apache/pulsar · error · PulsarAdminException

Topic doesn't have any data

Error message

Topic doesn't have any data

What it means

The internal size-shrinking/offload threshold command reads the topic's internal stats; if stats.ledgers is empty, there is no ledger data to analyze, so it throws PulsarAdminException 'Topic doesn't have any data'.

Solutions

  1. Produce some messages to the topic first so at least one ledger exists
  2. Verify the topic name/tenant/namespace and that you are on the correct cluster
  3. If the topic should have data, check broker/internal-stats for data loss or cleanup

Example fix

// before
pulsar-admin topics ... empty-topic   # Topic doesn't have any data
// after
# after producing messages
pulsar-admin topics ... persistent://my-tenant/my-ns/my-topic
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

PersistentTopicInternalStats stats = admin.topics().getInternalStats(topic, false);
if (stats == null || stats.ledgers == null || stats.ledgers.isEmpty()) {
    // skip operation: topic has no data
    return;
}

Type guard

boolean topicHasData(PersistentTopicInternalStats stats) {
    return stats != null && stats.ledgers != null && !stats.ledgers.isEmpty();
}

Try / catch

try {
    admin.topics().getInternalStats(topic, false);
} catch (org.apache.pulsar.client.admin.PulsarAdminException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("Topic doesn't have any data")) {
        log.warn("Skipping: topic has no ledgers/data yet");
    } else { throw e; }
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Running the command against a topic whose getInternalStats returns zero ledgers — a brand-new topic with no produced messages, or a non-persistent/misidentified topic with no stored data.

Common situations: Pointing the command at a freshly created topic; typos resolving to an empty topic; running against a topic that was fully offloaded/deleted; wrong cluster (topic exists elsewhere with data).

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/pulsar@820761864e (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/744e7c0db5bbbc5f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pulsar-client-tools/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/admin/cli/CmdTopics.java:1415

    @Command(description = "Trigger offload of data from a topic to long-term storage (e.g. Amazon S3)")
    private class Offload extends CliCommand {
        @Option(names = { "-s", "--size-threshold" },
                description = "Maximum amount of data to keep in BookKeeper for the specified topic (e.g. 10M, 5G).",
                required = true,
                converter = ByteUnitToLongConverter.class)
        private Long sizeThreshold;

        @Parameters(description = "persistent://tenant/namespace/topic", arity = "1")
        private String topicName;

        @Override
        void run() throws PulsarAdminException {
            String persistentTopic = validatePersistentTopic(topicName);

            PersistentTopicInternalStats stats = getTopics().getInternalStats(persistentTopic, false);
            if (stats.ledgers.size() < 1) {
                throw new PulsarAdminException("Topic doesn't have any data");
            }

            LinkedList<PersistentTopicInternalStats.LedgerInfo> ledgers = new LinkedList<>(stats.ledgers);
            ledgers.get(ledgers.size() - 1).size = stats.currentLedgerSize; // doesn't get filled in now it seems
            MessageId messageId = findFirstLedgerWithinThreshold(ledgers, sizeThreshold);

            if (messageId == null) {
                System.out.println("Nothing to offload");
                return;
            }

            getTopics().triggerOffload(persistentTopic, messageId);
            System.out.println("Offload triggered for " + persistentTopic + " for messages before " + messageId);
        }
    }

    @Command(description = "Check the status of data offloading from a topic to long-term storage")
    private class OffloadStatusCmd extends CliCommand {

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