risingwavelabs/risingwave · error

sink {} is not ready to be replaced

Error message

sink {} is not ready to be replaced

What it means

The sink being replaced must be fully created (JobStatus::Created). This error means the old streaming job's status is still Creating/Failed/Initializing, so its catalog cannot be safely replaced yet.

Source

Thrown at src/meta/src/controller/streaming_job.rs:531

                .one(&txn)
                .await?
                .ok_or_else(|| MetaError::catalog_id_not_found("sink", *old_sink_id))?;
            if old_object.obj_type != ObjectType::Sink
                || old_object.database_id != Some(sink.database_id)
                || old_object.schema_id != Some(sink.schema_id)
                || old_sink.name != sink.name
            {
                bail!(
                    "old sink {} does not match replacement sink {}",
                    old_sink_id,
                    sink.name
                );
            }
            if old_sink.target_table.is_some() || sink.target_table.is_some() {
                bail!("replace sink into table is not supported");
            }
            if old_streaming_job.job_status != JobStatus::Created {
                bail!("sink {} is not ready to be replaced", old_sink_id);
            }
        } else {
            check_relation_name_duplicate(
                &streaming_job.name(),
                streaming_job.database_id(),
                streaming_job.schema_id(),
                &txn,
            )
            .await?;
        }

        // check if any dependency is in altering status.
        if !dependencies.is_empty() {
            let altering_cnt = ObjectDependency::find()
                .join(
                    JoinType::InnerJoin,
                    object_dependency::Relation::Object1.def(),
                )

View on GitHub (pinned to 6469eb736d)

Solutions

1. Wait until the sink finishes creation (check rw_streaming_jobs / SHOW JOBS for status Created).
2. If the sink is stuck in Creating, abort/cancel the creating job first, then replace or recreate.
3. Retry the replace statement after the sink becomes ready.
4. If permanently stuck, drop the sink and recreate it.

-- wait until status is 'Created'
SELECT job_status FROM rw_streaming_jobs WHERE job_id = <old_sink_job_id>;

if let Err(e) = replace_sink(..).await {
    if e.to_string().contains("is not ready to be replaced") {
        // poll job status until Created, then retry once
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: CREATE SINK ... REPLACE issued while the target sink's streaming job has not finished creation (job_status != Created).

Common situations: User immediately re-runs a replace after creating the sink; sink creation stalled or failed in the background; racing DDL issued right after CREATE SINK.

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

• old sink {} does not match replacement sink {}
• replace sink into table is not supported
• object {} is not a sink
• backup job status not found: job {}, {}
• replace sink must not use snapshot backfill

AI-assisted analysis of risingwavelabs/risingwave@6469eb736d (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b9f02a48b86e02ce. Report an issue: GitHub.