What causes "Could not fetch the SequenceInformation from the database" in hibernate/hibernate-orm?

Run the same connection URL/user manually and the dialect's sequence query (e.g. select from ALL_SEQUENCES / information_schema.sequences) to see the real error

hibernate/hibernate-orm · critical · HibernateException

Could not fetch the SequenceInformation from the database

Error message

Could not fetch the SequenceInformation from the database

What it means

During SessionFactory bootstrap, ExtractedDatabaseMetaDataImpl.sequenceInformationList() opens a connection and queries the database for sequence metadata (used to validate and align sequence-based identifier generators, e.g. allocationSize/increment mismatches). Any SQLException while obtaining the connection or executing the extraction query is wrapped in this HibernateException, which fails boot.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/engine/jdbc/env/internal/ExtractedDatabaseMetaDataImpl.java:266

		catch (SQLException ignore) {
			return  -1;
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Get the sequence information List from the database.
	 *
	 * @return sequence information List
	 */
	private List<SequenceInformation> sequenceInformationList() {
		Connection connection = null;
		try {
			connection = connectionAccess.obtainConnection();
			return stream( sequenceInformation( connection, jdbcEnvironment ).spliterator(), false )
					.toList();
		}
		catch (SQLException e) {
			throw new HibernateException( "Could not fetch the SequenceInformation from the database", e );
		}
		finally {
			if ( connection != null ) {
				try {
					connectionAccess.releaseConnection( connection );
				}
				catch (SQLException exception) {
					JDBC_LOGGER.unableToReleaseConnection( exception );
				}
			}
		}
	}

	private static Iterable<SequenceInformation> sequenceInformation(Connection connection, JdbcEnvironment jdbcEnvironment)
			throws SQLException {
		return jdbcEnvironment.getDialect().getSequenceInformationExtractor().extractMetadata(
				new ExtractionContext.EmptyExtractionContext() {
					@Override

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

Run the same connection URL/user manually and the dialect's sequence query (e.g. select from ALL_SEQUENCES / information_schema.sequences) to see the real error
Grant the DB account SELECT access to the sequence metadata views/tables the dialect reads
Verify the dialect matches your database version; upgrade Hibernate so the SequenceInformationExtractor fits the DB (notably H2 2.x)
As a workaround for locked-down environments, configure identifier strategies that do not require sequence validation (e.g. UUID or pooled optimizers with correct allocationSize matching the DB sequence)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// smoke-test sequence metadata access before building the factory
try (Connection c = dataSource.getConnection();
     ResultSet rs = c.getMetaData().getTables(null, null, "SEQUENCES", null)) {
    if (!rs.next() && isOracleLike(url)) {
        throw new IllegalStateException("no access to sequence metadata views");
    }
}

Try / catch

try {
    sessionFactory = new Configuration().configure().buildSessionFactory();
}
catch (HibernateException e) {
    // cause chain contains the SQLException from the sequence query
    Throwable root = getRootCause(e);
    throw new StartupFailure("sequence metadata extraction failed: " + root, e);
}

Prevention

Grant metadata-view read access to the Hibernate DB user
Pin the dialect that matches your exact database version
Include a boot smoke test in CI so privilege regressions surface before deploy

When it happens

Trigger: Booting with @GeneratedValue(strategy = SEQUENCE) (or default allocationSize 50) against a database where the sequence-metadata query fails: the DB user cannot read the sequence catalog (e.g. ALL_SEQUENCES, information_schema.sequences), the dialect's SequenceInformationExtractor does not match the actual DB version, or the connection drops during boot.

Common situations: Locked-down DB accounts without metadata-view grants; H2 1.x to 2.x upgrades that changed catalog tables; using an Oracle/MariaDB/SQL Server dialect version that does not match the server; transient network failures at deploy time.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d75575d3c89b13d0. Report an issue: GitHub.