apache/kafka · warning · AttributeNotFoundException

Could not find attribute {name}

Error message

Could not find attribute {name}

What it means

Thrown by KafkaMbean.getAttribute(String) when a JMX client queries an attribute name that the mbean does not contain. JmxReporter's KafkaMbean is a DynamicMBean whose attributes are the metric names it has registered; asking for any other name raises AttributeNotFoundException. The message echoes the requested attribute name so the offending query is identifiable.

Source

Thrown at clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/common/metrics/JmxReporter.java:242

        KafkaMbean(String mbeanName) throws MalformedObjectNameException {
            this.metrics = new HashMap<>();
            this.objectName = new ObjectName(mbeanName);
        }

        public ObjectName name() {
            return objectName;
        }

        void setAttribute(String name, KafkaMetric metric) {
            this.metrics.put(name, metric);
        }

        @Override
        public Object getAttribute(String name) throws AttributeNotFoundException {
            if (this.metrics.containsKey(name))
                return this.metrics.get(name).metricValue();
            else
                throw new AttributeNotFoundException("Could not find attribute " + name);
        }

        @Override
        public AttributeList getAttributes(String[] names) {
            AttributeList list = new AttributeList();
            for (String name : names) {
                try {
                    list.add(new Attribute(name, getAttribute(name)));
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    log.warn("Error getting JMX attribute '{}'", name, e);
                }
            }
            return list;
        }

        KafkaMetric removeAttribute(String name) {
            return this.metrics.remove(name);
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to c31c9215e1)

Solutions

1. Confirm the attribute name in the message matches a real Kafka metric — list the mbean's actual attributes with jconsole/jmc or Jolokia's list operation.
2. Update your JMX client / monitoring config to use the current metric names for your Kafka version (metric names have changed across major versions — check the upgrade notes).
3. If polling dynamic metrics, treat AttributeNotFoundException as a non-fatal 'metric not present' signal and skip rather than erroring.
4. Verify the metric hasn't been removed at runtime — check Metrics.removeMetric / sensor lifecycle in your code.
5. Pin a consistent Kafka version across the cluster and monitoring stack so metric names do not drift out from under dashboards.

Example fix

// before — exporter config lists an old attribute that no longer exists
rules:
  - pattern: 'kafka.producer<type=producer-metrics><>(.*):'  # wrong/old name
    name: kafka_producer_$1
# JMX client -> AttributeNotFoundException: Could not find attribute ...

// after — name aligned to the running Kafka version's actual metric
rules:
  - pattern: 'kafka.producer<type=producer-metrics><>compression-rate-avg'
    name: kafka_producer_compression_rate_avg

// Before reading a JMX attribute, confirm it exists on the mbean.
MBeanServer server = ManagementFactory.getPlatformMBeanServer();
ObjectName on = ...;
String attr = "records-rate";
MBeanInfo info = server.getMBeanInfo(on);
boolean present = Arrays.stream(info.getAttributes())
        .anyMatch(a -> a.getName().equals(attr));
if (present) {
    Object value = server.getAttribute(on, attr);
} else {
    // skip / report unknown metric
}

// Narrow a JMX attribute name to 'one this mbean actually exposes'.
static Set<String> availableAttributes(MBeanServer server, ObjectName on) throws JMException {
    return Arrays.stream(server.getMBeanInfo(on).getAttributes())
                 .map(MBeanAttributeInfo::getName)
                 .collect(Collectors.toSet());
}

try {
    Object v = server.getAttribute(objectName, attributeName);
} catch (AttributeNotFoundException e) {
    // metric was removed or never existed; treat as 'not available' rather than an error.
    log.debug("JMX attribute {} not present on {}", attributeName, objectName);
    return Optional.empty();
}

When it happens

Trigger: An external JMX client (jconsole, jmc, Prometheus JMX exporter, custom JMX query) calls getAttribute on a Kafka mbean with a name the mbean never registered. Occurs when a metric was removed (metricName removed via Metrics.removeMetric) but the JMX client still queries the old attribute, or when the client uses a guessed/hardcoded attribute name that does not match the metricName name in Kafka.

Common situations: Monitoring tooling or dashboards configured against an older Kafka version where metric names differed; a metric dynamically added/removed at runtime (e.g. per-partition sensors) while a polling JMX client keeps asking for the now-absent attribute; JMX exporter rules (jmx_exporter) listing metrics by name that have since been renamed in Kafka; scripted JMX automation that iterates an assumed set of names and hits one that is not present.

Related errors

• Error creating mbean attribute for metricName :{metricName}
• Error unregistering mbean
• Error registering mbean {mbeanName}
• Set not allowed.
• JMX filter for configuration{metricsConfigPrefix}.(include/e

AI-assisted analysis of apache/kafka@c31c9215e1 (2026-08-03). Data as JSON: /data/errors/7ad5ee02e1823a09.json. Report an issue: GitHub.