jaegertracing/jaeger · error

could not find aggregation of traceIDs

Error message

could not find aggregation of traceIDs

What it means

ErrUnableToFindTraceIDAggregation is a sentinel error returned by findTraceIDsFromQuery when the Elasticsearch search response does not contain the expected terms aggregation of trace IDs. The trace-ID search relies on a named aggregation; if the response lacks it (server-side query shape changed, mapping mismatch, or aggregation dropped), the reader cannot extract trace IDs and fails with this error.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/v2/elasticsearch/tracestore/core/reader.go:68

	DawnOfTimeSpanAge = time.Hour * 24 * 365 * 50
)

var (
	// ErrStartTimeMinGreaterThanMax occurs when start time min is above start time max
	ErrStartTimeMinGreaterThanMax = errors.New("start Time Minimum is above Maximum")

	// ErrDurationMinGreaterThanMax occurs when duration min is above duration max
	ErrDurationMinGreaterThanMax = errors.New("duration Minimum is above Maximum")

	// ErrMalformedRequestObject occurs when a request object is nil
	ErrMalformedRequestObject = errors.New("malformed request object")

	// ErrStartAndEndTimeNotSet occurs when start time and end time are not set
	ErrStartAndEndTimeNotSet = errors.New("start and End Time must be set")

	// ErrUnableToFindTraceIDAggregation occurs when an aggregation query for TraceIDs fail.
	ErrUnableToFindTraceIDAggregation = errors.New("could not find aggregation of traceIDs")

	defaultMaxDuration = model.DurationAsMicroseconds(time.Hour * 24)

	objectTagFieldList = []string{objectTagsField, objectProcessTagsField}

	nestedTagFieldList = []string{nestedTagsField, nestedProcessTagsField, nestedLogFieldsField}

	_ Reader = (*SpanReader)(nil) // check API conformance
)

// Time-range design (referenced as "timeRangeDesign" in comments below):
//
// There are two read operations with different time-range semantics:
//
//  1. FindTraceIDs: the user always supplies [StartTimeMin, StartTimeMax]. No adjustment needed.
//
//  2. GetTraces (by trace ID): no time range is known. The reader uses [now-maxSpanAge, now].
//     - Periodic indices: maxSpanAge should match data retention (e.g., 7d). ReadTargets generates

View on GitHub (pinned to 806f444784)

Solutions

1. Verify the Elasticsearch/OpenSearch server version is supported by this Jaeger version.
2. Log/inspect the raw response to confirm whether aggregations were returned at all.
3. Check index templates and index mappings are up to date (re-run Jaeger init for your storage).
4. Confirm no proxy/security layer is stripping the aggregations section of the response.

// Pre-check server compatibility before querying:
info, err := esClient.Info()
if err != nil || !supportedVersion(info.Version.Number) { /* fail fast */ }

ids, err := reader.FindTraceIDs(ctx, query)
if errors.Is(err, core.ErrUnableToFindTraceIDAggregation) {
    log.Printf("ES response missing traceID aggregation; check version/mappings")
    return nil, err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling reader.FindTraceIDs where the ES response comes back with Aggregations that do not include the traceID terms aggregation — e.g. after an upgrade where the query/aggregation name changed, a proxy stripping aggregations, or an incompatible Elasticsearch/OpenSearch server version.

Common situations: Version skew between Jaeger and the Elasticsearch/OpenSearch cluster; custom index templates or security settings altering aggregation behavior; running against a proxy that rewrites responses.

Related errors

• could not find aggregation of
• nil search response
• root span top-hit missing _source
• aggregation bucket has a non-string key: %w
• failed to convert aggregations to metrics: %w

AI-assisted analysis of jaegertracing/jaeger@806f444784 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5b46c26bf48eeb8e. Report an issue: GitHub.