vitessio/vitess · error · ErrWorkflowCompleteNotFullySwitched

cannot complete workflow because you have not yet switched a

Error message

cannot complete workflow because you have not yet switched all read and write traffic

What it means

MoveTablesComplete refuses to finalize a MoveTables workflow when read and write traffic has not yet been fully switched to the target keyspace. Completing early would drop replication while the source still serves traffic, losing writes. The sentinel ErrWorkflowCompleteNotFullySwitched makes this state explicit to callers.

Source

Thrown at go/vt/vtctl/workflow/server.go:127

	// Time to wait between LOCK TABLES cycles on the sources during SwitchWrites.
	lockTablesCycleDelay = time.Duration(100 * time.Millisecond)

	SqlUnfreezeWorkflow = "update _vt.vreplication set state='Running', message='' where db_name=%a and workflow=%a"
)

var (
	// ErrInvalidWorkflow is a catchall error type for conditions that should be
	// impossible when operating on a workflow.
	ErrInvalidWorkflow = errors.New("invalid workflow")
	// ErrMultipleSourceKeyspaces occurs when a workflow somehow has multiple
	// source keyspaces across different shard primaries. This should be
	// impossible.
	ErrMultipleSourceKeyspaces = errors.New("multiple source keyspaces for a single workflow")
	// ErrMultipleTargetKeyspaces occurs when a workflow somehow has multiple
	// target keyspaces across different shard primaries. This should be
	// impossible.
	ErrMultipleTargetKeyspaces          = errors.New("multiple target keyspaces for a single workflow")
	ErrWorkflowCompleteNotFullySwitched = errors.New("cannot complete workflow because you have not yet switched all read and write traffic")
	ErrWorkflowDeleteWritesSwitched     = errors.New("cannot delete workflow because you have already switched write traffic")
)

// Server provides an API to work with Vitess workflows, like vreplication
// workflows (MoveTables, Reshard, etc) and schema migration workflows.
type Server struct {
	ts  *topo.Server
	tmc tmclient.TabletManagerClient
	// Limit the number of concurrent background goroutines if needed.
	sem     *semaphore.Weighted
	env     *vtenv.Environment
	options serverOptions
}

// NewServer returns a new server instance with the given topo.Server and
// TabletManagerClient.
func NewServer(env *vtenv.Environment, ts *topo.Server, tmc tmclient.TabletManagerClient, opts ...ServerOption) *Server {
	s := &Server{

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

Run `SwitchReads -tablet_type=rdonly,replica` and then `SwitchReads -tablet_type=primary` for the workflow.
Run `SwitchWrites` (or MigrateTraffic) to completion, confirming all writes are served by the target.
Re-run MoveTablesComplete only after `Workflow Show` confirms all traffic is switched.

Example fix

// before
vtctldclient MoveTablesComplete --workflow sales commerce
// error: not yet switched all traffic
// after
vtctldclient SwitchReads --tablet_type=replica commerce.sales
vtctldclient SwitchWrites --shard 0 commerce.sales
vtctldclient MoveTablesComplete --workflow sales commerce

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

state, _ := client.GetWorkflowState(ctx, targetKeyspace, workflow)
if !state.AllTrafficSwitched() {
    return fmt.Errorf("switch reads and writes before completing %s", workflow)
}

Try / catch

if err := client.MoveTablesComplete(ctx, ks, wf); err != nil {
    if errors.Is(err, workflow.ErrWorkflowCompleteNotFullySwitched) {
        return fmt.Errorf("run SwitchReads + SwitchWrites for %s first: %w", wf, err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Always run SwitchReads (rdonly, replica, primary) then SwitchWrites before complete
Confirm with Workflow Show that all traffic is on the target
Script the cutover as an ordered pipeline rather than manual steps

When it happens

Trigger: Calling MoveTablesComplete (vtctldserver Workflow complete) before `SwitchReads` and `SwitchWrites`/`MigrateTraffic` have moved all traffic for every table in the workflow.

Common situations: Operators running the final cutover step too early in a MoveTables migration, or some tables' read traffic still routed to the source after a partial switch.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/22fcba5649d8d070. Report an issue: GitHub.