hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · SchemaManagementException

Attempt to resolve JDBC metadata failed to find columns for

Error message

Attempt to resolve JDBC metadata failed to find columns for index [%s]

What it means

SchemaManagementException from IndexInformationImpl.Builder.build(): while extracting index metadata, the driver reported an index by name but zero ColumnInformation rows could be associated with it, so IndexInformation cannot be constructed. Like the foreign-key variant, it signals incomplete or unmappable JDBC metadata from getIndexInfo() rather than a broken mapping.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/tool/schema/extract/internal/IndexInformationImpl.java:57

		return new Builder( indexIdentifier );
	}

	public static class Builder {
		private final Identifier indexIdentifier;
		private final List<ColumnInformation> columnList = new ArrayList<>();

		public Builder(Identifier indexIdentifier) {
			this.indexIdentifier = indexIdentifier;
		}

		public Builder addColumn(ColumnInformation columnInformation) {
			columnList.add( columnInformation );
			return this;
		}

		public IndexInformationImpl build() {
			if ( columnList.isEmpty() ) {
				throw new SchemaManagementException(
						"Attempt to resolve JDBC metadata failed to find columns for index [" + indexIdentifier.getText() + "]"
				);
			}
			return new IndexInformationImpl( indexIdentifier, Collections.unmodifiableList( columnList ) );
		}
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

Upgrade the JDBC driver to the version matching your database server.
Recreate the reported index as a plain b-tree column index that JDBC metadata can describe (columns, not expressions).
Drop the @Index/@Table(indexes=...) declaration for indexes Hibernate cannot model, and manage them purely via migrations.
Move schema management to Flyway/Liquibase so validation does not depend on JDBC index metadata.

Example fix

-- before: expression index - JDBC metadata exposes no column for it
CREATE INDEX idx_user_lower_email ON app_user (lower(email));

-- after: plain column index matches JDBC metadata expectations
CREATE INDEX idx_user_email ON app_user (email);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Before hbm2ddl, report indexes whose JDBC rows expose no column
try (Connection c = dataSource.getConnection();
     ResultSet rs = c.getMetaData().getIndexInfo(null, null, "app_user", false, false)) {
    while (rs.next()) {
        if (rs.getString("INDEX_NAME") != null && rs.getString("COLUMN_NAME") == null) {
            System.err.println("Index " + rs.getString("INDEX_NAME") + " reports no column - review before hbm2ddl");
        }
    }
}

Try / catch

try {
    new SchemaValidator().validate(metadata, serviceRegistry);
} catch (SchemaManagementException e) {
    if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().contains("failed to find columns for index")) {
        // treat as driver/index-definition problem: check for expression/partial/domain indexes on the named index
    }
    throw e;
}

Prevention

Avoid expression, partial, bitmap, and domain indexes on tables covered by hbm2ddl validation
Keep the JDBC driver current with the database version
Manage special indexes through migrations, outside the Hibernate-validated model

When it happens

Trigger: Schema extraction (validate/update) iterates DatabaseMetaData.getIndexInfo() rows grouped by index name; Builder.addColumn is called per usable row and build() throws when a named index group ends with an empty column list. Triggered by indexes whose COLUMN_NAME the driver reports as null (expression and partial indexes on PostgreSQL, Oracle domain/bitmap indexes, SQL Server columnstore/statistics rows) or by driver versions that emit index headers without column rows.

Common situations: hbm2ddl validate hitting a hand-created expression index like CREATE INDEX ... ON t (lower(email)); Oracle bitmap or domain indexes with legacy drivers; DB upgraded but driver kept old; CI validating against a database with DBA-tuned special indexes.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/33680bca03180b89. Report an issue: GitHub.