hashicorp/nomad · error

Service provider must be %q, or %q; not %q

Error message

Service provider must be %q, or %q; not %q

What it means

This error is thrown by Service.Validate in nomad/structs/services.go when a service's `provider` field is neither "consul" nor "nomad". Nomad only supports these two service providers, so any other value fails validation before the job is submitted. It typically indicates a typo or an unsupported provider value in the service stanza.

Source

Thrown at nomad/structs/services.go:800

	}

	switch s.OnUpdate {
	case "", OnUpdateIgnore, OnUpdateRequireHealthy, OnUpdateIgnoreWarn:
		// OK
	default:
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, fmt.Errorf("Service on_update must be %q, %q, or %q; not %q", OnUpdateRequireHealthy, OnUpdateIgnoreWarn, OnUpdateIgnore, s.OnUpdate))
	}

	// Up until this point, all service validation has been independent of the
	// provider. From this point on, we have different validation paths. We can
	// also catch an incorrect provider parameter.
	switch s.Provider {
	case ServiceProviderConsul:
		s.validateConsulService(&mErr)
	case ServiceProviderNomad:
		s.validateNomadService(&mErr)
	default:
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, fmt.Errorf("Service provider must be %q, or %q; not %q",
			ServiceProviderConsul, ServiceProviderNomad, s.Provider))
	}

	if err := s.validateIdentity(); err != nil {
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, err)
	}

	return mErr.ErrorOrNil()
}

// MakeUniqueIdentityName returns a service identity name consisting of: task
// name, service name and service port label.
func (s *Service) MakeUniqueIdentityName() string {
	prefix := ConsulServiceIdentityNamePrefix
	if s.Provider == ServiceProviderNomad {
		prefix = "nomad-service"
	}
	if s.TaskName != "" {

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Set provider = "consul" in the service stanza to register with Consul.
2. Set provider = "nomad" in the service stanza to use Nomad's native service discovery.
3. Remove the provider field if you want the cluster default and verify the cluster's default via the provider allow/deny list in agent config.

Example fix

// before
service {
  name = "web"
  provider = "Consul"
}
// after
service {
  name = "web"
  provider = "consul"
}

func validProvider(p string) bool { return p == "consul" || p == "nomad" }
if !validProvider(svc.Provider) { return fmt.Errorf("provider %q must be consul or nomad", svc.Provider) }

When it happens

Trigger: Submitting a job whose service stanza sets provider to any string other than ServiceProviderConsul ("consul") or ServiceProviderNomad ("nomad") — e.g. provider = "consul1", "Consul" (case handled via enum constants), "", or a misspelled value.

Common situations: Typo in the provider field; copying configs from tools that use different provider names; leaving provider empty when the job/cluster expects an explicit provider; upgrading Nomad where the default provider semantics changed.

Related errors

• wait config is nil or empty
• missing datacenter for client registration
• default_identity_ttl must be greater than 0
• max_identity_ttl must be greater than 0
• max_identity_ttl must be greater than or equal to default_id

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c425ea95ba17683c. Report an issue: GitHub.