elastic/elasticsearch · error · IllegalArgumentException

invalid database configuration id [{}]: id is too long, ({}

Error message

invalid database configuration id [{}]: id is too long, ({} > 127)

What it means

Thrown by DatabaseConfiguration.validateId when the id exceeds 127 bytes when encoded as UTF-8. The 127-byte ceiling is a hard limit (note ID_PATTERN also caps at 127 characters) chosen to keep ids filesystem- and index-name-safe. Multi-byte characters (e.g. Unicode) count by byte length, not character count.

Source

Thrown at modules/ip-location/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/geoip/direct/DatabaseConfiguration.java:177

        builder.endObject();
        return builder;
    }

    /**
     * An id is intended to be alphanumerics, dashes, and underscores (only), but we're reserving leading dashes and underscores for
     * ourselves in the future, that is, they're not for the ones that users can PUT.
     */
    static void validateId(String id) throws IllegalArgumentException {
        if (Strings.isNullOrEmpty(id)) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("invalid database configuration id [" + id + "]: must not be null or empty");
        }
        MetadataCreateIndexService.validateIndexOrAliasName(
            id,
            (id1, description) -> new IllegalArgumentException("invalid database configuration id [" + id1 + "]: " + description)
        );
        int byteCount = id.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).length;
        if (byteCount > 127) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                "invalid database configuration id [" + id + "]: id is too long, (" + byteCount + " > " + 127 + ")"
            );
        }
        if (ID_PATTERN.matcher(id).matches() == false) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                "invalid database configuration id ["
                    + id
                    + "]: id doesn't match required rules (alphanumerics, dashes, and underscores, only)"
            );
        }
    }

    public ActionRequestValidationException validate() {
        ActionRequestValidationException err = new ActionRequestValidationException();

        // how do we cross the id validation divide here? or do we? it seems unfortunate to not invoke it at all.

        // name validation

View on GitHub (pinned to db6a809a66)

Solutions

1. Shorten the id to 127 UTF-8 bytes or fewer; prefer concise, human-readable names like 'city-db'.
2. If ids are generated, truncate or hash long inputs to a fixed short length before sending.
3. Count bytes (not chars) when validating client-side: id.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).length <= 127.

Example fix

// before
PUT _ingest/geoip/database/my-very-long-geoip-database-configuration-identifier-that-exceeds-the-allowed-byte-limit-of-one-hundred-twenty-seven

// after
PUT _ingest/geoip/database/city-db

String id = requestConfig.getId();
int byteLen = id.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).length;
if (byteLen > 127) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("id is " + byteLen + " UTF-8 bytes; max is 127");
}

When it happens

Trigger: PUT _ingest/geoip/database/<id> with an id longer than 127 UTF-8 bytes. Non-ASCII characters inflate the byte count faster than the character count, so a visually short Unicode id can still exceed the limit.

Common situations: Auto-generated ids that concatenate long prefixes/suffixes; templated ids that embed tenant + region + timestamp; Unicode ids that look short but are multi-byte.

Related errors

• invalid database configuration id [{}]: must not be null or
• invalid database configuration id [{}]: id doesn't match req
• field [{}] is null, cannot extract geoip information.
• array in field [{}] should only contain strings
• field [{}] should contain only string or array of strings

AI-assisted analysis of elastic/elasticsearch@db6a809a66 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8bd75e707b7da172. Report an issue: GitHub.