hashicorp/nomad · error

unable to create job summary: %v

Error message

unable to create job summary: %v

What it means

During UpsertJob, updateSummaryWithJob failed to create/update the JobSummary table row that tracks queued/running allocations per task group for this job/namespace. The error is wrapped and the whole registration transaction is aborted.

Source

Thrown at nomad/state/state_store.go:1884

		job.ModifyIndex = index
		job.JobModifyIndex = index

		if err := s.setJobStatus(index, txn, job, false, ""); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("setting job status for %q failed: %v", job.ID, err)
		}

		// Have to get the job again since it could have been updated
		updated, err := txn.First("jobs", "id", job.Namespace, job.ID)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("job lookup failed: %v", err)
		}
		if updated != nil {
			job = updated.(*structs.Job)
		}
	}

	if err := s.updateSummaryWithJob(index, job, txn); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to create job summary: %v", err)
	}

	if err := s.upsertJobVersion(index, job, txn); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to upsert job into job_version table: %v", err)
	}

	if err := s.updateJobScalingPolicies(index, job, txn); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to update job scaling policies: %v", err)
	}

	if err := s.updateJobRecommendations(index, txn, existingJob, job); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to update job recommendations: %v", err)
	}

	if err := s.updateJobCSIPlugins(index, job, existingJob, txn); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to update job csi plugins: %v", err)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Check server logs for the wrapped cause from updateSummaryWithJob
2. Retry job registration (transaction rolled back atomically)
3. Run a nomad operator reconcile / verify job_summary table via state store snapshots
4. Upgrade Nomad if the error persists across registrations

// Confirm the namespace exists and summary state is reachable
if _, err := client.Namespaces().Info(job.Namespace); err != nil {
  return fmt.Errorf("namespace %q invalid: %w", job.Namespace, err)
}

func isSummaryError(err error) bool {
  return err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "unable to create job summary")
}

_, err := client.Jobs().Register(job, nil, nil, nil)
if isSummaryError(err) {
  // atomic rollback; re-submit restores/creates the summary
  _, err = client.Jobs().Register(job, nil, nil, nil)
}
return err

When it happens

Trigger: Registering a job where the summary update inside the transaction fails (insert/update into job_summary table errors, or internal inconsistency between job and summary records).

Common situations: Cluster state inconsistencies, upgrades where summary records were not migrated, or bugs in summary reconciliation on servers handling many job registrations.

Related errors

• error getting job summary: %v
• job_summary lookup failed: %v
• job summary lookup failed: %v
• error inserting job summary: %v
• job summary update failed %w

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ec9368be3b1ed475. Report an issue: GitHub.