apache/cassandra · error · IllegalArgumentException

Keyspace [%s] does not exist.

Error message

Keyspace [%s] does not exist.

What it means

parseOptionalKeyspace validates every keyspace supplied on the nodetool command line against the live list of keyspaces returned by NodeProbe.getKeyspaces() via JMX. If a name is not present, it throws IllegalArgumentException so the command fails fast instead of issuing a remote call that would silently do nothing or error later.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/tools/nodetool/CommandUtils.java:183

            if (defaultKeyspaceSet == KeyspaceSet.NON_LOCAL_STRATEGY)
                keyspaces.addAll(keyspaces = nodeProbe.getNonLocalStrategyKeyspaces());
            else if (defaultKeyspaceSet == KeyspaceSet.NON_SYSTEM)
                keyspaces.addAll(keyspaces = nodeProbe.getNonSystemKeyspaces());
            else if (defaultKeyspaceSet == KeyspaceSet.ACCORD_MANAGED)
                keyspaces.addAll(nodeProbe.getAccordManagedKeyspaces());

            else
                keyspaces.addAll(nodeProbe.getKeyspaces());
        }
        else
        {
            keyspaces.add(cmdArgs.get(0));
        }

        for (String keyspace : keyspaces)
        {
            if (!nodeProbe.getKeyspaces().contains(keyspace))
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Keyspace [" + keyspace + "] does not exist.");
        }

        return Collections.unmodifiableList(keyspaces);
    }

    /**
     * Parses the optional table names from the command arguments for nodetool commands.
     * <p>
     * The nodetool commands can operate on either all tables within a keyspace, or on a specific
     * subset of tables. This method extracts the table names from the provided cli arguments, assuming
     * the first argument is the keyspace name and any subsequent arguments are table names.
     * <p>
     * If no table names are provided (e.g. only the keyspace is specified), this method returns
     * an empty array, which signals to the MBeans that the operation should apply to all tables
     * in the keyspace. This approach provides flexibility to target either all tables or specific
     * tables as needed.
     *
     * @param cmdArgs the list of command arguments, where the first argument is typically the

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Run `nodetool describecluster` / cqlsh `DESCRIBE KEYSPACES` to list valid keyspaces and correct the name.
2. Check case sensitivity: keyspace names are case-sensitive unless quoted at creation.
3. Verify you are connecting to the intended cluster/node.
4. Create the keyspace if it genuinely does not exist yet.

Example fix

// before
nodetool compact UserKeyspace
// after
nodetool compact userkeyspace  # matches actual case-sensitive keyspace name

List<String> existing = probe.getKeyspaces();
List<String> requested = List.of("my_ks");
if (!existing.containsAll(requested))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown keyspace(s): " + requested.stream().filter(k -> !existing.contains(k)).toList());

try { keyspaces = CommandUtils.parseOptionalKeyspace(args, probe); }
catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { System.err.println(e.getMessage() + " — run 'DESCRIBE KEYSPACES' in cqlsh"); System.exit(2); }

When it happens

Trigger: Typing a misspelled or dropped keyspace name (including case mismatch, since comparison is case-sensitive) into any nodetool command that takes an optional keyspace: compact, cleanup, repair, flush, scrub, etc.

Common situations: Keyspace was dropped or never created; typo or wrong capitalization; connected to the wrong cluster/datacenter that lacks the keyspace; quoting issues splitting the name.

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

• Can not parse replication factor %s
• Specify snapshot name or --all
• Specify only one of snapshot name or --all
• Specify only one of --older-than or --older-than-timestamp
• Specifying snapshot name together with --older-than flag is

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a701c4d9f7ebd415. Report an issue: GitHub.