alibaba/Sentinel · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid intervalUnit: {}

Error message

Invalid intervalUnit: {}

What it means

GatewayFlowRuleEntity.getIntervalSec() (Sentinel dashboard gateway flow rule model) converts the rule's interval value plus intervalUnit (SECOND/MINUTE/HOUR/DAY constants) into seconds. If intervalUnit is not one of the four known constants it falls through the switch and throws IllegalArgumentException.

Source

Thrown at sentinel-dashboard/src/main/java/com/alibaba/csp/sentinel/dashboard/datasource/entity/gateway/GatewayFlowRuleEntity.java:81

    private Integer maxQueueingTimeoutMs;

    private GatewayParamFlowItemEntity paramItem;

    public static Long calIntervalSec(Long interval, Integer intervalUnit) {
        switch (intervalUnit) {
            case INTERVAL_UNIT_SECOND:
                return interval;
            case INTERVAL_UNIT_MINUTE:
                return interval * 60;
            case INTERVAL_UNIT_HOUR:
                return interval * 60 * 60;
            case INTERVAL_UNIT_DAY:
                return interval * 60 * 60 * 24;
            default:
                break;
        }

        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid intervalUnit: " + intervalUnit);
    }

    public static Object[] parseIntervalSec(Long intervalSec) {
        if (intervalSec % (60 * 60 * 24) == 0) {
            return new Object[] {intervalSec / (60 * 60 * 24), INTERVAL_UNIT_DAY};
        }

        if (intervalSec % (60 * 60 ) == 0) {
            return new Object[] {intervalSec / (60 * 60), INTERVAL_UNIT_HOUR};
        }

        if (intervalSec % 60 == 0) {
            return new Object[] {intervalSec / 60, INTERVAL_UNIT_MINUTE};
        }

        return new Object[] {intervalSec, INTERVAL_UNIT_SECOND};
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to a3f40ba8e9)

Solutions

1. Ensure the rule payload sets intervalUnit to a valid constant (0=second, 1=minute, 2=hour, 3=day per GatewayFlowRuleEntity definitions).
2. If constructing GatewayFlowRuleEntity programmatically, always call setIntervalUnit(...) with one of the INTERVAL_UNIT_* constants.
3. Validate intervalUnit range before calling getIntervalSec()/persisting the rule.

Example fix

// before
GatewayFlowRuleEntity e = new GatewayFlowRuleEntity();
e.setInterval(2);
// intervalUnit never set
long sec = e.getIntervalSec(); // throws

// after
e.setInterval(2);
e.setIntervalUnit(GatewayFlowRuleEntity.INTERVAL_UNIT_MINUTE);
long sec = e.getIntervalSec(); // 120

private static final Set<Integer> VALID_UNITS = new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList(
    GatewayFlowRuleEntity.INTERVAL_UNIT_SECOND,
    GatewayFlowRuleEntity.INTERVAL_UNIT_MINUTE,
    GatewayFlowRuleEntity.INTERVAL_UNIT_HOUR,
    GatewayFlowRuleEntity.INTERVAL_UNIT_DAY));

if (!VALID_UNITS.contains(entity.getIntervalUnit())) {
    entity.setIntervalUnit(GatewayFlowRuleEntity.INTERVAL_UNIT_SECOND);
}
long sec = entity.getIntervalSec();

boolean isValidIntervalUnit(Integer unit) {
    return unit != null && unit >= 0 && unit <= 3;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling entity.getIntervalSec() (directly or during save/validation) on a GatewayFlowRuleEntity whose intervalUnit field is 0, null, or any value outside the INTERVAL_UNIT_* constants.

Common situations: A gateway flow rule JSON posted to the dashboard API missing the intervalUnit field (deserializes to 0), or frontend code that never populates the unit selector for API/parameter based gateway rules.

Related errors

• Invalid request
• Invalid transport config in request
• Invalid flow config in request
• namespace set cannot be null
• ${param}

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/Sentinel@a3f40ba8e9 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3e673b65c73dc778. Report an issue: GitHub.