Problem

Your cluster fails to start with an invalid argument message, “Cannot launch the cluster because the user specified an invalid argument.”

The notice is accompanied by an internal error message. 

INVALID_PARAMETER_VALUE: Assigned user on this cluster does not exist in the workspace anymore.

Cause

The cluster owner is no longer active in the workspace. 

Solution

Change the owner of the cluster to an active user. 

First, find the cluster creator from the creator_user_name parameter.  To use the API, refer to the Get cluster info API documentation. 

Alternatively, using the UI: 

1. In your workspace, navigate to Compute. 
2. Find and click your cluster to open it.
3. In the upper right corner, click the kebab menu. 
4. Choose View JSON. 
5. In the JSON file, locate the creator_user_name value. 

Then, confirm that the user is not present in the workspace.

Last, using the API, change the cluster owner to a user in the workspace. For details, refer to the Change cluster owner API documentation.