What causes "CreateKeyspace(%v) failed: %v" in vitessio/vitess?

Check whether the keyspace already exists (vtctldclient GetKeyspace) and skip creation or use a different name.

CreateKeyspace(%v) failed: %v

Error message

CreateKeyspace(%v) failed: %v

What it means

vtcombo's CreateKs creates a keyspace in the topo via ts.CreateKeyspace; any topo error is wrapped as 'CreateKeyspace(<name>) failed'. This is the vtctld CreateKeyspace path inside the combo process, so failures reflect topo-level keyspacespace problems.

Source

Thrown at go/vt/vtcombo/tablet_map.go:327

func CreateKs(
	ctx context.Context,
	env *vtenv.Environment,
	ts *topo.Server,
	tpb *vttestpb.VTTestTopology,
	mysqld mysqlctl.MysqlDaemon,
	dbcfgs *dbconfigs.DBConfigs,
	schemaDir string,
	kpb *vttestpb.Keyspace,
	ensureDatabase bool,
	uid uint32,
	wr *wrangler.Wrangler,
	srvTopoCounts *stats.CountersWithSingleLabel,
) (uint32, error) {
	keyspace := kpb.Name

	// create a regular keyspace
	if err := ts.CreateKeyspace(ctx, keyspace, &topodatapb.Keyspace{}); err != nil {
		return 0, fmt.Errorf("CreateKeyspace(%v) failed: %v", keyspace, err)
	}

	// make sure a valid vschema has been loaded
	if err := ts.EnsureVSchema(ctx, keyspace); err != nil {
		return 0, fmt.Errorf("EnsureVSchema(%v) failed: %v", keyspace, err)
	}

	// iterate through the shards
	for _, spb := range kpb.Shards {
		shard := spb.Name
		if err := ts.CreateShard(ctx, keyspace, shard); err != nil {
			return 0, fmt.Errorf("CreateShard(%v:%v) failed: %v", keyspace, shard, err)
		}

		for _, cell := range tpb.Cells {
			dbname := spb.DbNameOverride
			if dbname == "" {
				dbname = fmt.Sprintf("vt_%v_%v", keyspace, shard)

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

Check whether the keyspace already exists (vtctldclient GetKeyspace) and skip creation or use a different name.
Verify topo server health and credentials; retry on transient topo errors.
If retrying creation, ensure prior partial state is cleaned up (DeleteKeyspace) before re-running CreateKs.

Example fix

// before
CreateKs(ctx, ts, ..., &keyspacepb.Keyspace{Name: "commerce"}) // second call
// after
if _, err := ts.GetKeyspace(ctx, "commerce"); err != nil {
    CreateKs(ctx, ts, ..., &keyspacepb.Keyspace{Name: "commerce"})
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Go: check existence before creating
if _, err := ts.GetKeyspace(ctx, keyspace); err == nil {
    return 0, nil // already exists; skip creation
}

Try / catch

if _, err := CreateKs(...); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "CreateKeyspace") && topo.IsTopoException(err) /* e.g. node exists */ {
        // keyspace already exists; treat as success or clean up first
    }
}

Prevention

Make keyspace creation idempotent: check-then-create or tolerate already-exists errors.
Serialize keyspace creation across processes to avoid races.
Verify topo health before batch keyspace setup scripts.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling CreateKs (from InitTabletMap or vtctld gRPC handler) when ts.CreateKeyspace errors: keyspace already exists (duplicate create), topo unavailable, or write permission/serialization error.

Common situations: Re-running an init script that creates an existing keyspace; etcd/zk timeouts; race between two components creating the same keyspace concurrently.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/78d772351eecc8d0. Report an issue: GitHub.