apache/cassandra · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid data storage: ${value} Accepted units:${acceptedUnit

Error message

Invalid data storage: ${value} Accepted units:${acceptedUnits(minUnit)} where case matters and only non-negative values are accepted

What it means

DataStorageSpec's string constructor parses storage sizes like '10GiB'. If the value does not match the expected pattern (non-negative number plus a storage unit accepted for the min unit), it throws this IllegalArgumentException listing the accepted units. Raised while parsing cassandra.yaml storage-size settings.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DataStorageSpec.java:73

        validateMinUnit(unit, minUnit, value);
        validateQuantity(quantity, unit, minUnit, max);
    }

    private DataStorageSpec(String value, DataStorageUnit minUnit)
    {
        //parse the string field value
        Matcher matcher = UNITS_PATTERN.matcher(value);

        if (matcher.find())
        {
            quantity = Long.parseLong(matcher.group(1));
            unit = DataStorageUnit.fromSymbol(matcher.group(2));

            // this constructor is used only by extended classes for min unit; upper bound and min unit are guarded there accordingly
        }
        else
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid data storage: " + value + " Accepted units:" + acceptedUnits(minUnit) +
                                               " where case matters and only non-negative values are accepted");
        }
    }

    private DataStorageSpec(String value, DataStorageUnit minUnit, long max)
    {
        this(value, minUnit);

        validateMinUnit(unit, minUnit, value);
        validateQuantity(value, quantity(), unit(), minUnit, max);
    }

    private static void validateMinUnit(DataStorageUnit sourceUnit, DataStorageUnit minUnit, String value)
    {
        if (sourceUnit.compareTo(minUnit) < 0)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(String.format("Invalid data storage: %s Accepted units:%s", value, acceptedUnits(minUnit)));
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

  1. Use an accepted unit exactly as listed in the message, matching case (e.g. 10GiB, 512MiB, 2048KiB, 100B)
  2. Remove spaces and any extra characters between number and unit
  3. Ensure the value is non-negative
  4. Verify the config key's expected minimum unit — accepted units start from the min unit and go up

Example fix

# before
disk_usage_percent_warning_threshold: 20 gb
# after
disk_usage_percent_warning_threshold: 20GiB
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

java.util.regex.Pattern STORAGE = java.util.regex.Pattern.compile("^\\d+\\s*(B|KiB|MiB|GiB|TiB)$");
if (!STORAGE.matcher(cfgValue).matches())
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Storage must be <n><unit> with binary units, got: " + cfgValue);

Try / catch

try {
    spec = DataStorageSpec.parseYamlType(value);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    logger.error("Invalid data storage value: " + value, e);
    throw new ConfigurationException("Use e.g. 10GiB with accepted binary units", e);
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: YAML values like commitlog_total_space_in_mb: '10GB' with disallowed unit/case ('gb' lowercase where case matters), '10 GiB' with a space, '10GiB/month' with junk suffix, or a negative number that the regex rejects.

Common situations: Editing cassandra.yaml disk settings; copy-pasting from tools that use decimal units (GB) when only binary units are accepted; adding trailing comments on the same line as the value.

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

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8a54dca4aa647045. Report an issue: GitHub.