hashicorp/nomad · error

job summary for job %q in namespace %q is not present

Error message

job summary for job %q in namespace %q is not present

What it means

Raised when an alloc references a job that still exists in the jobs table but has no job_summary row. This is a genuine state inconsistency: registration creates the summary, so a live job without one should not happen (e.g. corrupted or manually manipulated state). Unlike the GC'd job case, it does not return nil — it fails the update.

Source

Thrown at nomad/state/state_store.go:6073

	summaryRaw, err := txn.First("job_summary", "id", alloc.Namespace, alloc.JobID)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to lookup job summary for job id %q in namespace %q: %v", alloc.JobID, alloc.Namespace, err)
	}

	if summaryRaw == nil {
		// Check if the job is de-registered
		rawJob, err := txn.First("jobs", "id", alloc.Namespace, alloc.JobID)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("unable to query job: %v", err)
		}

		// If the job is de-registered then we skip updating it's summary
		if rawJob == nil {
			return nil
		}

		return fmt.Errorf("job summary for job %q in namespace %q is not present", alloc.JobID, alloc.Namespace)
	}

	// Get a copy of the existing summary
	jobSummary := summaryRaw.(*structs.JobSummary).Copy()

	// Not updating the job summary because the allocation doesn't belong to the
	// currently registered job
	if jobSummary.CreateIndex != alloc.Job.CreateIndex {
		return nil
	}

	tgSummary, ok := jobSummary.Summary[alloc.TaskGroup]
	if !ok {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to find task group in the job summary: %v", alloc.TaskGroup)
	}

	summaryChanged := false
	if existingAlloc == nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Verify state consistency: nomad operator raft list-peers / inspect job via API — does GET /v1/job/:id work and show summary data?
2. Resubmit (re-register) the job with nomad job run to recreate the summary row
3. If corruption persists, take a fresh server snapshot, rebuild the cluster, and restore

Example fix

/* before: inconsistent state — job exists, summary lost, alloc updates keep failing */
nomad status example-job   // summary missing

// after: re-register the job to recreate its JobSummary row
nomad job run example.nomad.hcl

// before depending on alloc updates, confirm job + summary exist
job, _, err := client.Jobs().Info(jobID, nil)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("job %q gone or unreadable: %w", jobID, err)
}
summary, _, err := client.Jobs().Summary(jobID, nil)
if err != nil || summary == nil {
    // summary row missing: re-register the job to recreate it
    _, _, err = client.Jobs().Register(job, nil)
}

if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "job summary for job") {
    // state inconsistency: recreate the summary by re-registering the job
    return reRegisterJob(alloc.Namespace, alloc.JobID)
}

When it happens

Trigger: updateAlloc paths: alloc update arrives for a job whose summary row is absent while txn.First("jobs", ...) confirms the job row exists.

Common situations: State store corruption, manual edits to raft snapshots, or version-upgrade/restore bugs where job_summary rows were lost while job rows survived.

Related errors

• detected corrupted token within the state store: missing rol
• error getting job summary: %v
• unable to create job summary: %v
• unknown old job status %q
• job_summary lookup failed: %v

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f52cadd63532b7b7. Report an issue: GitHub.