hyperledger/fabric · error

bad config metadata option RequestComplainTimeout

Error message

bad config metadata option RequestComplainTimeout

What it means

Returned by ConfigFromMetadataOptions when time.ParseDuration fails on the smartbft options' RequestComplainTimeout string. The BFT consensus metadata carries an unparseable duration value for this timeout.

Source

Thrown at orderer/consensus/smartbft/util/util.go:38

	config := types.DefaultConfig
	config.SelfID = selfID

	if options == nil {
		return config, errors.New("config metadata options field is nil")
	}

	config.RequestBatchMaxCount = options.RequestBatchMaxCount
	config.RequestBatchMaxBytes = options.RequestBatchMaxBytes
	if config.RequestBatchMaxInterval, err = time.ParseDuration(options.RequestBatchMaxInterval); err != nil {
		return config, errors.Wrap(err, "bad config metadata option RequestBatchMaxInterval")
	}
	config.IncomingMessageBufferSize = options.IncomingMessageBufferSize
	config.RequestPoolSize = options.RequestPoolSize
	if config.RequestForwardTimeout, err = time.ParseDuration(options.RequestForwardTimeout); err != nil {
		return config, errors.Wrap(err, "bad config metadata option RequestForwardTimeout")
	}
	if config.RequestComplainTimeout, err = time.ParseDuration(options.RequestComplainTimeout); err != nil {
		return config, errors.Wrap(err, "bad config metadata option RequestComplainTimeout")
	}
	if config.RequestAutoRemoveTimeout, err = time.ParseDuration(options.RequestAutoRemoveTimeout); err != nil {
		return config, errors.Wrap(err, "bad config metadata option RequestAutoRemoveTimeout")
	}
	if config.ViewChangeResendInterval, err = time.ParseDuration(options.ViewChangeResendInterval); err != nil {
		return config, errors.Wrap(err, "bad config metadata option ViewChangeResendInterval")
	}
	if config.ViewChangeTimeout, err = time.ParseDuration(options.ViewChangeTimeout); err != nil {
		return config, errors.Wrap(err, "bad config metadata option ViewChangeTimeout")
	}
	if config.LeaderHeartbeatTimeout, err = time.ParseDuration(options.LeaderHeartbeatTimeout); err != nil {
		return config, errors.Wrap(err, "bad config metadata option LeaderHeartbeatTimeout")
	}
	config.LeaderHeartbeatCount = options.LeaderHeartbeatCount
	if config.CollectTimeout, err = time.ParseDuration(options.CollectTimeout); err != nil {
		return config, errors.Wrap(err, "bad config metadata option CollectTimeout")
	}
	config.SyncOnStart = options.SyncOnStart

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Set RequestComplainTimeout to a valid duration string
2. Fix the smartbft options in the channel config

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at orderer/consensus/smartbft/util/util.go:38 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

• Timeouts: ETIMEDOUT, deadlines, and hung requests — what actually expires when a request times out.

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1be64a2ce11d94ee. Report an issue: GitHub.