hyperledger/fabric · error

failed to unmarshal block's metadata

Error message

failed to unmarshal block's metadata

What it means

ReadBlockMetadata wraps a proto.Unmarshal failure on the block's metadata value: the persisted block metadata (RAFT metadata in metadata slot) exists but is not a decodable etcdraft.BlockMetadata protobuf — corrupt or written by an incompatible version.

Source

Thrown at orderer/consensus/etcdraft/consenter.go:281

	}

	if _, err := c.detectSelfID(consenters); err != nil {
		if err != cluster.ErrNotInChannel {
			return false, errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to detect self ID by comparing public keys")
		}
		return false, nil
	}

	return true, nil
}

// ReadBlockMetadata attempts to read raft metadata from block metadata, if available.
// otherwise, it reads raft metadata from config metadata supplied.
func ReadBlockMetadata(blockMetadata *common.Metadata, configMetadata *etcdraft.ConfigMetadata) (*etcdraft.BlockMetadata, error) {
	if blockMetadata != nil && len(blockMetadata.GetValue()) != 0 { // we have consenters mapping from block
		m := &etcdraft.BlockMetadata{}
		if err := proto.Unmarshal(blockMetadata.GetValue(), m); err != nil {
			return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to unmarshal block's metadata")
		}
		return m, nil
	}

	m := &etcdraft.BlockMetadata{
		NextConsenterId: 1,
		ConsenterIds:    make([]uint64, len(configMetadata.GetConsenters())),
	}
	// need to read consenters from the configuration
	for i := range m.GetConsenterIds() {
		m.ConsenterIds[i] = m.GetNextConsenterId()
		m.NextConsenterId++
	}

	return m, nil
}

// New creates a etcdraft Consenter

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Restore the ledger/WAL from a healthy backup
2. Check for version skew if blocks were written by a different Fabric release

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at orderer/consensus/etcdraft/consenter.go:281 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/74556740f8d8fffd. Report an issue: GitHub.