apache/cassandra · error · PreviewRepairConflictWithIncrementalRepairException

SSTable %s is marked pending for non-finalized incremental r

Error message

SSTable %s is marked pending for non-finalized incremental repair session %s, failing preview repair

What it means

PreviewKind's repaired-check (used when previewing repair, e.g. preview-repair-repaired or parent-repair preview) throws PreviewRepairConflictWithIncrementalRepairException when an SSTable is marked pending for an incremental repair LocalSession that is neither FINALIZED nor FAILED. Preview repair cannot meaningfully classify such SSTables — they belong to an in-flight incremental repair — so the operation fails fast instead of returning misleading results.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/streaming/PreviewKind.java:95

    {
        return predicate;
    }

    private static class PreviewRepairedSSTablePredicate implements Predicate<SSTableReader>
    {
        public boolean apply(SSTableReader sstable)
        {
            // grab the metadata before checking pendingRepair since this can be nulled out at any time
            StatsMetadata sstableMetadata = sstable.getSSTableMetadata();
            if (sstableMetadata.pendingRepair != null)
            {
                LocalSession session = ActiveRepairService.instance().consistent.local.getSession(sstableMetadata.pendingRepair);
                if (session == null)
                    return false;
                else if (session.getState() == ConsistentSession.State.FINALIZED)
                    return true;
                else if (session.getState() != ConsistentSession.State.FAILED)
                    throw new PreviewRepairConflictWithIncrementalRepairException(String.format("SSTable %s is marked pending for non-finalized incremental repair session %s, failing preview repair", sstable, sstableMetadata.pendingRepair));
            }
            return sstableMetadata.repairedAt != ActiveRepairService.UNREPAIRED_SSTABLE;
        }
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Wait for the incremental repair session to reach FINALIZED or FAILED (check nodetool netstats / system.repairs) then retry the preview.
2. Abort or let the in-flight incremental repair finish before running preview repair on the same tables.
3. For genuinely stuck sessions, fail the session (nodetool failrepairedata / consistent repair management) so SSTables are released, then re-run preview; avoiding mixing preview and incremental repair on the same ranges prevents recurrence.

Example fix

// before
nodetool repair -pr keyspace1 --preview   # while incremental repair running
// after
# wait for incremental repair completion
nodetool repair -pr keyspace1 --preview

// ensure no incremental repair session is active on target tables
for (SSTableReader s : table.getLiveSSTables())
    if (s.isPendingRepair()) throw new IllegalStateException("pending incremental repair SSTables present");

try { repair(previewKind); } catch (PreviewRepairConflictWithIncrementalRepairException e) { waitUntilSessionsSettled(); repair(previewKind); }

When it happens

Trigger: Running nodetool repair --preview (or validate/preview kinds) on ranges containing SSTables with pendingRepair set from a still-active incremental repair session; mixing preview repair and incremental repair concurrently on overlapping ranges.

Common situations: Operators running preview after cancelling but before incremental repair sessions fully fail/finalize; scheduled preview repairs overlapping incremental repair windows; leaked pendingRepair states from crashed incremental repair sessions.

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

• Prepare phase failed because it encountered legacy sstables
• You can't mix repaired and unrepaired data in a compaction
• You can't compact sstables from different pending repair ses
• Could not reference sstables
• Prepare phase for incremental repair session %s has failed b

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/be1806b3e507289d. Report an issue: GitHub.