unable to lookup job summary for job id %q in namespace %q:

Error message

unable to lookup job summary for job id %q in namespace %q: %v

What it means

Wraps a txn.First error when looking up the JobSummary for an allocation's job inside updateDeploymentWithAlloc / alloc summary update. This is a read failure (memdb error), distinct from the summary simply not existing, which is handled separately.

Source

Thrown at nomad/state/state_store.go:6058

		return err
	}

	return nil
}

// updateSummaryWithAlloc updates the job summary when allocations are updated
// or inserted
func (s *StateStore) updateSummaryWithAlloc(index uint64, alloc *structs.Allocation,
	existingAlloc *structs.Allocation, txn *txn) error {

	// We don't have to update the summary if the job is missing
	if alloc.Job == nil {
		return nil
	}

	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

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped inner error for the memdb cause
Retry the alloc update (client heartbeats will resend)
Check server logs for state store health issues

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Try / catch

if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "unable to lookup job summary") {
    // alloc updates are re-sent by the client heartbeat; back off and retry
    time.AfterFunc(time.Second, func() { retryAllocUpdate(alloc) })
}

Prevention

Let Nomad clients' built-in heartbeat handle retries
Ensure sufficient server memory for memdb
Watch for state store errors in server logs

When it happens

Trigger: Alloc update paths (client alloc updates, deployment health updates) where txn.First("job_summary", "id", alloc.Namespace, alloc.JobID) returns an error.

Common situations: Alloc status updates arriving on servers under memdb stress; race with job GC is handled via nil check, so errors here are internal.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5bfd19acc7b47220. Report an issue: GitHub.