apache/hadoop · error · IllegalArgumentException

Input quota value should be a positive number.

Error message

Input quota value should be a positive number.

What it means

After parsing, setQuota rejects any explicitly supplied quota value <= 0. Both quotas default to HdfsConstants.QUOTA_DONT_SET (Long.MAX_VALUE), which passes this check, so the error fires only when you typed a zero or negative number yourself. Clearing a quota has a dedicated command that internally uses the QUOTA_RESET (-1) sentinel, so negative/zero values are never valid input here.

Source

Thrown at hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-rbf/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/federation/RouterAdmin.java:1007

      } else if (parameters[i].equals("-ssQuota")) {
        i++;
        try {
          ssQuota = StringUtils.TraditionalBinaryPrefix
              .string2long(parameters[i]);
        } catch (Exception e) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException(
              "Cannot parse ssQuota: " + parameters[i]);
        }
      } else {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "Invalid argument : " + parameters[i]);
      }

      i++;
    }

    if (nsQuota <= 0 || ssQuota <= 0) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(
          "Input quota value should be a positive number.");
    }

    if (nsQuota == HdfsConstants.QUOTA_DONT_SET &&
        ssQuota == HdfsConstants.QUOTA_DONT_SET) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(
          "Must specify at least one of -nsQuota and -ssQuota.");
    }

    return updateQuota(mount, nsQuota, ssQuota);
  }

  /**
   * Set storage type quota for a mount table entry.
   *
   * @param parameters Parameters of the quota.
   * @param i Index in the parameters.
   */

View on GitHub (pinned to 2add963021)

Solutions

1. Supply a positive value: -nsQuota 100000, -ssQuota 100GB
2. To clear quotas use 'hdfs dfsrouteradmin -clrQuota <path>' (internally sends QUOTA_RESET)
3. Guard scripts so a failed quota lookup aborts instead of passing 0 to the CLI

Example fix

# before
hdfs dfsrouteradmin -setQuota /mount -nsQuota 0
# after (clear the quota instead)
hdfs dfsrouteradmin -clrQuota /mount

if [ "$QUOTA" -le 0 ] 2>/dev/null; then echo "quota must be > 0; use -clrQuota to remove" >&2; exit 2; fi

When it happens

Trigger: -setQuota /mount -nsQuota 0; -nsQuota -100; -ssQuota 0 or -ssQuota -5GB. Each parses fine, then fails the positivity check.

Common situations: Attempts to 'disable' a quota by setting 0 or -1; sign typos; automation that computes a quota which underflows or defaults to 0 when a lookup fails.

Related errors

• Cannot parse nsQuota: {}
• Cannot parse ssQuota: {}
• Invalid argument : {}
• Must specify at least one of -nsQuota and -ssQuota.
• The operation is not allowed because there are mount points:

AI-assisted analysis of apache/hadoop@2add963021 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e4d29a19f0cb5989. Report an issue: GitHub.