risingwavelabs/risingwave · error

Failed to refresh table

Error message

Failed to refresh table {}

What it means

execute_refresh runs the refresh command for a table and, on failure, resets the job to Idle, clears its progress tracker, and returns the underlying err wrapped with context 'Failed to refresh table {}'. This is an error-aggregation site: the actual cause is the inner error (refresh command execution or status update failure).

Solutions

1. Read the full error chain (the context wraps a root cause) to find the underlying failure; fix that first.
2. Check compute node health and logs for the failed refresh actors; restart unhealthy nodes.
3. Retry the refresh (manual or wait for the next scheduled run) — the job was reset to Idle so it can be re-executed.
4. If the root cause is a plan/query error, adjust the MV/table definition; if status updates fail, check meta store connectivity.

match execute_refresh(table_id).await {
    Err(e) => {
        // the outer context is 'Failed to refresh table {}'; inspect the root cause
        let root = e.root_cause();
        tracing::error!(?table_id, "refresh failed: {root}");
        // retry transient failures; the job was reset to Idle
        if is_transient(root) { schedule_retry(table_id); }
    }
    Ok(_) => {}
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any failure while executing a refresh: the refresh plan/command fails on the stream graph (e.g. upstream errors, actor failures), or update_refresh_job_status itself errors, during a scheduled or manual MV/table refresh.

Common situations: Compute node failure or OOM during refresh; upstream MV/source unavailable; serialization/plan errors on the refresh pipeline; meta-store write failures when resetting job status.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid state transition" errors: "status must be X, actually Y", "already rejected/charging/uninstalled", "cannot ... while running" — what they mean when a library rejects your call — this error's family across 31 libraries.

Related errors

• Table tracker not found for table
• id not found
• named already exists
• actor count ( ) exceeds vnode count ( )
• ALTER VIEW SET STREAMING_ENABLE_UNALIGNED_JOIN is not…

AI-assisted analysis of risingwavelabs/risingwave@6469eb736d (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bd7a736633584c59. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/meta/src/stream/refresh_manager.rs:373

            .run_command(database_id, refresh_command)
            .await;

        match result {
            Ok(_) => {
                tracing::info!(table_id = %table_id, "refresh command scheduled");
                Ok(())
            }
            Err(err) => {
                tracing::error!(
                    error = %err.as_report(),
                    table_id = %table_id,
                    "failed to execute refresh command"
                );
                self.metadata_manager
                    .update_refresh_job_status(table_id, RefreshState::Idle, None, false)
                    .await?;
                self.remove_progress_tracker(table_id, "failure");
                Err(anyhow!(err)
                    .context(format!("Failed to refresh table {}", table_id))
                    .into())
            }
        }
    }

    async fn ensure_refreshable(
        &self,
        table_id: TableId,
        associated_source_id: SourceId,
    ) -> MetaResult<()> {
        let table = self
            .metadata_manager
            .catalog_controller
            .get_table_by_id(table_id)
            .await?;

        if !table.refreshable {

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