount-targets --file-system-id fs-ID --region REGION
  1. Verify security groups — check BOTH directions:

    • Mount target SG: aws ec2 describe-security-groups --group-ids sg-MT — MUST have inbound TCP 2049 from compute SG
    • Compute SG: MUST have outbound TCP 2049 to mount target SG
    • Quick fix: aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-MT --protocol tcp --port 2049 --source-group sg-COMPUTE
  2. Test connectivity:

bash
nc -zv fs-ID.efs.REGION.amazonaws.com 2049

Note: These security group troubleshooting steps also apply to S3 Files. The only difference is S3 Files uses aws s3files list-mount-targets instead of aws efs describe-mount-targets.

4. Category C — IAM/Permissions

"access denied by server" with -o iam:

  • Check identity-based IAM policy has elasticfilesystem:ClientMount
  • Check file system resource policy:
bash
aws efs describe-file-system-policy --file-system-id fs-ID --region REGION

Note: IAM authorization is only enforced when a file system policy exists that requires it. Without a file system policy, any client in the VPC with port 2049 access can mount — even with -o iam. To enforce IAM, you MUST create a file system policy that denies anonymous access.

POSIX permission denied (not IAM):

  • Check file/directory ownership: ls -la /mnt/efs/
  • Use access points to enforce UID/GID for consistent permissions
Show full SKILL.md (243 more words)Show less
5. Category D — Performance

Check throughput mode:

bash
aws efs describe-file-systems --file-system-id fs-ID --region REGION --query 'FileSystems[0].ThroughputMode'

Burst credit exhaustion (Bursting mode only):

bash
aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics --namespace AWS/EFS --metric-name BurstCreditBalance --dimensions Name=FileSystemId,Value=fs-ID --period 3600 --statistics Average --start-time $(date -u -d '24 hours ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S) --end-time $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S)

If credits near zero, switch to Elastic throughput:

bash
aws efs update-file-system --file-system-id fs-ID --throughput-mode elastic --region REGION

General Purpose vs Max I/O:

  • Check PercentIOLimit metric — if consistently >80%, consider Max I/O
  • Note: performance mode is IMMUTABLE — must create new FS and migrate
6. Category E — Encryption/KMS

NFS server error on encrypted FS = KMS key issue.

  • Verify key is enabled in KMS console
  • Verify EFS service-linked role has KMS permissions
  • If key deleted: cancel deletion if within grace period
7. Category F — VPC DNS

DNS resolution failure = VPC DNS settings disabled.

bash
aws ec2 describe-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --attribute enableDnsHostnames
aws ec2 describe-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --attribute enableDnsSupport

Both MUST be true. If not:

bash
aws ec2 modify-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --enable-dns-hostnames Value=true
aws ec2 modify-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --enable-dns-support Value=true

Troubleshooting

Mount hangs then times out

Most common cause: security group. Verify TCP 2049 is open between compute and mount target.

Auto-mount fails on reboot

/etc/fstab entry MUST include _netdev option to wait for network before mounting.

"nfs not responding" after reconnect

Old kernel bug with TCP port reuse. Update kernel or add noresvport mount option.

Enable Debug Logs

Set logging_level = DEBUG in /etc/amazon/efs/efs-utils.conf. Logs at /var/log/amazon/efs/mount.log.

Collect Logs for AWS Support
bash
sudo tar -czf /tmp/efs-logs.tar.gz /var/log/amazon/efs/ /etc/amazon/efs/efs-utils.conf

Security Considerations

  • IAM authorization is only enforced when a file system policy exists — without one, any VPC client with port 2049 access can mount
  • When troubleshooting access denied, verify both identity-based and resource-based policies
  • Use -o tls for encryption in transit — unencrypted NFS traffic is visible on the network
  • Restrict /var/log/amazon/efs/ access — logs may contain file system IDs and mount target IPs

Additional Resources

© aws, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/specialized-skills/storage-skills/troubleshooting-efs of aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit df2ab44

Compare with similar skills

Troubleshooting Efs next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Troubleshooting Efs compared with similar skills
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Troubleshooting Efs this skillaws/agent-toolkit-for-aws2.8k—~1.6kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
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Ecs Operation Reviewaws/tools-for-devops-agent102—~4.8kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Iamitsmostafa/aws-agent-skills1.2k—~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
AWS Security ArchitectureHack23/cia239—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
AWS Iamsickn33/agentic-awesome-skills47k2 repos~3.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Troubleshooting Efs

What does Troubleshooting Efs do?

Diagnoses and resolves Amazon EFS issues including mount failures, NFS timeouts, permission errors, throughput problems, and burst credit exhaustion. Troubleshooting Efs is an agent skill from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Diagnoses and resolves Amazon EFS issues including mount failures, NFS timeouts, permission errors, throughput problems, and burst credit exhaustion.

When should I use Troubleshooting Efs?

Troubleshooting Efs fits situations like: the user has an EFS file system that is not mounting; returning errors; performing slowly; showing access denied.

How do I install Troubleshooting Efs in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill troubleshooting-efs -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/specialized-skills/storage-skills/troubleshooting-efs in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws) into .claude/skills/troubleshooting-efs in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Troubleshooting Efs in Codex?

Run `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill troubleshooting-efs -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/specialized-skills/storage-skills/troubleshooting-efs in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws) into .agents/skills/troubleshooting-efs in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Troubleshooting Efs in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill troubleshooting-efs -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/troubleshooting-efs, .gemini/skills/troubleshooting-efs, .github/skills/troubleshooting-efs and .opencode/skills/troubleshooting-efs in your project.

What does Troubleshooting Efs need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Troubleshooting Efs needs the command-line tools its instructions call (aws, yum and apt-get).

Does Troubleshooting Efs access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. As links in the text: docs.aws.amazon.com. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Troubleshooting Efs safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (runs commands with sudo), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Troubleshooting Efs use?

Troubleshooting Efs is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Troubleshooting Efs use?

About 1.6k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Troubleshooting Efs?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Troubleshooting Efs: Cloud Audit (briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills, 413 stars), Ecs Operation Review (aws/tools-for-devops-agent, 102 stars), Iam (itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills, 1.2k stars) and AWS Security Architecture (Hack23/cia, 239 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Troubleshooting Efs?

aws (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, which has 2,830 GitHub stars. The repository holds 138 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.