What causes "Ignoring schema push request from {}, please upgrade" in apache/cassandra?

Upgrade the old node(s) sending schema push requests to Cassandra 4.0 or later.

Ignoring schema push request from {}, please upgrade

Error message

Ignoring schema push request from {}, please upgrade

What it means

SchemaPushVerbHandler.doVerb receives a SCHEMA_PUSH message (legacy push-based schema propagation from a pre-4.0 node) and refuses to apply it. Cassandra 4+ uses pull-based gossip schema convergence, so pushed schema mutations from older nodes are deliberately ignored to prevent schema corruption during a mixed-version rolling upgrade.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/schema/SchemaPushVerbHandler.java:45

import org.apache.cassandra.net.Message;

/**
 * Called when node receives updated schema state from the schema migration coordinator node.
 * Such happens when user makes local schema migration on one of the nodes in the ring
 * (which is going to act as coordinator) and that node sends (pushes) it's updated schema state
 * (in form of mutations) to all the alive nodes in the cluster.
 * @deprecated See CEP-21
 */
@Deprecated(since = "CEP-21")
public final class SchemaPushVerbHandler implements IVerbHandler<Collection<Mutation>>
{
    public static final SchemaPushVerbHandler instance = new SchemaPushVerbHandler();

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SchemaPushVerbHandler.class);

    public void doVerb(final Message<Collection<Mutation>> message)
    {
        logger.warn("Ignoring schema push request from {}, please upgrade", message.from());
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

Upgrade the old node(s) sending schema push requests to Cassandra 4.0 or later.
Complete the rolling upgrade promptly and verify all nodes report the same schema version.
If the warning persists after upgrade, identify the sender address in the log and check its version via nodetool version / gossip info.

Example fix

// before (3.x node pushing schema)
// N/A - node-side behavior
// after
# upgrade all 3.x nodes to 4.x so pull-based schema agreement is used
$ nodetool upgradesstables  # after upgrading each node

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// before mixing versions, check all nodes are >= 4.0
Map<InetAddress, String> versions = StorageService.instance.getReleaseVersions();
boolean mixed = versions.values().stream().anyMatch(v -> v.startsWith("3.") || v.startsWith("2."));
if (mixed) throw new IllegalStateException("Complete rolling upgrade before DDL changes");

Prevention

Never run DDL while the cluster has mixed 3.x/4.x versions.
Use nodetool gossipinfo or system.peers_v2 to verify node versions during upgrades.
Monitor logs for this warning during rolling upgrades; it flags an old sender.

When it happens

Trigger: A cluster node running Cassandra < 4.0 sends a SCHEMA_PUSH verb message to a 4.0+ node; the handler unconditionally logs this warning and returns without processing.

Common situations: Rolling upgrades from 3.x to 4.x where an old node still pushes schema changes; operator sees the warning during a mixed-version window and wonders why DDL from an old node does not propagate.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f77e5127de676d10. Report an issue: GitHub.