apache/cassandra · error · ConfigurationException

Min compaction threshold

Error message

Min compaction threshold (got %d) cannot be greater than max compaction threshold (got %d)

What it means

Fired in CompactionParams.validate (reached via ALTER TABLE ... WITH compaction or table creation options): min_compaction_threshold exceeds max_compaction_threshold, an invalid combination since min must be <= max (and both positive). Thrown as ConfigurationException during compaction option validation.

Solutions

1. Set max_threshold >= min_threshold, e.g. {'min_threshold': '4', 'max_threshold': '32'}
2. Re-check which value is which; the values are often accidentally swapped
3. Add pre-submission validation: reject any option map where min > max

Example fix

// before
compaction = {'class': 'SizeTieredCompactionStrategy', 'min_threshold': '32', 'max_threshold': '4'}
// after
compaction = {'class': 'SizeTieredCompactionStrategy', 'min_threshold': '4', 'max_threshold': '32'}

int min = Integer.parseInt(opts.getOrDefault("min_threshold", "4"));
int max = Integer.parseInt(opts.getOrDefault("max_threshold", "32"));
if (min > max) throw new IllegalArgumentException("min_threshold must be <= max_threshold");

try { schemaChange(ddl); } catch (ConfigurationException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("cannot be greater than max")) { /* swap/correct thresholds */ } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Schema changes like {'min_threshold': '32', 'max_threshold': '4'}; programmatic option maps where the values are swapped or computed independently without cross-checking.

Common situations: Bulk schema edits that set one threshold but forget the other; automation that computes thresholds from metrics without sanity checks.

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

• concurrent_compactors should be strictly greater than 0…
• Could not set new local compaction strategy
• Disabling compaction by setting compaction thresholds to 0…
• Fan factor cannot be lower than 2 in
• Invalid configuration

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3ec06a814f0a84bc. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/schema/CompactionParams.java:260

                                                    maxThreshold,
                                                    Option.MAX_THRESHOLD));
        }

        if (minCompactionThreshold() <= 0 || maxCompactionThreshold() <= 0)
        {
            throw new ConfigurationException("Disabling compaction by setting compaction thresholds to 0 has been removed,"
                                             + " set the compaction option 'enabled' to false instead.");
        }

        if (minCompactionThreshold() <= 1)
        {
            throw new ConfigurationException(format("Min compaction threshold cannot be less than 2 (got %d)",
                                                    minCompactionThreshold()));
        }

        if (minCompactionThreshold() > maxCompactionThreshold())
        {
            throw new ConfigurationException(format("Min compaction threshold (got %d) cannot be greater than max compaction threshold (got %d)",
                                                    minCompactionThreshold(),
                                                    maxCompactionThreshold()));
        }
    }

    double defaultBloomFilterFbChance()
    {
        return klass.equals(LeveledCompactionStrategy.class) ? 0.1 : 0.01;
    }

    public Class<? extends AbstractCompactionStrategy> klass()
    {
        return klass;
    }

    /**
     * All strategy options - excluding 'class'.
     */

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