apache/cassandra · error · ConfigurationException

%s can not be equal to %s. You set %s and %s respectively.

Error message

%s can not be equal to %s. You set %s and %s respectively.

What it means

Thrown as a ConfigurationException when characteristicsFail equals characteristicsWarn in the password guardrail config. The fail threshold must be distinct from (specifically lower than) the warn threshold; an equal value is ambiguous, so validateParameters rejects it with a message echoing both configured values.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/guardrails/CassandraPasswordConfiguration.java:229

                                         LOWER_CASE_FAIL_KEY,
                                         lowerCaseFail);

        if (illegalSequenceLength < IllegalSequenceRule.MINIMUM_SEQUENCE_LENGTH)
            throw new ConfigurationException(format("Illegal sequence length can not be lower than %s.",
                                                    IllegalSequenceRule.MINIMUM_SEQUENCE_LENGTH));

        if (characteristicsWarn > 4)
            throw new ConfigurationException(format("%s can not be bigger than %s",
                                                    CHARACTERISTIC_WARN_KEY,
                                                    MAX_CHARACTERISTICS));

        if (characteristicsFail > 4)
            throw new ConfigurationException(format("%s can not be bigger than %s",
                                                    CHARACTERISTIC_FAIL_KEY,
                                                    MAX_CHARACTERISTICS));

        if (characteristicsFail == characteristicsWarn)
            throw new ConfigurationException(format("%s can not be equal to %s. You set %s and %s respectively.",
                                                    CHARACTERISTIC_FAIL_KEY,
                                                    CHARACTERISTIC_WARN_KEY,
                                                    characteristicsFail,
                                                    characteristicsWarn));

        if (characteristicsFail > characteristicsWarn)
            throw new ConfigurationException(format("%s can not be bigger than %s. You have set %s and %s respectively.",
                                                    CHARACTERISTIC_FAIL_KEY,
                                                    CHARACTERISTIC_WARN_KEY,
                                                    characteristicsFail,
                                                    characteristicsWarn));

        int[] minimumLengthsWarn = new int[]{ specialsWarn, digitsWarn,
                                              upperCaseWarn, lowerCaseWarn };
        Arrays.sort(minimumLengthsWarn);

        int minimumLenghtOfWarnCharacteristics = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < characteristicsWarn; i++)

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Set characteristics_fail to a value strictly less than characteristics_warn (fail triggers before warn by design here)
2. Remove one of the settings and use defaults
3. Decide the intended warn/fail policy first, then configure ordered distinct thresholds

Example fix

// before
password_guardrails:
  characteristics_warn: 3
  characteristics_fail: 3
// after
password_guardrails:
  characteristics_warn: 3
  characteristics_fail: 2

if (characteristicsFail == characteristicsWarn)
    throw new ConfigurationException("characteristics_fail can not be equal to characteristics_warn");

When it happens

Trigger: Setting characteristics_fail and characteristics_warn to the same number in cassandra.yaml password guardrails.

Common situations: Copy-pasting one threshold to both keys; trying to 'skip' warning and go straight to failure by equating thresholds; templated configs substituting the same value into both fields.

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

• Invalid guardrails configuration:
• %s can not be greater than %s
• %s can not be bigger than %s
• %s can not be bigger than %s. You have set %s and %s respect
• The shortest password to pass the failing validator for any

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ed445788cd4a89e7. Report an issue: GitHub.