What causes "bad config metadata option RequestForwardTimeout" in hyperledger/fabric?

Set RequestForwardTimeout to a valid duration string

bad config metadata option RequestForwardTimeout

Error message

bad config metadata option RequestForwardTimeout

What it means

Returned by ConfigFromMetadataOptions when time.ParseDuration fails on the smartbft options' RequestForwardTimeout string. The consensus config in the channel's orderer section holds a malformed duration for this option.

Source

Thrown at orderer/consensus/smartbft/util/util.go:35

func ConfigFromMetadataOptions(selfID uint64, options *smartbft.Options) (types.Configuration, error) {
	var err error

	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 {

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

Set RequestForwardTimeout to a valid duration string
Correct the consensus metadata and resubmit the config

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at orderer/consensus/smartbft/util/util.go:35 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/74c5ceba13b77464. Report an issue: GitHub.