hashicorp/nomad · error

invalid host_volumes limit: %v

Error message

invalid host_volumes limit: %v

What it means

This error wraps a failure to parse the `host_volumes` storage-resource quota field in a Nomad quota specification HCL/JSON file. parseStorageResource reads the `host_volumes` key of the quota's storage resources and passes its value to parseQuotaMegabytes; any parse failure (bad unit, bad type) is wrapped with this message so the user knows which quota field is at fault. It is a user-input validation error in the `nomad quota apply` command.

Source

Thrown at command/quota_apply.go:351

	}
	block := storageBlocks.Items[0]
	valid := []string{"variables", "host_volumes"}
	if err := helper.CheckHCLKeys(block.Val, valid); err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	var m map[string]any
	if err := hcl.DecodeObject(&m, block.Val); err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	variablesLimit, err := parseQuotaMegabytes(m["variables"])
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid variables limit: %v", err)
	}
	hostVolumesLimit, err := parseQuotaMegabytes(m["host_volumes"])
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid host_volumes limit: %v", err)
	}

	return &api.QuotaStorageResources{
		VariablesMB:   variablesLimit,
		HostVolumesMB: hostVolumesLimit,
	}, nil
}

func parseQuotaMegabytes(raw any) (int, error) {
	switch val := raw.(type) {
	case string:
		b, err := humanize.ParseBytes(val)
		if err != nil {
			return 0, fmt.Errorf("could not parse value as bytes: %v", err)
		}
		return int(b >> 20), nil
	case int:
		return val, nil

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Fix the host_volumes value in the quota file to a valid byte string (e.g. "500MB", "1GiB", "2GB") or an integer of megabytes.
2. Check the wrapped inner error (%v) for the exact humanize.ParseBytes complaint and correct the offending token.
3. Validate the quota file with `nomad quota apply` on a staging cluster or use a JSON/HCL linter before applying.
4. If an integer is intended, ensure it is an unquoted integer representing megabytes, not a quoted string with an unsupported format.

Example fix

// before
resources {
  host_volumes = "50 MBB"
}
// after
resources {
  host_volumes = "500MB"
}

// Pre-validate the host_volumes value before applying the quota
v, ok := quota.Resources["host_volumes"]
switch t := v.(type) {
case nil, int:
    // ok
case string:
    if _, err := humanize.ParseBytes(t); err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("invalid host_volumes limit %q: %w", t, err)
    }
default:
    return fmt.Errorf("host_volumes must be string or int, got %T", v)
}

func validQuotaSize(v any) bool {
    switch t := v.(type) {
    case nil, int:
        return true
    case string:
        _, err := humanize.ParseBytes(t)
        return err == nil
    default:
        return false
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `nomad quota apply` with a quota file whose `quota.limit`-style `host_volumes` entry is a string that humanize.ParseBytes cannot parse (e.g. "10GB/s", "ten mb", "", or a unit typo like "50 MBB"), or a value of an unsupported type (e.g. bool/float in JSON).

Common situations: Hand-edited quota HCL files with unit typos ("1000 mb " with stray characters), JSON quota specs where host_volumes was set to true/false or a float, copying examples from docs for other fields and leaving an invalid value.

Related errors

• error parsing: root should be an object
• limit should be an object
• only one 'region_limit' block allowed per limit
• resource: should be an object
• invalid variables limit: %v

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8f45803f5907e1ae. Report an issue: GitHub.