hashicorp/nomad · error

job priority must be between [%d, %d]

Error message

job priority must be between [%d, %d]

What it means

Job priority must fall within the configured inclusive range. The server checks job.Priority against structs.JobMinPriority (0) and the server's job_max_priority / JobMaxPriority config; out-of-range values are rejected at validation.

Source

Thrown at nomad/job_endpoint_hooks.go:519

			warnings = append(warnings, multi.Errors...)
		} else {
			warnings = append(warnings, jobWarnings)
		}
	}

	// TODO: Validate the driver configurations. These had to be removed in 0.9
	//       to support driver plugins, but see issue: #XXXX for more info.

	if job.Type == structs.JobTypeCore {
		multierror.Append(validationErrors, fmt.Errorf("job type cannot be core"))
	}

	if len(job.Payload) != 0 {
		multierror.Append(validationErrors, fmt.Errorf("job can't be submitted with a payload, only dispatched"))
	}

	if job.Priority < structs.JobMinPriority || job.Priority > v.srv.config.JobMaxPriority {
		multierror.Append(validationErrors, fmt.Errorf("job priority must be between [%d, %d]", structs.JobMinPriority, v.srv.config.JobMaxPriority))
	}

	okForIdentity := v.isEligibleForMultiIdentity()

	totalCount := 0
	for _, tg := range job.TaskGroups {
		totalCount += tg.Count

		for _, s := range tg.Services {
			serviceErrs := v.validateServiceIdentity(
				s, fmt.Sprintf("task group %s", tg.Name), okForIdentity)
			multierror.Append(validationErrors, serviceErrs)
		}

		for _, t := range tg.Tasks {
			if len(t.Identities) > 1 && !okForIdentity {
				multierror.Append(validationErrors, fmt.Errorf("tasks can only have 1 identity block until all servers are upgraded to %s or later", minVersionMultiIdentities))
			}

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Set priority within [0, server job_max_priority] (default max 100)
2. Raise the server's job_max_priority in agent config if high priorities are genuinely needed
3. Omit priority to use the default (50)

Example fix

// before
job "myapp" { priority = 500 }
// after
job "myapp" { priority = 90 }

if p := *job.Priority; p < 0 || p > 100 {
	return fmt.Errorf("priority %d outside [0,100]", p)
}

func validPriority(p int, max int) bool { return p >= 0 && p <= max }

When it happens

Trigger: Submitting a job whose Priority is negative or exceeds the server's configured JobMaxPriority (default 100).

Common situations: Hand-setting priority to values like 1000 copied from other schedulers; fleet-wide config lowered job_max_priority while old job templates keep high values; sign errors producing negative priorities.

Understand the failure class

Background: "value must be between 0 and 1" / "out of range" / "must not be negative" errors: fixing range-validation failures across open-source libraries — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

• Disconnect cannot be configured with both lost_after and sto
• lost_after cannot be a negative duration
• stop_after cannot be a negative duration
• Missing job ID
• Job ID contains a space

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/659e5e89f2325660. Report an issue: GitHub.