apache/beam · error · IllegalArgumentException

Unknown Beam write property

Error message

Unknown Beam write property: ${name}

What it means

IcebergTable's constructor parses table properties for Beam-specific write options under the 'beam_write_' prefix. Only triggering_frequency is supported; any other 'beam_write_*' property is rejected with this IllegalArgumentException so typos never silently degrade write behavior.

Solutions

1. Remove the unsupported beam_write_* property from the table properties
2. If you meant the trigger interval, use 'beam_write_triggering_frequency' spelled exactly
3. Check the Beam version's IcebergTable for the list of supported write properties — only triggering_frequency exists today

Example fix

// before
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE ... TBLPROPERTIES {'beam_write_parallelism':'4'}
// after
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE ... TBLPROPERTIES {'beam_write_triggering_frequency':'60s'}

props.keySet().stream()
  .map(String::toLowerCase)
  .filter(k -> k.startsWith("beam_write_"))
  .filter(k -> !k.equals("beam_write_triggering_frequency"))
  .findAny()
  .ifPresent(k -> { throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported property: " + k); });

try { new IcebergTable(...); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { log.error("Check table properties: {}", e.getMessage()); throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Creating a Beam SQL Iceberg table with a property like beam_write_batch_size=... or any misspelled variant (beam_write_triggering_frq) — anything starting with beam_write_ that isn't triggering_frequency.

Common situations: Typo in 'triggering_frequency', copying write options from another connector (e.g. Kafka's beam_write_* options) into an Iceberg table DDL, leftover properties from older Beam versions.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• Unknown Beam read property
• Could not find a partition term for
• Could not find a partition transform for
• Encountered an unexpected node type
• Only expressions allowed in SQL at

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/08699ac25fda487c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sdks/java/extensions/sql/iceberg/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/extensions/sql/meta/provider/iceberg/IcebergTable.java:84

  @VisibleForTesting final String tableIdentifier;
  @VisibleForTesting final IcebergCatalogConfig catalogConfig;
  @VisibleForTesting @Nullable Integer triggeringFrequency;
  @VisibleForTesting final @Nullable List<String> partitionFields;

  IcebergTable(String tableIdentifier, Table table, IcebergCatalogConfig catalogConfig) {
    super(table.getSchema());
    this.schema = table.getSchema();
    this.tableIdentifier = tableIdentifier;
    this.catalogConfig = catalogConfig;
    ObjectNode properties = table.getProperties();
    for (Map.Entry<String, JsonNode> property : properties.properties()) {
      String name = property.getKey().toLowerCase();
      if (name.startsWith(BEAM_WRITE_PROPERTY)) {
        String prop = name.substring(BEAM_WRITE_PROPERTY.length());
        if (prop.equalsIgnoreCase(TRIGGERING_FREQUENCY_FIELD)) {
          this.triggeringFrequency = property.getValue().asInt();
        } else {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown Beam write property: " + name);
        }
      } else if (name.startsWith(BEAM_READ_PROPERTY)) {
        // none supported yet
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown Beam read property: " + name);
      }
    }

    this.partitionFields = table.getPartitionFields();
  }

  @Override
  public POutput buildIOWriter(PCollection<Row> input) {
    ImmutableMap.Builder<String, Object> configBuilder = ImmutableMap.builder();
    configBuilder.putAll(getBaseConfig());
    if (triggeringFrequency != null) {
      configBuilder.put(TRIGGERING_FREQUENCY_FIELD, triggeringFrequency);
    }
    if (partitionFields != null) {

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