apache/beam · warning

unable to get Spanner instanceConfigId for {}

Error message

unable to get Spanner instanceConfigId for {}

What it means

While creating the Spanner client, SpannerAccessor tries to fetch the instance's instanceConfigId for informational/validation purposes. Any exception during that lookup is swallowed and only logged as a warning (and suppressed entirely when a custom ServiceFactory is set, e.g. in tests). The SpannerAccessor is still returned; instanceConfigId may be null, which typically only matters for features that inspect the instance config (e.g. multi-region handling).

Source

Thrown at sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/spanner/SpannerAccessor.java:354

    String databaseId = spannerConfig.getDatabaseId().get();
    DatabaseClient databaseClient =
        spanner.getDatabaseClient(DatabaseId.of(options.getProjectId(), instanceId, databaseId));
    BatchClient batchClient =
        spanner.getBatchClient(DatabaseId.of(options.getProjectId(), instanceId, databaseId));
    DatabaseAdminClient databaseAdminClient = spanner.getDatabaseAdminClient();
    String instanceConfigId = "unknown";
    try {
      instanceConfigId =
          spanner
              .getInstanceAdminClient()
              .getInstance(instanceId)
              .getInstanceConfigId()
              .getInstanceConfig();
    } catch (Exception e) {
      // fetch instanceConfigId is fail-free.
      // Do not emit warning when serviceFactory is overridden (e.g. in tests).
      if (spannerConfig.getServiceFactory() == null) {
        LOG.warn("unable to get Spanner instanceConfigId for {}", instanceId, e);
      }
    }

    return new SpannerAccessor(
        spanner, databaseClient, databaseAdminClient, batchClient, spannerConfig, instanceConfigId);
  }

  public DatabaseClient getDatabaseClient() {
    return databaseClient;
  }

  public BatchClient getBatchClient() {
    return batchClient;
  }

  public DatabaseAdminClient getDatabaseAdminClient() {
    return databaseAdminClient;
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 12126d8942)

Solutions

1. Verify the instanceId in SpannerConfig matches an existing Cloud Spanner instance (check in the GCP console or via gcloud spanner instances list).
2. Grant the service account the Cloud Spanner Viewer (or Admin) role so it can read instance metadata.
3. Check that the Spanner Admin API is enabled and reachable from your environment.
4. Inspect the exception attached to this warning for the root cause.

Example fix

// before
SpannerConfig config = SpannerConfig.create()
    .withInstanceId("my-instnace") // typo

// after
SpannerConfig config = SpannerConfig.create()
    .withInstanceId("my-instance")

// Before submitting the pipeline, verify the instance exists and is readable:
gcloud spanner instances describe my-instance --project=my-project

// No exception escapes; the warning is swallowed. Detect degraded setup by asserting on the built accessor's config:
if (spannerConfig.getInstanceId() == null) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("Spanner instanceId must be set");
}

When it happens

Trigger: spannerConfig.getServiceFactory() == null and the call spanner.getInstanceAdminClient().getInstance(instanceId).getInstanceConfigId().getInstanceConfig() throws — most commonly InstanceNotFoundException when the instanceId does not exist, or permission/API errors fetching the instance config.

Common situations: Typo in the Spanner instance ID in SpannerIO.read/write config; the Cloud Spanner admin API is disabled or blocked by network/VPC config; the service account lacks spanner.instances.get permission.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Unable to obtain credential
• Error constructing default value for gcpTempLocation: tempLo
• Unable to verify project with ID ${projectId}
• Unable create default bucket.
• Unable to determine the owner of the default bucket at gs://

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6cb63fba0a9d074c. Report an issue: GitHub.