hashicorp/nomad · error

index update failed: %v

Error message

index update failed: %v

What it means

While applying alloc desired-transition updates inside handleJobDeregister (for stop-after-deregistration flows), the FSM inserts an IndexEntry ("allocs") into the state store txn so watches fire. If tx.Insert fails — typically a memdb/internal error — it is wrapped as "index update failed". This indicates the state store transaction is failing at a low level.

Source

Thrown at nomad/fsm.go:892

	if err := n.periodicDispatcher.Remove(namespace, jobID); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("periodicDispatcher.Remove failed: %w", err)
	}

	if noShutdownDelay {
		ws := memdb.NewWatchSet()
		allocs, err := n.state.AllocsByJob(ws, namespace, jobID, false)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		transition := &structs.DesiredTransition{NoShutdownDelay: new(true)}
		for _, alloc := range allocs {
			err := n.state.UpdateAllocDesiredTransitionTxn(tx, index, alloc.ID, transition)
			if err != nil {
				return err
			}
			err = tx.Insert("index", &state.IndexEntry{Key: "allocs", Value: index})
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("index update failed: %v", err)
			}
		}
	}

	if purge {
		if err := n.state.DeleteJobTxn(index, namespace, jobID, tx); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("DeleteJob failed: %w", err)
		}

		// We always delete from the periodic launch table because it is possible that
		// the job was updated to be non-periodic, thus checking if it is periodic
		// doesn't ensure we clean it up properly.
		n.state.DeletePeriodicLaunchTxn(index, namespace, jobID, tx)
		return nil
	}

	// Get the current job and mark it as stopped and re-insert it.
	ws := memdb.NewWatchSet()

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped %v error for the underlying cause (e.g. out-of-memory or memdb panic).
2. Restart the Nomad server agent to rebuild the in-memory state store; state will be re-hydrated from Raft snapshots.
3. Check server memory limits and host health if OOM-kill signatures appear in logs.
4. If persistent, restore the cluster from a known-good Raft snapshot.

err := client.Jobs().Deregister(jobID, false, nil)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "index update failed") {
    // server-side state issue: alert, check server health, retry after restart
}

When it happens

Trigger: handleJobDeregister iterates allocs with noShutdownDelay, UpdateAllocDesiredTransitionTxn succeeded but tx.Insert("index", ...) into the memdb index table fails.

Common situations: Memory pressure / allocation failure on the Nomad server, corrupted state store, or transaction already aborted mid-apply.

Related errors

• JobByID lookup failed: %w
• UpsertJob failed: %w
• error querying plugin %q: %v
• failed adding job to periodic dispatcher: %v
• failed to retrieve latest deployment: %v

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/25ed374c7b33c374. Report an issue: GitHub.