prestodb/presto · error · PrestoException

ELASTICSEARCH_QUERY_FAILURE

ELASTICSEARCH_QUERY_FAILURE

Error message

ELASTICSEARCH_QUERY_FAILURE

What it means

When the Elasticsearch client executes a search and the response contains failed shards with a root_cause failure reason, the connector surfaces it as a PrestoException with code ELASTICSEARCH_QUERY_FAILURE. The underlying exception (often ElasticsearchStatusException) is attached, and any earlier error encountered while parsing the failure is added as suppressed.

Source

Thrown at presto-elasticsearch/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/elasticsearch/client/ElasticsearchClient.java:786

        if (entity != null && entity.getContentType() != null) {
            try {
                JsonNode reason = OBJECT_MAPPER.readTree(entity.getContent()).path("error")
                        .path("root_cause")
                        .path(0)
                        .path("reason");

                if (!reason.isMissingNode()) {
                    throw new PrestoException(ELASTICSEARCH_QUERY_FAILURE, reason.asText(), exception);
                }
            }
            catch (IOException e) {
                PrestoException result = new PrestoException(ELASTICSEARCH_QUERY_FAILURE, exception);
                result.addSuppressed(e);
                throw result;
            }
        }

        throw new PrestoException(ELASTICSEARCH_QUERY_FAILURE, exception);
    }

    @VisibleForTesting
    static Optional<String> extractAddress(String address)
    {
        Matcher matcher = ADDRESS_PATTERN.matcher(address);

        if (!matcher.matches()) {
            return Optional.empty();
        }

        String cname = matcher.group("cname");
        String ip = matcher.group("ip");
        String port = matcher.group("port");

        if (cname != null) {
            return Optional.of(cname + ":" + port);
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

1. Read the cause (ElasticsearchStatusException / root_cause) to see the real server-side reason.
2. Fix the query predicate that Elasticsearch rejects (check syntax of pushed-down LIKE/regex/filters).
3. Reindex or fix mappings so aliased indices have consistent field types.
4. Check cluster health and shard allocation (GET _cat/shards) for failed/unavailable shards.

Example fix

// before: predicate causing shard failure
WHERE nested_field.value = 'x' -- field mapped differently across shards
// after: align mapping or cast
reindex conflicting indices with a consistent mapping, then rerun

// check cluster and shard health first
curl -s 'localhost:9200/_cat/shards?v&h=index,shard,state'
curl -s 'localhost:9200/_cluster/health?filter_path=status,unassigned_shards'

try {
    runQuery(pushdownQuery);
} catch (PrestoException e) {
    if (e.getErrorCode().getName().equals("ELASTICSEARCH_QUERY_FAILURE") && e.getCause() != null) {
        // inspect e.getCause() (ElasticsearchStatusException) root_cause for the real reason
    } else { throw e; }
}

When it happens

Trigger: A search request fails server-side: shard exceptions from malformed queries (e.g. bad query_string syntax), field mapped inconsistently across shards, script errors, or too_many_clauses/limit violations returned in the response's _shards.failures.

Common situations: Pushed-down predicates referencing fields whose mapping differs between indices under an alias; regex/syntax errors in LIKE or query_string pushdown; ES node overload causing shard failures; index corruption.

Related errors

• Type not supported:
• Unexpected default trust managers:
• KeyStore certificate is expired:
• KeyStore certificate is not yet valid:
• ELASTICSEARCH_INVALID_RESPONSE

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1cfcf584fd4add74. Report an issue: GitHub.