apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

Storage-attached index does not support the following IParti

Error message

Storage-attached index does not support the following IPartitioner implementations: 

What it means

StorageAttachedIndex.validateOptions throws InvalidRequestException when the table's partitioner class is in ILLEGAL_PARTITIONERS (partitioners SAI cannot support). SAI requires partitioners with compatible token ordering/hashing; unsupported ones are rejected at CREATE INDEX time.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/index/sai/StorageAttachedIndex.java:243

    {
        Map<String, String> unknown = new HashMap<>(2);

        for (Map.Entry<String, String> option : options.entrySet())
        {
            if (!VALID_OPTIONS.contains(option.getKey()))
            {
                unknown.put(option.getKey(), option.getValue());
            }
        }

        if (!unknown.isEmpty())
        {
            return unknown;
        }

        if (ILLEGAL_PARTITIONERS.contains(metadata.partitioner.getClass()))
        {
            throw new InvalidRequestException("Storage-attached index does not support the following IPartitioner implementations: " + ILLEGAL_PARTITIONERS);
        }

        String targetColumn = options.get(IndexTarget.TARGET_OPTION_NAME);

        if (targetColumn == null)
        {
            throw new InvalidRequestException("Missing target column");
        }

        if (targetColumn.split(",").length > 1)
        {
            throw new InvalidRequestException("A storage-attached index cannot be created over multiple columns: " + targetColumn);
        }

        Pair<ColumnMetadata, IndexTarget.Type> target = TargetParser.parse(metadata, targetColumn);

        if (target == null)
        {

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Use Murmur3Partitioner (the default) for the table/cluster and recreate data if needed
2. Fall back to a legacy secondary index (CassandraIndex) instead of SAI on that cluster
3. Remove the SAI index definition from tables with unsupported partitioners

Example fix

// before
CREATE TABLE data(key text PRIMARY KEY ...) WITH partitioner = 'ByteOrderedPartitioner';
CREATE CUSTOM INDEX ... USING 'StorageAttachedIndex';
// after
CREATE TABLE data(key text PRIMARY KEY ...); // default Murmur3Partitioner
CREATE CUSTOM INDEX ... USING 'StorageAttachedIndex';

if (ILLEGAL_PARTITIONERS.contains(metadata.partitioner.getClass())) throw new IllegalStateException("SAI unsupported partitioner: " + metadata.partitioner.getClass());

try { session.execute(createSaiIndex); } catch (InvalidRequestException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("IPartitioner")) { /* use legacy index or migrate partitioner */ } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: CREATE CUSTOM INDEX USING 'StorageAttachedIndex' on a table whose partitioner is one of the unsupported IPartitioner implementations (e.g. RandomPartitioner, ByteOrderedPartitioner or other legacy/custom partitioners).

Common situations: Legacy clusters using ByteOrderedPartitioner or RandomPartitioner; migrating schema to a cluster with a non-Murmur partitioner; tests with custom partitioners.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

• Missing target column
• A storage-attached index cannot be created over multiple col
• Failed to retrieve target column for:
• %s doesn't support %s
• All arguments must have the same vector dimensions

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3f38d16d8cc69036. Report an issue: GitHub.