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ResponseParserError: Unable to parse response (no element found: line 1, column 0), invalid XML received:

See original GitHub issue

I have a project using boto3 that spins up a number of EC2 instances and runs tests on them. When waiting for the instance to start, I often get the error in the title of this issue despite trying multiple methods of waiting for the instance.

Here’s a traceback using wait_until_running():

  File "multitester.py", line 228, in block_until_instance_ready
    booting_instance.wait_until_running()
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto3/resources/factory.py", line 369, in do_waiter
    waiter(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto3/resources/action.py", line 202, in __call__
    response = waiter.wait(**params)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/waiter.py", line 53, in wait
    Waiter.wait(self, **kwargs)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/waiter.py", line 297, in wait
    response = self._operation_method(**kwargs)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/waiter.py", line 84, in __call__
    return self._client_method(**kwargs)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 357, in _api_call
    return self._make_api_call(operation_name, kwargs)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 648, in _make_api_call
    operation_model, request_dict, request_context)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 667, in _make_request
    return self._endpoint.make_request(operation_model, request_dict)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 102, in make_request
    return self._send_request(request_dict, operation_model)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 135, in _send_request
    request, operation_model, context)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 167, in _get_response
    request, operation_model)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 218, in _do_get_response
    response_dict, operation_model.output_shape)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/parsers.py", line 242, in parse
    parsed = self._do_parse(response, shape)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/parsers.py", line 501, in _do_parse
    root = self._parse_xml_string_to_dom(xml_contents)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/parsers.py", line 437, in _parse_xml_string_to_dom
    "invalid XML received:\n%s" % (e, xml_string))
ResponseParserError: Unable to parse response (no element found: line 1, column 0), invalid XML received:

Here’s a traceback using reload() (after which we manually check the instance state):

  File "multitester.py", line 232, in block_until_instance_ready
    booting_instance.reload()
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto3/resources/factory.py", line 505, in do_action
    response = action(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto3/resources/action.py", line 83, in __call__
    response = getattr(parent.meta.client, operation_name)(**params)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 357, in _api_call
    return self._make_api_call(operation_name, kwargs)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 648, in _make_api_call
    operation_model, request_dict, request_context)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 667, in _make_request
    return self._endpoint.make_request(operation_model, request_dict)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 102, in make_request
    return self._send_request(request_dict, operation_model)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 135, in _send_request
    request, operation_model, context)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 167, in _get_response
    request, operation_model)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 218, in _do_get_response
    response_dict, operation_model.output_shape)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/parsers.py", line 242, in parse
    parsed = self._do_parse(response, shape)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/parsers.py", line 501, in _do_parse
    root = self._parse_xml_string_to_dom(xml_contents)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/parsers.py", line 437, in _parse_xml_string_to_dom
    "invalid XML received:\n%s" % (e, xml_string))
ResponseParserError: Unable to parse response (no element found: line 1, column 0), invalid XML received:

We’ve even tried repeatedly creating new instance object using the instance ID at which point we sometimes hit this issue when trying to read the current state:

  File "multitester.py", line 232, in block_until_instance_ready
    _state = _instance.state['Name']
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto3/resources/factory.py", line 339, in property_loader
    self.load()
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto3/resources/factory.py", line 505, in do_action
    response = action(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto3/resources/action.py", line 83, in __call__
    response = getattr(parent.meta.client, operation_name)(**params)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 357, in _api_call
    return self._make_api_call(operation_name, kwargs)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 648, in _make_api_call
    operation_model, request_dict, request_context)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 667, in _make_request
    return self._endpoint.make_request(operation_model, request_dict)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 102, in make_request
    return self._send_request(request_dict, operation_model)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 135, in _send_request
    request, operation_model, context)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 167, in _get_response
    request, operation_model)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/endpoint.py", line 218, in _do_get_response
    response_dict, operation_model.output_shape)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/parsers.py", line 242, in parse
    parsed = self._do_parse(response, shape)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/parsers.py", line 501, in _do_parse
    root = self._parse_xml_string_to_dom(xml_contents)
  File "/path/to/my/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/parsers.py", line 437, in _parse_xml_string_to_dom
    "invalid XML received:\n%s" % (e, xml_string))
ResponseParserError: Unable to parse response (no element found: line 1, column 0), invalid XML received:

Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to reliably produce this. The code often works just fine but I’d say ~2% of the time we hit this error.

The Python version being used is 2.7.16 and the installed packages that boto3 depends on are:

boto3==1.9.145
botocore==1.12.145
docutils==0.14
futures==3.2.0
jmespath==0.9.4
python-dateutil==2.8.0
s3transfer==0.2.0
six==1.12.0
urllib3==1.24.3

Any help fixing this or even suggesting a workaround for us in the meantime would be greatly appreciated! It looks like I’m not the only one who has his this according to https://github.com/boto/boto3/issues/717.

Issue Analytics

State:
Created 4 years ago
Reactions:2
Comments:11 (3 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

2reactions

bmwcommented, May 13, 2019

I may have figured this out. Our code was sharing a session and EC2 resource between processes. I have yet to see this problem after giving each process its own instance so feel free to close this if you like.

1reaction

nateprewittcommented, Nov 11, 2021

Hi @amitainz, that’s correct. Both Session and Resource are NOT thread or multi-process safe. We recommend creating a separate instance per parallelization primitive.

You can find more information here: Session Resource

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