vitessio/vitess · warning

failed to parse defer_secondary_keys column: %v

Error message

failed to parse defer_secondary_keys column: %v

What it means

Returned by the binlog player when the defer_secondary_keys column value from the vreplication metadata row cannot be parsed, wrapping the underlying conversion error.

Source

Thrown at go/vt/binlog/binlogplayer/binlog_player.go:611

	startPos, err := DecodePosition(vrRow.AsString("pos", ""))
	if err != nil {
		return VRSettings{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse pos column: %v", err)
	}
	stopPos, err := replication.DecodePosition(vrRow.AsString("stop_pos", ""))
	if err != nil {
		return VRSettings{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse stop_pos column: %v", err)
	}
	workflowType, err := vrRow.ToInt32("workflow_type")
	if err != nil {
		return VRSettings{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse workflow_type column: %v", err)
	}
	workflowSubType, err := vrRow.ToInt32("workflow_sub_type")
	if err != nil {
		return VRSettings{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse workflow_sub_type column: %v", err)
	}
	deferSecondaryKeys, err := vrRow.ToBool("defer_secondary_keys")
	if err != nil {
		return VRSettings{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse defer_secondary_keys column: %v", err)
	}
	options := vrRow.AsString("options", "{}")
	var workflowOptions vtctldata.WorkflowOptions
	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(options), &workflowOptions); err != nil {
		return VRSettings{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse options column: %v", err)
	}
	return VRSettings{
		StartPos:           startPos,
		StopPos:            stopPos,
		MaxTPS:             maxTPS,
		MaxReplicationLag:  maxReplicationLag,
		State:              binlogdatapb.VReplicationWorkflowState(binlogdatapb.VReplicationWorkflowState_value[vrRow.AsString("state", "")]),
		WorkflowType:       binlogdatapb.VReplicationWorkflowType(workflowType),
		WorkflowName:       vrRow.AsString("workflow", ""),
		WorkflowSubType:    binlogdatapb.VReplicationWorkflowSubType(workflowSubType),
		DeferSecondaryKeys: deferSecondaryKeys,
		WorkflowOptions:    &workflowOptions,
	}, nil

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

1. Check: `select uid, defer_secondary_keys from _vt.vreplication where uid=<id>`.
2. Normalize the value: `update _vt.vreplication set defer_secondary_keys=0 where uid=<id>` (0 is the safe default preserving prior behavior).
3. Restore the canonical _vt schema if the column type/definition drifted.
4. Avoid manual writes to boolean columns; use 1/0 or true/false literals.

Example fix

// before
update _vt.vreplication set defer_secondary_keys='yes' where uid=1;
// after
update _vt.vreplication set defer_secondary_keys=0 where uid=1;

qr, _ := dbClient.ExecuteFetch(fmt.Sprintf("SELECT defer_secondary_keys FROM _vt.vreplication WHERE uid=%d", uid), 1)
if len(qr.Rows) == 1 {
	v := qr.Named().Row().AsString("defer_secondary_keys", "")
	if v != "0" && v != "1" && v != "true" && v != "false" && v != "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("defer_secondary_keys %q is not a boolean; set 0 or 1", v)
	}
}

func isBoolLiteral(s string) bool {
	switch s { case "", "0", "1", "true", "false": return true }
	return false
}

settings, err := binlogplayer.ReadVRSettings(dbClient, uid)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to parse defer_secondary_keys") {
	_, _ = dbClient.ExecuteFetch(fmt.Sprintf("UPDATE _vt.vreplication SET defer_secondary_keys=0 WHERE uid=%d", uid), 0)
	settings, err = binlogplayer.ReadVRSettings(dbClient, uid)
}

When it happens

Trigger: vrRow.ToBool("defer_secondary_keys") fails: the column contains a value the helper cannot interpret (NULL where the helper doesn't allow it, or non-boolean text like 'yes'/'on' inserted manually).

Common situations: Hand-edited rows storing 'yes' instead of 1/0 or true/false; restore of _vt tables from a version before the column existed with odd defaults; data corruption.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• failed to parse max_tps column: %v
• failed to parse max_replication_lag column: %v
• failed to parse workflow_type column: %v
• failed to parse workflow_sub_type column: %v
• overflow

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d532f24a89fe9797. Report an issue: GitHub.