apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

read_repair must be set to 'NONE' for transiently…

Error message

read_repair must be set to 'NONE' for transiently replicated keyspaces

What it means

Keyspaces with transient replication do not support read repair, so every table in such a keyspace must set read_repair = 'NONE'. AlterTableStatement.apply (line 706) throws this InvalidRequest when keyspace.replicationStrategy.hasTransientReplicas() and the altered params.readRepair is not ReadRepairStrategy.NONE.

Solutions

Set read_repair = 'NONE' on tables in transiently replicated keyspaces
Remove transient replicas from the keyspace replication strategy if you need read repair
Leave read_repair unset (defaults allow the change only if result is NONE) and use repair (nodetool repair) for consistency instead

Example fix

// before
ALTER TABLE orders WITH read_repair = 'blocking';
// after (transiently replicated keyspace)
ALTER TABLE orders WITH read_repair = 'NONE';

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

boolean transient = Schema.instance.getKeyspaceMetadata(ks).params.replication.hasTransientReplicas(); if (transient && params.readRepair != ReadRepairStrategy.NONE) { /* force read_repair = NONE or drop transient replicas */ }

Try / catch

try { session.execute(alterStmt); } catch (InvalidRequestException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("read_repair must be set to 'NONE'")) { /* set read_repair = NONE for this keyspace */ } else throw e; }

Prevention

Check the keyspace strategy for transient_replicas before setting read_repair
Template table options per keyspace, not globally
Rely on nodetool repair instead of read repair for transiently replicated keyspaces

When it happens

Trigger: ALTER TABLE ... WITH read_repair = 'blocking' (or 'sync') on any table in a keyspace created with transient_replicas (e.g. NetworkTopologyStrategy with a transient replica count); also altering into a read_repair strategy other than NONE.

Common situations: Generic tuning scripts setting read_repair across all tables; not realizing the keyspace uses transient replication; trying to re-enable blocking read repair removed in newer Cassandra versions.

Understand the failure class

Background: Conflicting config options: "cannot be used together" — configuration validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 162 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d1eb27fcf485164a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cql3/statements/schema/AlterTableStatement.java:706

            TableParams params = attrs.asAlteredTableParams(table.params);

            if (table.isCounter() && params.defaultTimeToLive > 0)
                throw ire("Cannot set default_time_to_live on a table with counters");

            if (!isEmpty(keyspace.views.forTable(table.id)) && params.gcGraceSeconds == 0)
            {
                throw ire("Cannot alter gc_grace_seconds of the base table of a " +
                          "materialized view to 0, since this value is used to TTL " +
                          "undelivered updates. Setting gc_grace_seconds too low might " +
                          "cause undelivered updates to expire " +
                          "before being replayed.");
            }

            if (keyspace.replicationStrategy.hasTransientReplicas()
                && params.readRepair != ReadRepairStrategy.NONE)
            {
                throw ire("read_repair must be set to 'NONE' for transiently replicated keyspaces");
            }

            if (!params.compression.isEnabled())
                Guardrails.uncompressedTablesEnabled.ensureEnabled(state);

            params = validateAndUpdateTransactionalMigration(table.isCounter(), table.params, params);

            return keyspace.withSwapped(keyspace.tables.withSwapped(table.withSwapped(params)));
        }
    }


    /**
     * {@code ALTER TABLE [IF EXISTS] <table> DROP COMPACT STORAGE}
     */
    private static class DropCompactStorage extends AlterTableStatement
    {
        private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(AlterTableStatement.class);

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