apache/druid · error · ParseException

Metric [%s] not whitelisted.

Error message

Metric [%s] not whitelisted.

What it means

After successfully parsing a line-protocol point, parseLineToMap checks the measurement name against a configured whitelist (checkWhitelist). If the metric (measurement) is not on the whitelist, it throws ParseException("Metric [%s] not whitelisted.", measurement). The extension deliberately restricts ingestion to an approved set of measurements.

Source

Thrown at extensions-contrib/influx-extensions/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/data/input/influx/InfluxLineProtocolReader.java:114

    InfluxLineProtocolLexer lexer = new InfluxLineProtocolLexer(charStream);
    TokenStream tokenStream = new CommonTokenStream(lexer);
    InfluxLineProtocolParser parser = new InfluxLineProtocolParser(tokenStream);

    List<InfluxLineProtocolParser.LineContext> lines = parser.lines().line();
    if (parser.getNumberOfSyntaxErrors() != 0) {
      throw new ParseException(input, "Unable to parse line.");
    }
    if (lines.size() != 1) {
      throw new ParseException(input, "Multiple lines present; unable to parse more than one per record.");
    }

    Map<String, Object> out = new LinkedHashMap<>();

    InfluxLineProtocolParser.LineContext line = lines.get(0);
    String measurement = parseIdentifier(line.identifier());

    if (!checkWhitelist(measurement)) {
      throw new ParseException(input, "Metric [%s] not whitelisted.", measurement);
    }

    out.put(MEASUREMENT_KEY, measurement);
    if (line.tag_set() != null) {
      line.tag_set().tag_pair().forEach(t -> parseTag(t, out));
    }

    line.field_set().field_pair().forEach(t -> parseField(t, out));

    if (line.timestamp() != null) {
      String timestamp = line.timestamp().getText();
      parseTimestamp(timestamp, out);
    }
    return out;
  }

  private static void parseTag(InfluxLineProtocolParser.Tag_pairContext tag, Map<String, Object> out)
  {

View on GitHub (pinned to 9b90983fd2)

Solutions

1. Add the offending measurement name to the reader's whitelist configuration and restart/redeploy the ingestion spec.
2. Verify exact spelling/case of the measurement in the data versus the whitelist entries.
3. If broad ingestion is intended, widen the whitelist (or its wildcard settings) to cover the new metrics.
4. Filter out non-whitelisted measurements upstream if they are not supposed to be ingested.

Example fix

// before
"whitelist": ["cpu"]
// after
"whitelist": ["cpu", "mem", "disk"]

// Check the measurement against the whitelist before ingesting
String measurement = input.substring(0, input.indexOf(',')).split(" ")[0];
if (!whitelist.contains(measurement)) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("metric not whitelisted: " + measurement);
}

try {
  return parseLineToMap(input);
} catch (org.apache.druid.java.util.common.parsers.ParseException e) {
  if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().contains("not whitelisted")) {
    log.warn("Skipping non-whitelisted metric in record: {}", input);
    return null;
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Ingesting a record whose measurement name is not present in the whitelist configured for the InfluxLineProtocolReader (e.g. a whitelist containing only "cpu" while the data contains "mem" points).

Common situations: New metrics added by the producer but not added to the reader's whitelist config; case or spelling mismatch between the measurement in the data and the whitelist entry; reusing a reader config from another pipeline with a narrower whitelist.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• Unable to parse line.
• Multiple lines present; unable to parse more than one per re
• Invalid format of number: number is null
• Invalid format of number: number is blank
• Invalid format of number: %s. Negative value is not allowed.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/druid@9b90983fd2 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e2946933339b9d85. Report an issue: GitHub.