apache/cassandra · error · UnsupportedOperationException

GRANT operation is not supported by AllowAllAuthorizer

Error message

GRANT operation is not supported by AllowAllAuthorizer

What it means

Thrown by CreateTypeStatement.apply when the target keyspace already contains a user-defined type with the requested name and the statement did not include IF NOT EXISTS. Cassandra type names must be unique within a keyspace, so a conflicting definition is rejected rather than silently overwritten or merged.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/auth/AllowAllAuthorizer.java:38

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Set;

public class AllowAllAuthorizer implements IAuthorizer
{
    @Override
    public boolean requireAuthorization()
    {
        return false;
    }

    public Set<Permission> authorize(AuthenticatedUser user, IResource resource)
    {
        return resource.applicablePermissions();
    }

    public Set<Permission> grant(AuthenticatedUser performer, Set<Permission> permissions, IResource resource, RoleResource to)
    {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("GRANT operation is not supported by AllowAllAuthorizer");
    }

    public Set<Permission> revoke(AuthenticatedUser performer, Set<Permission> permissions, IResource resource, RoleResource from)
    {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("REVOKE operation is not supported by AllowAllAuthorizer");
    }

    public void revokeAllFrom(RoleResource droppedRole)
    {
    }

    public void revokeAllOn(IResource droppedResource)
    {
    }

    public Set<PermissionDetails> list(AuthenticatedUser performer, Set<Permission> permissions, IResource resource, RoleResource of)
    {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("LIST PERMISSIONS operation is not supported by AllowAllAuthorizer");

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

Use 'CREATE TYPE IF NOT EXISTS ks.name (...)' to make the statement idempotent.
Check the existing definition with 'DESCRIBE TYPE ks.name' (or system_schema.types) and reuse it instead of recreating.
If a different definition is genuinely needed, DROP TYPE ks.name first (ensuring no tables reference it) and then create the new one.
Rename the new type to avoid the collision.

Example fix

// before
CREATE TYPE orders.address (street text, city text);
// after
CREATE TYPE IF NOT EXISTS orders.address (street text, city text);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

boolean exists = session.execute("SELECT type_name FROM system_schema.types WHERE keyspace_name = ? AND type_name = ?", ks, typeName).one() != null;
if (exists && !ifNotExists) skipOrFail();

Try / catch

try {
    session.execute(stmt);
} catch (InvalidQueryException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("already exists")) { /* treat as success for idempotent migrations */ }
    else throw e;
}

Prevention

Use IF NOT EXISTS for all idempotent DDL scripts.
Make migrations track applied statements (schema migration tooling).
Verify existing type definitions before redefining them.

When it happens

Trigger: Executing 'CREATE TYPE ks.name (...)' when ks.name already exists as a UDT and no IF NOT EXISTS clause is present; re-running an idempotent schema migration script without the IF NOT EXISTS guard.

Common situations: Migration/bootstrap scripts executed more than once; two teams independently defining a type with the same name in one keyspace; re-running a CQL file after a partial failure where the type was already created.

Understand the failure class

Background: "already exists" / EEXIST / FileAlreadyExistsException: what the 'file already exists' error means and how to fix it — this error's family across 37 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cc36f317cf6a245c. Report an issue: GitHub.