Compute Issue In databricks

Question

Compute Issue In databricks

Anubhav Aggarwal (TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD) 60 Microsoft External Staff

I have tried to start create and start the compute several times but it never starts even after several hours. Do you know what could be the issue here?

SAI JAGADEESH KUDIPUDI 3,640 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-10T01:30:20.9366667+00:00
Hi @Anubhav Aggarwal (TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD) ,
It sounds like your Azure Databricks compute/cluster keeps getting stuck and never reaches a “started/running” state, even after a long time. When this happens, the most common causes tend to be service/startup health, resource/quota constraints, or configuration/driver-type/runtime constraints. Here are some practical things you can try (and what to check next):

What to check first

Check for any Databricks service issues (diagnostics)Before digging into your cluster settings, it’s worth running/looking at Databricks service diagnostics to confirm there isn’t an ongoing platform issue affecting your workspace. These diagnostics check for service issues that might impact your resource startup/execution.

If you’re using GPU compute: verify region availability + quota

If the compute you’re trying to start is GPU-enabled, there are additional gotchas:

Ensure the GPU node type is available in your workspace region (GPU accelerated instances can be region-specific; if they’re not available, they may not start).

Ensure you have enough subscription quota for the node type family in the region. In Azure portal, check Quotas → Compute and confirm the quota for the family corresponding to the node type you’re starting.

If the GPU types are unselectable during creation, it can indicate either:

you’re not using a compatible GPU-enabled Databricks Runtime for ML, or

the node type isn’t available in your region.

If it’s not GPU-specific: consider whether startup is blocked by resource/performance constraints

The documentation we have here focuses more on notebook/job execution issues than cluster provisioning specifically, but the key idea is the same: when “start” operations stall or clusters become unresponsive, logs/diagnostics are the fastest way to identify whether the driver is failing due to resource pressure (for example, memory/GC-related behavior during operations). If you can capture cluster event logs for that compute attempt, those usually point you to the root cause.

Kindly confirm whether the issue still persists. If so, please share the details requested in the private message so that we can investigate further and assist you more effectively.

Hope this helps. If you have any follow-up questions, please let me know. I would be happy to help.

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Answer 1

hi Anubhav Aggarwal (TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD) & thx for sharing urs issue here at Q&A portal,

compute that stays in Starting for hours isn't normal. The first place to look is the cluster Event Log, since it usually shows whether the failure is due to capacity, VM allocation, permissions, init scripts, or library installation. If the compute never transitions past Starting, check whether there's an error in the cluster events or in the Azure Activity Log around the same time. If this is happening with a brand new compute as well as existing ones, it could be a workspace-level issue, quota/capacity problem, or a transient platform issue rather than a cluster configuration problem.

https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/databricks/compute/clusters-manage#view-compute-events

If the Event Log doesn't show a clear cause and the compute remains in Starting for hours, I'd open a support case with the workspace ID, cluster ID, region, timestamps, and the cluster Event Log. That will let Microsoft/Databricks check the backend provisioning logs.

rgds,

Alex

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