vitessio/vitess · error

invalid tablet type passed %s

Error message

invalid tablet type passed %s

What it means

parseTabletTypes validates each tablet type requested for a vreplication workflow traffic switch against the three supported values (PRIMARY, REPLICA, RDONLY). Any other topodatapb.TabletType enum value — typically an unset/UNRECOGNIZED or UNKNOWN value — is rejected immediately with this error. It is a pure input-validation failure: the workflow switch cannot proceed because the caller passed a tablet type the switcher cannot serve traffic for.

Source

Thrown at go/vt/vtctl/workflow/utils.go:660

func encodeString(in string) string {
	return sqltypes.EncodeStringSQL(in)
}

func getRenameFileName(tableName string) string {
	return fmt.Sprintf(renameTableTemplate, tableName)
}

func parseTabletTypes(tabletTypes []topodatapb.TabletType) (hasReplica, hasRdonly, hasPrimary bool, err error) {
	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
}

func areTabletsAvailableToStreamFrom(ctx context.Context, req *vtctldatapb.WorkflowSwitchTrafficRequest, ts *trafficSwitcher, keyspace string, shards []*topo.ShardInfo) error {
	// We use the value from the workflow for the TabletPicker.
	tabletTypesStr := ts.optTabletTypes
	cells := req.GetCells()
	// If no cells were provided in the command then use the value from the workflow.
	if len(cells) == 0 && ts.optCells != "" {
		cells = strings.Split(strings.TrimSpace(ts.optCells), ",")
	}

	var wg sync.WaitGroup
	allErrors := &concurrency.AllErrorRecorder{}
	for _, shard := range shards {
		wg.Add(1)

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

1. Print the exact tablet type from the error message and check it against the supported set: PRIMARY, REPLICA, RDONLY.
2. Fix the vtctldclient flag (e.g. --tablet-types="replica,rdonly") or the proto request so tablet_types only contains valid values.
3. If building the request in code, explicitly set each TabletType with topodatapb.TabletType_value["REPLICA"] etc. instead of relying on zero values.
4. Upgrade the client if it predates the current topodatapb.TabletType enum.

Example fix

// before
req.TabletTypes = []topodatapb.TabletType{topodatapb.TabletType(0)} // UNKNOWN
// after
req.TabletTypes = []topodatapb.TabletType{topodatapb.TabletType_REPLICA, topodatapb.TabletType_RDONLY}

func validTabletTypes(tts []topodatapb.TabletType) bool {
	for _, tt := range tts {
		switch tt {
		case topodatapb.TabletType_PRIMARY, topodatapb.TabletType_REPLICA, topodatapb.TabletType_RDONLY:
			continue
		default:
			return false
		}
	}
	return len(tts) > 0
}

func isSwitchableTabletType(tt topodatapb.TabletType) bool {
	return tt == topodatapb.TabletType_PRIMARY || tt == topodatapb.TabletType_REPLICA || tt == topodatapb.TabletType_RDONLY
}

if err := ...; err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid tablet type passed") {
		log.Warnf("bad tablet type in request: %v", err)
		return err // fix input, don't retry
	}
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling WorkflowSwitchTraffic (vtctldclient MoveTables SwitchTraffic / LookupVindex or similar) with a TabletTypes option containing a value other than PRIMARY, REPLICA, or RDONLY — e.g. an empty string serialized to the enum zero value, a typo'd flag value, or a programmatically constructed request with TableType_BATCH or an unset field.

Common situations: Automated tooling builds a WorkflowSwitchTrafficRequest and leaves tablet_types unset (protobuf default 0 = UNKNOWN); a script passes a misspelled tablet type; an older client sends a legacy tablet-type value not in the supported set.

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

• vreplication streams are not frozen on tablet %d
• value out of range
• both atomic copy and partial mode cannot be specified for th
• invalid workflow
• multiple source keyspaces for a single workflow

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7c7a0ffd7ce567ce. Report an issue: GitHub.