vitessio/vitess · error

invalid tablet type passed %s

Error message

invalid tablet type passed %s

What it means

parseTabletTypes classifies each tablet type relevant to traffic switching (REPLICA, RDONLY, PRIMARY) to decide which serving types can be switched. Any tablet type outside those three reaches the default case and is rejected as invalid input.

Source

Thrown at go/vt/wrangler/workflow.go:458

	}
	return nil
}

func (vrw *VReplicationWorkflow) parseTabletTypes() (hasReplica, hasRdonly, hasPrimary bool, err error) {
	tabletTypes, _, err := discovery.ParseTabletTypesAndOrder(vrw.params.TabletTypes)
	if err != nil {
		return false, false, false, err
	}
	for _, tabletType := range tabletTypes {
		switch tabletType {
		case topodatapb.TabletType_REPLICA:
			hasReplica = true
		case topodatapb.TabletType_RDONLY:
			hasRdonly = true
		case topodatapb.TabletType_PRIMARY:
			hasPrimary = true
		default:
			return false, false, false, fmt.Errorf("invalid tablet type passed %s", tabletType)
		}
	}
	return hasReplica, hasRdonly, hasPrimary, nil
}

// endregion

// region Core Actions

func (vrw *VReplicationWorkflow) initMoveTables() error {
	log.Info(fmt.Sprintf("In VReplicationWorkflow.initMoveTables() for %+v", vrw))
	return vrw.wr.MoveTables(vrw.ctx, vrw.params.Workflow, vrw.params.SourceKeyspace, vrw.params.TargetKeyspace,
		vrw.params.Tables, vrw.params.Cells, vrw.params.TabletTypes, vrw.params.AllTables, vrw.params.ExcludeTables,
		vrw.params.AutoStart, vrw.params.StopAfterCopy, vrw.params.ExternalCluster, vrw.params.DropForeignKeys,
		vrw.params.DeferSecondaryKeys, vrw.params.SourceTimeZone, vrw.params.OnDDL, vrw.params.SourceShards,
		vrw.params.NoRoutingRules, vrw.params.AtomicCopy)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

1. Set the tablet to a supported type (REPLICA/RDONLY/PRIMARY) before switching traffic, or exclude it from the workflow's tablet set
2. Ensure stray non-serving tablets (BACKUP/SPARE) are retyped or drained via vtctld
3. Confirm with the tablet list which tablet has the offending type (it is printed in the error)

Example fix

// before (tablet left as SPARE)
vtctldclient SetWritable ... // fails downstream
// after
vtctldclient ChangeTabletType <alias> REPLICA
then re-run switch traffic

for _, tt := range tabletTypes {
    switch tt {
    case topodatapb.TabletType_REPLICA, topodatapb.TabletType_RDONLY, topodatapb.TabletType_PRIMARY:
    default:
        return fmt.Errorf("tablet type %s not switchable; retype tablet first", tt)
    }
}

func isSwitchableTabletType(tt topodatapb.TabletType) bool {
    switch tt {
    case topodatapb.TabletType_REPLICA, topodatapb.TabletType_RDONLY, topodatapb.TabletType_PRIMARY:
        return true
    }
    return false
}

When it happens

Trigger: parseTabletTypes encounters a topodatapb.TabletType other than REPLICA, RDONLY, or PRIMARY (e.g. SPARE, BACKUP, RESTORE, EXPERIMENTAL) among the tablets involved in the workflow's traffic switch.

Common situations: Workflows whose source/target keyspace contains spare or backup tablets; test code (e.g. TestReshardingWorkflowErrorsAndMisc) exercising the invalid-type path; unexpected tablet states left by failed maintenance.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• both atomic copy and partial mode cannot be specified for th
• tablet %s type has changed from %s to %s, restarting vstream
• unknown workflow type %d
• cannot switch traffic for workflow %s at this time: %s
• value out of range

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0056a5e730275672. Report an issue: GitHub.