apache/cassandra · error · ConfigurationException

%s value (%s) is less than or equal to the %s value (%s)

Error message

%s value (%s) is less than or equal to the %s value (%s)

What it means

ConfigurationException thrown when the size-tiered bucketing bounds are inverted: bucket_high must be strictly greater than bucket_low. These multipliers define the size range for grouping similarly sized SSTables, so high <= low makes bucketing undefined and is rejected during option validation.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/SizeTieredCompactionStrategyOptions.java:87

        String optionValue = options.get(MIN_SSTABLE_SIZE_KEY);
        try
        {
            long minSSTableSize = optionValue == null ? DEFAULT_MIN_SSTABLE_SIZE : Long.parseLong(optionValue);
            if (minSSTableSize < 0)
            {
                throw new ConfigurationException(String.format("%s must be non negative: %d", MIN_SSTABLE_SIZE_KEY, minSSTableSize));
            }
        }
        catch (NumberFormatException e)
        {
            throw new ConfigurationException(String.format("%s is not a parsable int (base10) for %s", optionValue, MIN_SSTABLE_SIZE_KEY), e);
        }

        double bucketLow = parseDouble(options, BUCKET_LOW_KEY, DEFAULT_BUCKET_LOW);
        double bucketHigh = parseDouble(options, BUCKET_HIGH_KEY, DEFAULT_BUCKET_HIGH);
        if (bucketHigh <= bucketLow)
        {
            throw new ConfigurationException(String.format("%s value (%s) is less than or equal to the %s value (%s)",
                                                           BUCKET_HIGH_KEY, bucketHigh, BUCKET_LOW_KEY, bucketLow));
        }

        uncheckedOptions.remove(MIN_SSTABLE_SIZE_KEY);
        uncheckedOptions.remove(BUCKET_LOW_KEY);
        uncheckedOptions.remove(BUCKET_HIGH_KEY);

        return uncheckedOptions;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString()
    {
        return String.format("Min sstable size: %d, bucket low: %f, bucket high: %f", minSSTableSize, bucketLow, bucketHigh);
    }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Set bucket_high strictly greater than bucket_low (defaults: bucket_low='0.5', bucket_high='1.5').
2. Remove both options to revert to defaults.
3. Add validation in any auto-tuning tool that enforces bucket_high > bucket_low before applying.

Example fix

// before
{'bucket_low':'1.5','bucket_high':'1.5'}
// after
{'bucket_low':'0.5','bucket_high':'1.5'}

double low = Double.parseDouble(opts.getOrDefault("bucket_low", "0.5"));
double high = Double.parseDouble(opts.getOrDefault("bucket_high", "1.5"));
if (high <= low) throw new IllegalArgumentException("bucket_high must be > bucket_low");

try { schema.alterTable(cql); } catch (ConfigurationException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("less than or equal to")) { /* swap/correct bounds and retry */ } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: CREATE/ALTER TABLE with bucket_high <= bucket_low, e.g. {'bucket_low':'1.5','bucket_high':'1.5'} or {'bucket_low':'1.5','bucket_high':'0.5'}.

Common situations: Copy-paste swapping the two keys; automated tuning experiments writing values that converge to equality; misunderstanding that these are ratios, not absolute sizes.

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

• %s must be greater than 0, but was %f
• %s is not a parsable int (base10) for %s
• %s must be non negative: %d
• Fan factor cannot be lower than 2 in %s
• %s %s is not acceptable, size must be at least %s

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6eada8996848f364. Report an issue: GitHub.