apache/hadoop · error · MetricsException

Interval should be positive. Value passed is: {}

Error message

Interval should be positive.  Value passed is: {}

What it means

MetricsRegistry.newQuantiles creates a MutableQuantiles (rolling-window quantile estimator) and requires a positive rollover interval in seconds; interval <= 0 throws MetricsException('Interval should be positive. Value passed is: <n>') before the estimator is built.

Source

Thrown at hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/lib/MetricsRegistry.java:221

    metricsMap.put(info.name(), ret);
    return ret;
  }

  /**
   * Create a mutable metric that estimates quantiles of a stream of values
   * @param name of the metric
   * @param desc metric description
   * @param sampleName of the metric (e.g., "Ops")
   * @param valueName of the metric (e.g., "Time" or "Latency")
   * @param interval rollover interval of estimator in seconds
   * @return a new quantile estimator object
   * @throws MetricsException if interval is not a positive integer
   */
  public synchronized MutableQuantiles newQuantiles(String name, String desc,
      String sampleName, String valueName, int interval) {
    checkMetricName(name);
    if (interval <= 0) {
      throw new MetricsException("Interval should be positive.  Value passed" +
          " is: " + interval);
    }
    MutableQuantiles ret =
        new MutableQuantiles(name, desc, sampleName, valueName, interval);
    metricsMap.put(name, ret);
    return ret;
  }

  /**
   * Create a mutable inverse metric that estimates inverse quantiles of a stream of values
   * @param name of the metric
   * @param desc metric description
   * @param sampleName of the metric (e.g., "Ops")
   * @param valueName of the metric (e.g., "Rate")
   * @param interval rollover interval of estimator in seconds
   * @return a new inverse quantile estimator object
   * @throws MetricsException if interval is not a positive integer
   */

View on GitHub (pinned to 2add963021)

Solutions

1. Pass a positive rollover interval in seconds (e.g., 60)
2. Validate or clamp config-sourced intervals before the call (default to a sane positive value)
3. Fix the configuration property that supplies the interval

Example fix

// before
registry.newQuantiles("QueueTime", "Queue time", "Ops", "Time", intervalSecs); // intervalSecs == 0

// after
int intervalSecs = conf.getInt("my.quantile.interval", 60);
registry.newQuantiles("QueueTime", "Queue time", "Ops", "Time", Math.max(1, intervalSecs));

if (interval <= 0) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("quantile interval must be positive, got " + interval);
}
registry.newQuantiles("QueueTime", "Queue time", "Ops", "Time", interval);

When it happens

Trigger: Calling registry.newQuantiles(name, desc, sampleName, valueName, interval) with interval == 0 or negative — typically a config value that was never set and defaulted to 0.

Common situations: Quantile interval wired from a configuration property that is missing (parses to 0); copy-paste from newRate-style calls that take no interval; test code passing 0 as a placeholder.

Related errors

• Metric name '{}' contains illegal whitespace character
• Invalid read parameters: buf.length=%d, off=%d, len=%d
• Invalid start or len parameter
• Illegal option {}
• Not enough arguments: expected {} but got {}

AI-assisted analysis of apache/hadoop@2add963021 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bc0db9d119cf746f. Report an issue: GitHub.