apache/cassandra · error · IllegalArgumentException

Max profiling duration is %s seconds. If you need longer pro

Error message

Max profiling duration is %s seconds. If you need longer profiling, use execute command instead.

What it means

parseDuration converts a duration string (via DurationSpec.IntSecondsBound) into seconds for the profiler, but caps it at MAX_SAFE_PROFILING_DURATION because very long in-process profiling sessions risk unbounded output files and memory pressure. Longer runs must use the raw execute() command path instead.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/service/AsyncProfilerService.java:418

    }

    public static String validateCommand(String command)
    {
        if (command == null || command.isBlank())
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Command can not be null or blank string.");

        return command;
    }

    /**
     * @param duration duration of profiling
     * @return converted string representation of duration to seconds
     */
    public static int parseDuration(String duration)
    {
        int durationSeconds = new DurationSpec.IntSecondsBound(duration).toSeconds();
        if (durationSeconds > MAX_SAFE_PROFILING_DURATION)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(format("Max profiling duration is %s seconds. If you need longer profiling, use execute command instead.",
                                                      MAX_SAFE_PROFILING_DURATION));
        return durationSeconds;
    }

    private static void maybeCreateProfilesLogDir()
    {
        String dir = new File(logDir).toAbsolute().toString();

        if ((DatabaseDescriptor.getCommitLogLocation() != null && dir.startsWith(DatabaseDescriptor.getCommitLogLocation())) ||
            (DatabaseDescriptor.getAccordJournalDirectory() != null && dir.startsWith(DatabaseDescriptor.getAccordJournalDirectory())) ||
            dir.startsWith(DatabaseDescriptor.getHintsDirectory().absolutePath()) ||
            (DatabaseDescriptor.getCDCLogLocation() != null && dir.startsWith(DatabaseDescriptor.getCDCLogLocation())) ||
            (DatabaseDescriptor.getSavedCachesLocation() != null && dir.startsWith(DatabaseDescriptor.getSavedCachesLocation())))
        {
            throw new RuntimeException("You can not store Async-Profiler results into system Cassandra directory.");
        }

        for (String location : StorageService.instance.getAllDataFileLocations())

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Reduce the requested duration to at most MAX_SAFE_PROFILING_DURATION seconds (as printed in the message)
2. For longer profiling, enable unsafe mode and use the execute() MBean operation with async-profiler's own arguments
3. Use start/stop style commands to bracket a long interval instead of a single timed run

Example fix

// before
service.cmd("start,profile,output.html", "30d");
// after
service.cmd("start,profile,output.html", "300s"); // or use execute() for longer runs

int secs = (int)(Duration.parse(dur).toSeconds());
if (secs > AsyncProfilerService.MAX_SAFE_PROFILING_DURATION) throw new IllegalArgumentException("duration too long; use execute()");

try { svc.cmd(command, duration); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("Max profiling duration")) { svc.cmd(command, "300s"); } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling cmd()/apply() with duration='24h' (or any duration exceeding MAX_SAFE_PROFILING_DURATION seconds) so the parsed seconds exceed the cap.

Common situations: Operators trying to profile an entire day; scripts converting 'infinity' or large values; confusion between the safe start/stop workflow and execute()-based long profiling.

Understand the failure class

Background: "value must be between 0 and 1" / "out of range" / "must not be negative" errors: fixing range-validation failures across open-source libraries — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

• Invalid value of auto_snapshot_ttl: ${conf.auto_snapshot_ttl
• Invalid duration: %s Accepted units:%s where case matters an
• Invalid duration: value must be non-negative
• Unsupported time unit: %s. Supported units are: %s
• The duration months, days and nanoseconds must be all of the

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/58b32340cca830bb. Report an issue: GitHub.