hashicorp/nomad · error

Unsupported drive_interface

Error message

Unsupported drive_interface

What it means

The QEMU driver accepts a drive_interface option (default "ide") controlling how the disk is attached (-drive if=...). StartTask checks it against isAllowedDriveInterface, which permits only ide, scsi, sata, virtio, nvme. Any other value aborts the task start.

Source

Thrown at drivers/qemu/driver.go:526

	}

	mb := cfg.Resources.NomadResources.Memory.MemoryMB
	if mb < 128 || mb > 4000000 {
		return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("QEMU memory assignment out of bounds")
	}
	mem := fmt.Sprintf("%dM", mb)

	absPath, err := GetAbsolutePath(fmt.Sprintf("qemu-system-%s", emulator))
	if err != nil {
		return nil, nil, err
	}

	driveInterface := "ide"
	if driverConfig.DriveInterface != "" {
		driveInterface = driverConfig.DriveInterface
	}
	if !isAllowedDriveInterface(driveInterface) {
		return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("Unsupported drive_interface")
	}

	args := []string{
		absPath,
		"-machine", "type=" + machineType + ",accel=" + accelerator,
		"-name", vmID,
		"-m", mem,
		// setting a drive ID allows users to attach this to other devices
		"-drive", "file=" + vmPath + ",if=" + driveInterface + ",id=image0",
		"-nographic",
	}

	var netdevArgs []string
	if cfg.DNS != nil {
		if len(cfg.DNS.Servers) > 0 {
			netdevArgs = append(netdevArgs, "dns="+cfg.DNS.Servers[0])
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Change drive_interface in the task's driver config to one of: ide, sata, scsi, virtio, nvme.
2. Fix casing/spelling (values are matched exactly, lowercase).
3. If a new interface is genuinely needed, the driver's allowlist must be extended upstream (patch isAllowedDriveInterface).

Example fix

// before
args { "drive_interface" = "virtio-blk" }
// after
args { "drive_interface" = "virtio" }

const allowedDriveInterfaces = ["ide", "scsi", "sata", "virtio", "nvme"];
function validateDriveInterface(cfg) {
  const di = cfg.drive_interface || "ide";
  if (!allowedDriveInterfaces.includes(di)) {
    throw new Error(`Unsupported drive_interface: ${di}`);
  }
}

function hasValidDriveInterface(cfg) {
  return ["ide", "scsi", "sata", "virtio", "nvme"].includes(cfg?.drive_interface ?? "ide");
}

try {
  await nomad.jobs.startTask(cfg);
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).includes("Unsupported drive_interface")) {
    console.error("Use one of ide, scsi, sata, virtio, nvme (lowercase)");
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Setting driver config drive_interface to a value not in {ide, sata, scsi, virtio, nvme} — e.g. "virtio-blk", "IDE" (case mismatch), "usb", or a misspelling like "virtiio".

Common situations: Copy-pasting QEMU CLI flags (like if=virtio-blk) into the Nomad option; typos; case sensitivity mistakes; using an interface added in newer QEMU versions but not in the driver's allowlist.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• failed to parse config:
• QEMU graceful shutdown is unsupported on the Windows platfor
• only one of cgroups_v1_override and cgroups_v2_override may
• work_dir must be an absolute path
• require only one of PemKey or PemKeyFile

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/24664f59831bdea3. Report an issue: GitHub.